ReggaetonKing

Yeah, I wish they had written started writing the project in Java! Oh well! lol

__________________
I would love to change the world, but they won't give me the source code!

lectricpharaoh

You and your Java!

__________________
And once again, Probability proves itself willing to sneak into a back alley and service Drama as would a copper-piece harlot.
- Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick

Kelvoron

Thanks guys, i would have never thought to apply for a job that i did not have all of the skills or experiance for.

__________________
Good better best, never let it rest, untill your good is better and your better is the best.

lectricpharaoh

Well you know what they say. If you can't dazzle them with diligence, baffle them with bullshit. ;)

__________________
And once again, Probability proves itself willing to sneak into a back alley and service Drama as would a copper-piece harlot.
- Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick

Jabo

I never learned that language...not sure I want to either. BS can get you into lots of trouble. Trouble that stays with you a long time.

DaWei

A lot of companies overstate their requirements. That's because the need to reduce the number of applications they get per job. They know they're going to get scads of underqualified applicants. The first thing I used to do when I got a stack of applications was throw all the sets of identical ones (usually some pastel color) straight in the trash.

Sometimes, too, HR does't know what the hell they're doing. I've seen requirements for experience longer than the technology/language has been around.

__________________
Abstraction doesn't make it impossible to write bad code; it makes it possible to write superior code.
Contributor's Corner: Grumpy on C++ Exceptions DaWei on Pointers

lectricpharaoh

First off, that was a joke. It was not meant to be taken literally.

Second, the point of a resume is not to get you a job, as many people seem to think. It is to get you an interview. If it does this, it has fulfilled its purpose. You need to sell yourself on a resume, and while lying is obviously a bad thing, there are various ways you can word things and structure the resume to draw attention away from possible deficits (in experience, for example) and focus attention on your strengths (particularly with regard to how they apply to the position in question). Once you get to the interview, which is hopefully with someone who knows what they're looking for, you need to be able to back up the claims you made on the resume, as well as convince them why you should be the person they hire. Attitude here goes a long way, and while I've never been on the hiring side of the table, I'd much rather hire someone with less experience and a willingness to learn than someone with lots of experience who believes their way is necessarily the best.

As DaWei points out, the function of a resume is different for the prospective employer. Here, the purpose is to look at the resumes, and (as quickly as possible) eliminate as many as possible. If you pick up a resume off the stack, and it's got spelling/grammar errors, it goes in the bin (the person obviously doesn't care enough to proofread, have someone else proofread, or even run it through the automated checker in their word processor). If the person doesn't address the requirements for the position, and demonstrate that they either have the skills you're looking for, or can acquire them in very short order, it goes in the bin. Once you've reduced the stack to a manageable amount, you can start calling people in forinterviews.

__________________
And once again, Probability proves itself willing to sneak into a back alley and service Drama as would a copper-piece harlot.
- Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick

Jabo

I got your joke, no worries.

About the rest of it, I guess the place I work is the exception. They don't care how willing you are to learn new stuff, they are more concerned with how well you can follow procedure. No, it's not government, but almost as bad, healthcare. I was lucky to be hired without a degree and now they say they require a degree with any new hires.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only thing a degree really tells the employer is that you can attain goals and keep your nose to the grindstone. I've only seen one job posting that actually had a GPA requirement (3.0 but will consider a 2.9).

Back to my job. When I first started I was eager to learn, until I tried to figure out a problem without calling the person on call and didn't quite do it right. I didn't get in trouble, in fact, nobody said a word to me or even sent me an email. But the next day, I had all my rights stripped and am just now getting those rights back, after 7 years; and only because somebody above me got fired. They aren't exactly helpful, and don't like it when you call them for help, and they have their finger on the trigger waiting for you to screw up. No, I would say the best and easiest way to get a job is to be willing to be the one getting pecked. Humility will get your foot in the door, ability and/or politics will get you advanced (or advanced on out the door if you make somebody look stupid). This is the corporate way.

Jimbo

I think most software companies would be more interested in how well you can write software than how much experience you have with <insert language of choice here>. After all, you can always add to the experience number but it takes a lot more to learn to write good code. Don't be intimidated by the numbers, just know what you're talking about and be prepared and willing to a) learn new stuff all the time, and b) be wrong about how stuff works. It's OK if you don't know everything, if you accept it, learn, and improve from it. Of course, this attitude won't always get you a job, but it's probably better than "I have 5+ years of experience with C++, and I know the best way to do this job."

__________________
<insert disclaimer here>
<insert shameless plug for Visual Studio here>

Infinite Recursion

The tallest nail gets hammered down first. The catch is... you must be the hammer.

__________________
http://jasonpowers.net

"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."