Rant: Generation Y: Please stop lying on your resumes

[Rage187]

If you say you design webpages, be prepared to show pages you have designed.
If you say you type 100 WPM, you will get a typing test just for my amusement.
If you say you code, great get ready to code during the interview.
If you bring code samples, don't look like a deer in the headlights when I wipe the comments out of your code and ask you what the code is written to do.

I don't know what it is with this generation, but outright lying on resumes and looking surprised when you get called to the mat; it's ridiculous.

Oh yeah, I don't care about your GPA. And running a guild in WoW is not something you should put as a "skill".

Also, don't ask me if I play fantasy football. I don't and I now know what you will be doing most of your day if hired.

/rant

 

[Phokus]

I bet it's more challenging to run a successful WoW guild full of 14 year olds afflicted with ADD/Aspergers than it is to manage IRL people. Then again, WoW addiction can really affect workplace performance.

 

[TecHNooB]

thats what interviews are for

 

[Ika]

yeah i'd make the argument that (properly) running a WoW guild is just as intense as any real-world project or group management. i've never played WoW though so this is just from secondhand speak.

 

[rcpratt]

Everyone is encouraged to sell themselves, this is what interviews are for.

Weak.

Although, if someone seriously put anything WoW related on their resume, I would punch them in the face. Coming from a former player.

 

[apac]

yeah i'd make the argument that (properly) running a WoW guild is just as intense as any real-world project or group management. i've never played WoW though so this is just from secondhand speak.

This may be true. However, since 9/10 people would not understand because they have never played the game, 9/10 times it hurts your chances of getting the job to include it. Not a very good gamble.

 

[ultimatebob]

Yeah.... I love it when people do shit like put UNIX on their resume and they can't even tell me how to exit vi properly during their phone screen. Morons.

Oh... and even though I played WoW up to level 60, I'd STILL think that you're an idiot for putting it on your resume. Hell... you might as well tell me that you're addicted to crack, too.

 

[shortylickens]

Dear Baby Boomer,

Human Resources is a joke. If thats where you ended up in life, be prepared to deal with the consequences.

 

[her209]

Yeah.... I love it when people do shit like put UNIX on their resume and they can't even tell me how to exit vi properly during their phone screen. Morons.

Oh... and even though I played WoW up to level 60, I'd STILL think that you're an idiot for putting it on your resume. Hell... you might as well tell me that you're addicted to crack, too.

I remember the Director of Engineering was telling us during lunch about an interviewee who had come in for an ME position. He was telling us that during the interview, the interviewee couldn't even read an Engineering drawing and IIRC, it was drawings that the interviewee brought in!

 

[ultimatebob]

Dear Baby Boomer,

Human Resources is a joke. If thats where you ended up in life, be prepared to deal with the consequences.

Oh... these people have no problems BS'ing their way past HR. It's not until they get to the technical portion of the interview (the one I do) where they fail miserably.

 

[Rage187]

Oh... these people have no problems BS'ing their way past HR. It's not until they get to the technical portion of the interview (the one I do) where they fail miserably.

This. Generation X, FYI.

If I'm talking to them, they have indeed bs'd their way through the first and second phone screenings.

I could ask HR to do a better job weeding people out on technical lies but HR isn't technical and they wouldn't know if it was bs or not.

Maybe it is not even a generational thing. Maybe those who are a little older know that you get caught.

Also, it is ok if you didn't go to college. I actually prefer people with real world experience.

 

[ShawnD1]

Also, don't ask me if I play fantasy football. I don't and I now know what you will be doing most of your day if hired.

haha. pwned.

In their defense, all of that bullshit is to pass HR interviews. When I was interviewing for electrical engineering jobs, almost every interview was with HR people. I only had 1 interview with engineers, and those two guys hired me on the spot. For those HR interviews, I would have been better off if I really did just make a bunch of shit up. Forget in-class work with mechanical and programmable relays, let's just say I design the relay from scratch and I even made the semiconductor material. They don't know enough about science to know that I'm lying. of course that wouldn't work with engineers because they actually did go to engineering classes and they know that's likely not true.

 

[rocadelpunk]

I'd be scared that if I bs'd my way into a job I'd be exposed as a fraud and wouldn't know how the heck to do my job...

 

[Rage187]

Everyone is encouraged to sell themselves, this is what interviews are for.

Weak.

Although, if someone seriously put anything WoW related on their resume, I would punch them in the face. Coming from a former player.

I played WoW and know what a time waste it can be. Definitely tell me your a gamer, that's cool. But telling me, you play WoW is equivalent to telling me you have gambling debts.

 

[Bateluer]

Oh yeah, I don't care about your GPA. And running a guild in WoW is not something you should put as a "skill".

You actually had someone this stupid?

 

[JS80]

lol same shit in finance and accounting. Oh you know how to do a pivot table? Here's a spreadsheet pivot this. Oh you know how to use Microsoft Dynamics? Here, show me how to make a journal entry. *DEER IN HEADLIGHTS*

But really its people of all ages. I don't even bother with Gen Yers.

 

[MarkXIX]

<== GenX and hires technical people

Yep, couldn't have said it better. GenY has a serious tendency to try to tell people what they think they need to hear so that they can "get what they deserve" rather than what they've rightfully earned.

Give me someone that knows a few things and honestly states that they don't know the rest and I might seriously consider them if no one else comes out of the woodwork along the way. Outright lie and you can bet your ass you'll still be looking for a job.

I am a network manager and I basic question I ask of entry level network techs is "What is the CIDR mask of /22 when represented as a subnet mask?"

Just about everyone that has said they didn't know, but would get back with me and actually DID get back to me got at least a second look. The ones that tried to convince me it was anything other than the correct answer had their resumes shitcanned as soon as they left and a notice to all other IT branches in the company that the guy or gal wasn't worth another look, ever.

 

[Paratus]

Did any of their mommies call you up afterward to complain that you didn't hire their "precious"?

 

[mmntech]

Generation Y will concede to the Baby Boomers when they stop threatening to tax us up the ass... because they wanted a $90,000 BWM and million dollar home, and didn't save for retirement.

[Clears throat]

Anyway, I agree with you in part. Problem is, it casts an unfair stereotype on Gen Y as a bunch of cheats and babies. You'd think HR would learn to see through the bullshit. The real fools aren't the ones submitting the resumes, but the ones hiring them. There's a massive pool of young talent out there who aren't getting hired mainly because they can't/won't BS and smooth talk their way through interviews.

 

[waffleironhead]

Maybe HR is weeding out the wrong people and the technically proficient people are not making it to your door

 

[JEDI]

I'd be scared that if I bs'd my way into a job I'd be exposed as a fraud and wouldn't know how the heck to do my job...

welcome to my 6figure world

guarenteed contract till 2012

then 99weeks of obama unemployment, altho trying to get a contract extension.
then i retire altho it'll be decades b4 i get social security, not that i plan it'll be there

ahh..this is the life

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

You'd think HR would learn to see through the bullshit. The real fools aren't the ones submitting the resumes, but the ones hiring them. There's a massive pool of young talent out there who aren't getting hired mainly because they can't/won't BS and smooth talk their way through interviews.

Possibly caused by most HR departments being filled with complete idiots?

 

[JS80]

Maybe HR is weeding out the wrong people and the technically proficient people are not making it to your door

I thought shorty summed it up well

Dear Baby Boomer,

Human Resources is a joke. If thats where you ended up in life, be prepared to deal with the consequences.

 

[kranky]

I agree, I have had it with people outright lying in interviews and on resumes. What amazes me is that they are always so surprised when they are found out. Let me see that you are honest, because that goes a long way.

I once hired a guy who told me right in the interview that he wasn't very strong with Earned Value concepts and if the job was really focused on that, he wasn't going to be the right person for the job. But we knew we could pretty easily teach him, he clearly had good skills so it didn't kill his chances.

 

[IronWing]

My experience with working with Gen Y'ers is that they tend to be all or nothing. Either they're straight shooters who work hard, learn fast, and are a real asset or they're total bozos with little in between. The hard workers we have a hard time keeping because they have to keep chasing ever higher salaries than we can pay as they are usually buried in student loans. The burners tend to get themselves fired within the first couple months by doing totally stupid crap that can't be overlooked like losing their driver's licenses to DUI or stealing company equipment or wrecking company trucks doing stupid stuff or surfing porn or parking placarded company trucks in strip joint parking lots or getting in stupid arguments with extremely highly paid subs over stuff they don't even understand* or basically not showing up for anything on time. Fortunately the bad employees reveal themselves quickly enough that we can cut our losses.

On the other end, baby boomers tend to hire baby boomers regardless of qualifications for the job. Since these folks have decades of experience in sucking up and BSing, it takes longer to figure out that they are worthless and even longer for baby boomer managers to figure it out.


*Clue for newbies: When your company is paying for a heavy lift helicopter at $2500-$3000/hr do not engage the pilot in non-essential discussions while the rotor is turning.