Samuel Jackson was sick and tired of those snakes on a plane. I am sick and tired of perfect resumes for far from perfect employees. I do not care if they all do it. This is more about managing expectations than getting a job.
We had a PE. I knew more engineering than he. We had a LiDAR Tech. I knew more of what the programs could do than he. We had a survey tech. That was the saddest of all since he is 15 years my elder and knows nothing. Where is the honesty?
Honesty? pffft....
Sadly resumes are no longer the mundane and boring lists of sometimes pathetic careers. Resumes now are more like Madison Av. advertising. Facts are secondary to splash and frills. I would prefer a prospective employee have no resume at all rather than try to blow all that crap up my tailpipe. A lot of resumes nowadays are 'read' by software and sorted BEFORE a human ever sees them, and key words are important.
It's all a bunch hockey; dream sheets. I've read resumes that indicate the applicant was capable of preparing a Hardy Cross Flow Analysis in their head of a medium sized Midwestern city. In reality they can't tie their own shoes or make it to work on time two days in a row.
spledeus, post: 324974, member: 3579 wrote: Where is the honesty?
I assume that any resume I see (except my own) is embellished. That is why we conduct interviews.
When I'm the one being interviewed I assume that the interviewer believes my resume has been embellished. I therefore seek to answer questions with enough detail to assure the interviewer that I really know the details of what I'm taking about.
Norman Oklahoma, post: 324984, member: 9981 wrote: I assume that any resume I see (except my own) is embellished. That is why we conduct interviews.
When I'm the one being interviewed I assume that the interviewer believes my resume has been embellished. I therefore seek to answer questions with enough detail to assure the interviewer that I really know the details of what I'm taking about.
Mark, that's what professionals do, I'd like believe. If every applicant we all ran across had your ethics and abilities, we wouldn't be having this conversation!
On a serious note, I feel the same way about resumes. The real filtering is the interview. I actually only look at the applicant's age, education and address. If I look hard at all at their experience, it's only to determine if they're a floater (new job every six months). If the applicant lives close enough to the office to actually be able to make it to work and hasn't misspelled too many words...they get an interview.
I also bluntly ask the question, "Can you pass a UA?" Not because we require a clean test (we don't test), but just to judge the applicant's ability to be honest. I've had at least one employee on the payroll for over five years that answered that question with an immediate "no". He's one of my best PCs now.
A "little" embellishment is one thing. What really bothers me is the outright lying that I've seen. Claiming degrees not earned, claiming work (false) experience from companies that have gone under so you can't verify, claiming knowledge of equipment or programs that are totally beyond their comprehension. If I catch an applicant in a lie - end of interview. I will not knowingly hire a liar.
Andy
I thought that Thadd was going to resume embellishing his plans! 🙂
Here is a twist that was related to me by the head of a human resources department not long ago. He interviewed an engineer for a telecom position in a remoter part of Alaska. Because the applicant was located 'outside', the interview was conducted on the phone and applicant passed with flying colors. When the HR person picked up the successful applicant at the airport, he was immediately suspicious that it was not the same person that he'd interviewed on the phone, but lacking any proof he saw him on to his new position, where the applicant promptly 'injured' himself and applied for workman's comp.
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
foggyidea, post: 325005, member: 155 wrote: I thought that Thadd was going to resume embellishing his plans! 🙂
Only when I am subbed to Outermost Survey....
Don't mean to sidetrack ....way back when, a long time ago in the last century, I worked for a firm that did major survey and mapping projects that were mostly government based.
I was in the local branch office one day processing field data when one of the owners was leading a group of politicos and aides on a tour. Heavy hitters from a major city. They stopped near my work area and I heard the owner tell the group how he was the one responsible for digital photogrammetry and automated mapping in the survey industry. I saw him cast a glance at me and I went to my best poker face while the group was astonished and impressed by his comment.
I knew that he was responsible for implementing new softwares and also being the first to use certain survey systems but the stretching of those facts was interesting.
