Recruiting firms that just don't get it
I was bemused, yet disappointed, to receive the following (trimmed) details for a job in Vancouver, from an individual from Globaltech who shall remain nameless to protect the clueless^Winnocent.
Job ID Job Title Job Type Location
Job-0564 Junior Desktop support/Office Technologies Analyst Permanent Downtown Vancouver
Please send your resume as a word doc.
TECHNICAL SKILL REQUIREMENTS:
You have 1-3 years experience supporting users.
o Hardware Support
o Intel Pentium Class workstations, laptops and servers
o LAN technologies (fiber, CAT5, Ethernet hubs and switches)
o Tape backup systems
o Software and Software Platform Support
o Microsoft Windows Workstation and Server (NT 4.0/2000/XP and up)
o Microsoft Office Products (including Project and Visio)
o Microsoft Exchange 5.5 and higher
o VirusScan Enterprise 7.0 and ePolicy Orchestrator 3.0.1 or higher
o ARCserve 2000 Advanced Edition or higher
o Partition Magic and Norton Ghost for configurations
o Redhat Linux
o Voice
o Nortel BCM PBX and voice sets
o Asterisk PBX and voice sets
o PDAs
o Palm Pilot Versions III and up.
o Blackberry all models
o Web Application Developing Skills (Optional)
o Microsoft Front Page and Macromedia Dreamweaver
o HTML and ASP/JSP preferred. PHP (an asset)
Look at all those Windoze skills in there! I mean, don't these people even read the skill suammaries of people on their books?! I intimated as much in my reply:
On Tue, 20 Mar 2007, XXX wrote:
> Below you will find a list of immediate job openings.
I appreciate the email, but why on Earth is Globaltech asking me to
consider Windoze positions? One glance at my resume would indicate
that I'm a senior UNIX admin/developer, with 0 interest in Windoze!
> Please send your resume as a word doc.
Sorry, I don't do closed, expensive, proprietory formats. I suggest
you guys switch to ODF (OpenDocument), which is free, open, and platform
independant.
What really made my day, though, was the one-line reply to the above email: "Are you applying?"! You can't blame 'em for trying, but I think these people would be doing themselves and their clients a favour by actually reading the CVs/resumes they have on file, thereby increasing the odds that they'll find someone qualified for the positions they're trying to fill...
In case any recruiters/head hunters are reading this: yes, I am interested in talking about job opportunites (preferably contract), especially in my neck of the woods. But in case it isn't obvious, I'm an OpenSolaris guy; I don't do Windoze, and I don't send out resumes in Word format. Send me an email (plain text, please)!
posted by Rich Teer @ 09:15
6 comments
6 Comments:
I always found LaTex to be a good resume format. There are so many benefits to having it in that format.
Spelling Windows as Windoze makes you sound like a 14 year old.
You also spelled both 'proprietary' and 'independent' incorrectly.
Much as I applaud your sentiment, I don't think you're doing yourself or your cause any good with that email.
"Windoze" is a very common disparaging term for MS Windows. Spelling corrections noted, though I tend to type quickly and infrequently pause to think about spelling (it interrupts my flow of thought).
BTW, it's a blog entry, not an email. :-p
Dennis, I've never been much of a {La}Tex user, prefering to use troff. My CV did used to be in troff format, but I switched to StarOffice some time ago, to avoid the repetitious vi/make/dttimage cycle that accompanied updates.
From the original entry:
"What really made my day, though, was the one-line reply to the above email"
From your reply to my comment:
"BTW, it's a blog entry, not an email."
Apparently some confusion there.
And yes, I know where the term Windoze comes from. It's a bit childish but fair enough to use it in your blog, but it's completely inappropriate for a professional communication such as the email reply (which I'm assuming you quoted verbatim). Both the spelling errors I mentioned were also in the email text, rather than the blog commentary around it.
Sure, Windows sucks for many commercial environments, but you're not going to win any converts to the Unix cause by calling Windows childish names - you're just injuring the reputation of the alternatives, by making the people who use them seem immature.
It was theraputic for me to read this post because people consider it an "extreme position" that I prefer to avoid working with MS Windows, Office and other proprietary software. It's good to know that someone else out there prefers to focus their efforts on unix.
For what little it's worth, I found your use of "Windoze" a little off-putting too.
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