@david_chisnall @futurebird

I know the feeling of CV help feeling pointless.

But I've also had a glimpse from the other side. Almost all hires at my company are strangers applying through the process. How much CVs matter varies wildly.

@david_chisnall @futurebird

Recently, my girlfriend applied for another job at the org she's been working for as a freelancer for years. She got not chosen for the first round of interviews because she wrote her department head recommended her to apply for the position. (My idea, to show she has the backing of higher-ups inside the orgs.) This was read as lack of initiative on her part.

@billiglarper @futurebird

Yup, a lot of people I've hired have gone through a process, submitted a CV, been interviewed, and so on. It's just that I've never done that from a cold start. I've applied for two jobs like that, I was rejected for one and declined the other (both with the same employer).

@futurebird 13 years ago I was working at a specific sub-organization (org1) within a larger employer (main). Main handles common benefits, but employment is with a sub-organization.

I took a temporary developmental position at a different sub-organization (org2) within main for a few years. As part of my job at org2, I had a working lunch with someone from a third sub-organization (org3) and mentioned that I was rotating back to my original position with org1 and looking for projects to work on when I got back.

They mentioned me to someone who reached out asking whether I wanted to extend my temporary rotation and work at org3's site for a couple of years. I said yes, and my permanent boss at org1 said yes, but my permanent boss's boss said no. Org3 offered me a permanent position and I took it.

Very much the result of serendipity, since I didn't know the people offering me the job at all, and my acquaintance with the person who connected me to them was just meeting that one day.

@futurebird my option is more : I applied cold but both companies didn’t (at the time) have those stupid recruiting platforms that look for keywords and throw out candidates randomly, so I got the job on experience

@david_chisnall

Thanks for the clarification. I slightly misread your post.

@futurebird I already worked for the company when I got my best job. The QA manager, who needed someone reasonably fluent with a computer, headed up a continuing improvement team. I built an interactive website that accepted, parsed and monitored "suggestion tickets" on line. He liked my work and brought me off the production floor to QA. That's the job I retired from last year.

@futurebird I got recruited.

@futurebird My last job (17 years) was due to a recruiter cold calling me. I've worked with recruiters for most of my career and often have been contacted with opportunities being presented to me.

@billiglarper @david_chisnall

That sounds like a weird reason.

At small and medium organizations “hiring” is extra work pawned off on already busy people and simply being the easiest to locate person who those tasked with the hire can trust won’t cause them embarrassment is the process rather than reading 100 CVs

Calls to previous employers matter a great deal.

This is because smaller orgs don’t budget any time to do this work.

@billiglarper @david_chisnall

CVs matter since it’s what the hiring committee will squint at while they try to figure out what to do.

Introduction letters are not as important in my limited experience with small companies colleges and schools.