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Too many resumes? Add USMC to filter!

January 31, 2008

The unemployment rate is really starting to affect our hiring. This week we posted a standard listing for a network engineering position at Architel. Our normal response is usually 5-10 resumes per day. Within hours we had received 1,500 resumes and they keep coming in 5-10 per HOUR! Craigslist was always a great recruiting tool because the participants were often more technical and it tended to have more signal to noise than say Monster.com. But with the added ‘noise’ caused by the downturn we needed a way to ‘filter’ potential candidates. I had an idea, filter based on military experience. Need a ‘killer’ network engineer? Hire a Marine! We have had the best luck with candidates with prior military service. From CNN:

More than 200,000 veterans leave the service every year, according to Transition Assistance Online and nearly all bring with them a familiarity with computers. In fact, more than 40% of them have worked directly in IT as computer operators, programmers, systems analysts, LAN specialists and IT managers. Veterans also bring a mind-set that makes for great IT leadership. “John [Lochow] is an awesome CIO,” says Tony Ibarguen, CEO of Tech Data Corp. in Clearwater, Fla. “He has a very structured methodology and people work well as a team under that structure. There’s no confusion and very little politics.”

Written by Alexander Muse · Filed Under Blog, Personal 

Comments

2 Responses to “Too many resumes? Add USMC to filter!”

  1. Ann Bernard Says:
    January 31st, 2008 at 8:17 pm

    Has a former Marine Communication and Information System Officer I give two thumbs up to your post!! The best experienced Marines are the ones who have worked on deployed networks. They have a wide range of knowledge, experience, and training. They’re used to setting up networks from scratch and properly maintaining it in the the worst of conditions.

  2. Christopher St. John Says:
    February 1st, 2008 at 10:19 am

    Last time we posted to a job listing site we were flooded with keyword-matching auto replies. Were all 1500 of the replies you got sent individually? Perhaps the resume spamming services have discovered Craigslist.

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