3/4 Series on Vetting Game Programmers: Who is this Person and Why Would I Hire them?

I think that biggest and first trial in the quest for a good employee is in the careful reading of a candidate's resume.

The resume is one of the first trials in both of your relationships.  

We all whine about reading them. Databases and other online application forms can be confusing and lack robust meaning and nuances.  

It's almost like reading a resume is just a preflight checklist and it turns off our analytic thought process and turns us into resorting to simplistic inelegant binary code thinkers.  It's either true or false, on or off.  When I first started it was hard for me to think of the resume as a real person, but it is.

Screening resumes is a bit of a drag sometimes.  Candidates who are great at coding have a hard time revealing to you some facts which would benefit both you and your company but somehow it gets lost in the transmission.  So try to read the resume carefully anyway even if it is misformatted or a pain in the butt to read.

If you have not looked at the millions of articles on resume writing on blogs and the internet do it now.  This isn't about how to write a resume.

Your a CEO and your dog ate your homework?  Didn't have time to read it or you are reading it for the first time in an interview.  Not so good.

This may sound sort of “duh” but looking at the resume in front of the candidate sends a message (intentional or otherwise) that this interview is either inconvenient or a pro forma exercise so the company can hire the person it REALLY wants. Reading the resume in advance gives you a chance to come up with specific questions.

If you haven't used the resume as a menu on which to Google your candidate and spy a little on them it means that you really don't care who arranges your play dates.  There's a chance you may not have fun.

Researching beyond the potential employees' resumes is like checking out a date before you go out with them.  (Well at least you'll know what they look like.) 

If you show up and can flatter that person by showing an interest in them by showing them that you know something beyond reading the resume it shows you care.

Check out the companies listed on the resume. How long has the candidate worked at the past few companies? Are any of them start-ups? Do you really want someone who has moved quickly up the ranks and name-drops like crazy but has no real experience?

Candidates need to really think too.  They often don't realize that a resume is the same as sending an emissary to speak on the their behalf.  


Presentation, format, clarity are all part of the deal.  Same as designing a game.  So the resume should be designed as carefully as your game and it should interface exactly with the platform it is to be delivered on.  So if they don't or can't handle it, how will this affect your chances to find a stellar employee?  One way would be to check in with recruiters like me.  The other is to get on HR to not be paper pushers but to really analyze the applicants that come through and make suggestions rather than pure good or bad judgments.  

A fifteen minute telephone call with asking an HR persons' advice, even though you've never met them (or me) might yield some results you've never thought of.  

Email me or contact me for a consultation.

   

+1-866-358-4263

Okay so maybe part of the presort must be that candidates need to look at the companies submission process and reformat the resume exactly as the company asks for it to be. You might even want to make it clear to future candidates that they may need to spend hours formatting it and cross checking each resume submission to fit. 

BUT How you read even the "bad" resume is important too.

You have to take time to think about the resume as a person rather than a bunch of facts on paper.  Cliche time, "Read between the lines." "Be thoughtful."

Can you see a person in there?  Could this also be a chance to help someone and make a friend?

Example, someone is leaving a company because they want to change disciplines, example artist turned coder.  This person has no experience except for "hobby" code writing.  Make sure HR knows how to spot this person!!!!  Could this person be better at a task than someone who is already doing it and the added incentive of you choosing them for your team could inspire a crazy great working relationship between the two of you.

Bilbo nor Frodo had ever been on a quest before Gandalf asked them into the Fellowship etc.

In both real life and gaming the plot often centers around diplomats and emissaries. If there is a miscommunication on the part of your emissary, you could be excommunicated.