If he was an owner he could say he was pretty much responsible for anything the company did and it would be true...
I have seen folks 'over-state' qualifications before. It's usually easy to spot. Why anyone would do it is beyond me. Once you are outed you will find out just how small the surveying world is...
I was responsible for waste water facilities maintenance at a major engineer firm here.
(I cleaned the toilets once or twice).
Plumb Bill, post: 325022, member: 226 wrote: If he was an owner he could say he was pretty much responsible for anything the company did and it would be true...
Yes, that is true. But I perceived that he was insinuating to this group of potential clients that he 'invented' these things. There is doubt that he was using some advanced systems more than anyone in the area.
Oh boy....I guess this is a posting test. Didn't some guy claim that he invented the Internet?
paden cash, post: 324990, member: 20 wrote: I also bluntly ask the question, "Can you pass a UA?" Not because we require a clean test (we don't test), but just to judge the applicant's ability to be honest. I've had at least one employee on the payroll for over five years that answered that question with an immediate "no". He's one of my best PCs now.
I wouldn't know how to answer that question. What does "UA" stand for?
vern, post: 325030, member: 3436 wrote: I wouldn't know how to answer that question. What does "UA" stand for?
UA = piss test
Not many have sent a resume, there have been a few dozen in the last few decades.
By talking with the person thru the process of trading information over directions to my office, address, email info and with what information they are willing to share and most important the time they wish to spend talking about general topics and how the exchange goes, I really don't need their resume to know if they are a candidate for a job.
0.02
I've always thought that the typical resume today is dishonest. As someone else stated, a lot of resumes are screened by computer before anyone ever sees them. You have to do everything short of lying just to be interviewed. I've have people tell me that I should embellish my resume, but it makes me very uncomfortable. They say "Don't you want the job?", but I say "Not if I have to lie to get it." That's probably why I'm self-employed.
C Billingsley, post: 325198, member: 1965 wrote: I've always thought that the typical resume today is dishonest. As someone else stated, a lot of resumes are screened by computer before anyone ever sees them. You have to do everything short of lying just to be interviewed. I've have people tell me that I should embellish my resume, but it makes me very uncomfortable. They say "Don't you want the job?", but I say "Not if I have to lie to get it." That's probably why I'm self-employed.
You have the privilege of knowing the extent of your bosses ethics right in the door. Hard to put a price on that:^)
Once upon a time a long long time ago I was interviewing for an engineering position with a good-sized company. Somewhere in the middle of the interview I was asked an extremely simple question that anyone who had ever been in a basic physics class (in high school) could answer in a heart beat. Something about as tough as, "Name something that might be used to mark a boundary corner......anything." I was surprised. I answered then asked why such a simple question would be asked. I was told that there had been too many applicants who couldn't even begin to guess at the correct answer. All of them had claimed they had graduated from one university or another with degrees in areas that would have used that teeny little bit of information a few thousand times. Two years later one of those characters actually got hired. He was gone in less than 30 days. He had a certain amount of proof that he had a degree in mechanical engineering from a major university. He was amazed to learn about things on the job that would be covered in classes required in the first year of study. He didn't know anything whatsoever about the subject, so was amazed to learn that we could determine certain things by applying very basic equations. The type of stuff you learn in high school or first semester of college then develop in more depth through tougher and tougher classes over the following years of higher level study.
I don't know. Worse yet in my experience was someone fluffing up resume.
Golly mercy, they made me out to walk on water about stuff I know ZERO about.
How these idiots get me name I don't know. I get hit up frequently about stuff I've never touched.
Head hunters - off with their own heads I say.
Perhaps some of us who have made it thus far should write resumes for those idiots.
Failed at surveying - or anything.
Failed at drafting - ACAD et. al.
Failed at programming.
.... but I can find you someone who can.
.......yawn........
I get this fisingr kind of stuff a couple times a day.
In any event I think I have taken down all my resumes that used to be public.
If someone knows otherwise, please let me know.
E.