This author got a fair few flames last time, most of which were a bit unfair. I dislike paying recruiters fees as much as the next person, but unless you are unfortunate enough to have to wade through stacks of CVs, you are really qualified to complain.
I interview and hire staff for my (small) company. Mainly developers, test and support staff. Most of the comments in the last article about CVs were correct - I don't read past the second spelling mistake in a CV. I don't care if English is not your second language, if you can't be arsed to spell check your CV and get someone else to read it before you send it to me, I'll bin it. In the last week I have seen four CVs which were Word documents that displayed red wiggly lines when I opened them. I'd probably have a bit more sympathy if I was hiring Nursery nurses, but come on - IT staff should have no fear of the humble word processor.
As far as interviews go, I ask myself three questions at the end of the interview - would they do the job?, could they do the job?, and most importantly, would they fit in?
The first one is easy, I just ask the candidate this question - "if we offer you the job at the salary you've asked for, would you accept it?". The only correct answer is an enthusiastic yes. Anything else means I won't offer you the job. I've had one no in twenty years, and about half of the remainder say something along the lines of "well, I am interviewing at other places so I may have to think about it". As if I cared. All I care about is that you are enthusiastic about my job. You can always change your mind later if I do offer it to you.
The second is hard. I can see from your CV what your experience is, but you could be rubbish at those skills. We used to set a programming test - until we hired a guy who aced the test and who we had to fire six months later as he was actually a very poor programmer. This one is mostly guesswork.
The third is gut feel. If I don't like you, I probably won't hire you. By like, I don't mean in a bosom buddy kind of way, just you need to come across as having the right kind of personality to fit in. Can do attitude, willingness to accept that you may not be right, ability to admit failures, these are all good. Not listening to the interviewer is bad, sometimes people answer a different question to the one you asked and we let them off as it's a pressured situation, but if it happens a lot, then it just seems like you don't understand or aren't listening.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
