> ...I was surprised to see that the person who sent it [the resume for a job] > had only one semester of college and little to show in the way of experience. > I put him on the payroll. The guy was a cracker jack. > Sometimes, it pays to look at more than a skill set. Rich comes close to an important point. Enterprises with competitive advantages succeed. An enterprise staffed based on pedigrees tends to be ordinary and lack competitive advantages. I worked with a fellow (now a Fortune 50 CEO) who refuses to hire anyone who has not been fired. He looks for managers willing to take personal risks. Hiring engineers is easier than hiring management, IMHO. Either the person can check their ego at the door and do the work or they can't. Don't worry about skills, look for interesting people who will add something to the enterprise. Try 'em on a project and after a few weeks their skills will be perfectly obvious to everyone. Management, on the other hand, produces nothing immediate in terms of a real, tangable, product. Managers have to work through others so it takes much longer to separate the wheat from the chaff -- and sometimes the damage (demoralization for example) can be huge. Human Resource departments aren't very good at recruting. They tend to emphasize mediocrity over character and that makes the enterprise bland, ordinary, and without a competitive advantage. Good managers use back channels to find staff with pizzazz. If you don't have a degree tell the prospective employer how you learned the stuff in the "real world." One reference saying "the candidate out-performs many of our EEs" overcomes that hurdle. But don't stop there, show what else you've learned while the other candidates were safely snuggled in school. Black belt in Karate? Part of a dance troup? Delivered papers every day without fail? Enclose a picture of the rocket you built in your basement. Got busted for selling dope? -- tell 'em if you're clean and how you designed your nefarious enterprise. Brag about your kids if that's what you did. If you were a bum tell 'em where you went, how you got there and what you saw. Unless you are exceptionally good at it, don't lie. If you're good at it go into marketing or politics ;-). What if you got the perfect job and three years later up pops the lie and you have a tragedy on your hands? Remember, engineering is a team business. Remember, no one is everybody's ideal candidate. Think about the kind of folks you'd like to work with and tailor your resume to them. Sure you'll make the circular file that much faster in some outfits, but you'll glitter in front of the "right" outfit. Oh yes, rejection sucks. That's the hardest part for me. When job hunting, I have to overcome the rejection and keep on peddling my wares. Good employers know that, but watch out for employment agencies that prey on demoralized job seekers. Spouses or significant others are very important as confidants and to help you through your misery -- resist the temptation to turn your back on them. BTW one of our best employees was practically suicidal when we hired him, he'd been rejected at every turn. He made it clear that he never again wanted to be in these circumstances and that's why he'd return loyalty and hard work over the long haul. Five years later he is the backbone of an excellent development group. Win Wiencke Image Logic Corporation _______________________________________________ http://www.piclist.com View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist