Aaron Strout

Great advice, Robert - not only for someone submitting a resume, but also for hiring managers and what to look for to find the "cream of the crop." - Vince DeGeorge

Allen: early for what? Recession advice? :-) - Robert Scoble

Insightful article + great comments. But seriously, the pay needs to be $15-$20 or else you won't interest the career type - only the mass-mailing, money desperate grad student :¬P - CannonGod

Resume is dead. Got my new job without it :) - sean percival

Resumes do indeed suck for telling your story, but until HR people change how they go about getting people to submit for jobs, that's what we are stuck with. - Alex "Maverick" Scoble

i never go for a job where i need a resume, or an application form. if it is not person to person, i don't want to work there. - Gregory Lent

I'm curious. Why is applying for a job that you are overqualified for an automatic ding against you? What if you are someone who wants to get out of your current career and start a new one that you happen to be overqualified for at the moment? Also, in Scoble's post, he said he wants someone who won't settle for a $10-$12/hr job and looks ahead in his/her career. So how does someone who's overqualified in experience not fit that description? - Cheryl Jones

Cheryl, because it'll show when you work there. Overqualified people make it clear that they are overqualified for the position they're in, and it comes out in salary negotiations, task delegation, and dealing with superiors. - Mark Trapp

FYI overqualified will not usually hold up in court if someone decides to sue. At least, that's what they taught us in HR class. - Glen Campbell

Glen: sue for what? If "overqualified" was code for racism/sexism during job selection? - Mark Trapp

for not selecting the most qualified applicant. - Glen Campbell

Let me get off the iPhone and expand. If you post a job listing certain qualifications, and you bypass someone who meets all the qualifications but is "overqualified" for someone who doesn't quite meet everything, then that person may have a case for employment discrimination. We are encouraged to write our job descriptions very carefully to be sure that we find the right people. An "overqualified" person may very well be looking for a simpler, easier job to handle until he or she retires, and it may even.. - Glen Campbell

...be on the advice of a doctor. You put yourself and your company at risk by rejecting them as "overqualified" without considering them. You're safer if you can find some legitimate way to disqualify them. - Glen Campbell

I commented on the post. Impossible is Nothing - Christopher Harley

...except an adidas slogan. - Shawn Farner

Love this post Robert. This plus Seth Godin's post Why Bother Having a Resume? http://sethgodin.typepad.com/s... are keepers. - Hutch Carpenter

What's a resume? Oh yeah, I vaguely remember getting my first job out of undergrad with one of those things. - £ogical €xtremes

@Cheryl... right on! I always thought it would be fun to pick a company you liked, and try to go in totally entry-level with no documentation, and just see what could happen. - £ogical €xtremes

Robert: here were some of my observations on resumes a few months ago... http://www.stagetwoconsulting.... - Jeremy Toeman

Robert, good post. My experience is people should not apply for posted jobs for the very reason they will likely be lost in the crush of applicants. The more savvy strategy is to discover the outfits you would LOVE to join and then apply for the job that is not yet available. Do your homework and reach out to everyone from the CEO down. The key here is how you are treated as an outsider. Pushed off to HR. Not provided any response. These are indications they are not the company you want to work for. - Dave Martin

few things: as someone who desperately wants a career change, I appreciate the tips provided. Second have you considered a viritual admin assistant? One area of disagreement, the video. While the person might get high marks for creativity, they run the risk of being blond and the hiring manager having preconceived idea about blonds, what if the room they use is in their home and it is not neat, etc etc - bottomline I would be concerned that something could be used from the video that eliminates me People do judge a book by it's cover, sometimes without even realizing it. - Ruth Ferguson

Ruth: if someone is going to judge you based on your appearance, they're going to do it in the interview, as well. Showing judgement about where you film the video is fair game: you chose to shoot the video, why would you shoot it in a messy house? - Mark Trapp

Jeremy - that's a good post. - Hutch Carpenter

Mark, you are right about appearance. But perhaps if your resume is strong enough they once they finally meet you, it is possible you have a strong advantage that a glance at a video would preclude. Messy room was not a good example but I will give you that point. - Ruth Ferguson

Regarding overqualification: I'm not opposed to that, but you MUST point it out on a letter to me and explain why you are applying for a job that is so obviously "beneath" you. Remember, my producer used to be a software developer. He changed careers and has worked out very well. But you've gotta take on that objection head on in your cover letter or you'll get tossed. - Robert Scoble

Ruth: one thing that I'm looking for is a little risk taking behavior. Doing videos is risky, yes. But if you want to stand out of the crowd you've got to do something different. That requires taking a risk. On the other hand, I'd be very careful about taking a risk and I'd get lots of people's opinions about it. - Robert Scoble

Thanks for the comments regarding overqualification, everyone. I had always heard about this "faux pas" and wondered why an employer wouldn't like someone overqualified for a job. For example, I heard about someone on a discussion forum that the hubby reads who recently came into a lot of bad luck, lost his job, and couldn't get another because there were none in his field, and he was overqualified for other jobs, like retail work. I thought it was insane that he couldn't even apply for a job at McD's... - Cheryl Jones

...or a bookstore or something to make ends meet while he couldn't find anything in his "native" profession. That didn't make sense to me at all, and is kind of scary, considering how I'm in a volatile field (software engineering) and would like to know that I could at least have something else to fall back on in case the very worst case scenario happens and I'd have to take a job lower than what I'm supposedly qualified for. - Cheryl Jones

when I applied for a number of jobs last year I found a large number of people demanded word files instead of PDF's :S I also don't get the problem of a person being over qualified for something... surely it means they would do better than someone that needs plenty of training. After all, they applied for it so they are showing an interest in doing a job you see as "below" them! - alphaxion

I am in the process of tweaking my partners CV, I gave her some feedback, didn't go down well! This post is submitted from the naughty step! - Joe Dawson

Robert, I wrote a similar post back in March titled "Hiring in a 2.0 World" http://tinyurl.com/39dy8d - Aaron Strout

Fun.... - Chacha

Since 2000 he's taken home almost half a billion. Congressman asks him: "Is this fair?" - Thomas Hawk

They are quibling over the ammount. He's saying it's closer to $200 million, the Congressman is saying it's $400 to $500 million. Talking about his vacation homes, his helicopter commute, his art collection with million dollar paintings etc. - Thomas Hawk

Congressman says "Wall Street privatized all the gains and socialized all the losses." - Thomas Hawk

Right, because $500 million would be obscene, but $200 million is completely reasonable. *rolls eyes* - Eric

Eric: Now he's gonna say something about not being greedy. - Roberto "Maverick" Bonini

CNBC: apparently he went to the gym after the bankruptcy failure at Lehman and someone knocked him out cold while he was working on the treadmill. - Thomas Hawk

Any place on the net where one could watch this? - Holger Eilhard

@holger - try http://cspan.org/ - Atul Arora

I suspect he either can't remember, he had no knowledge because his secretary really ran the company, claims Fortune 500 executive privilege, or can't say because it's a national security issue. - todd

@Atul: Thx! - Holger Eilhard

He's not going to say much because there's litigation going on. Fuld seems to be implicating Hank Paulson may have misled him... or he's lying. - Jim McCusker

I think everyone should know how to cook a little something, men and women alike. Just like I think everyone should know how to do their own laundry. - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)

I like to cook. I'm a guy. No biggie. - Josh Haley

I like a woman that can cook. I think it's a good skill to have simply because I can't, but that has no bearing on anything really when it comes down to it. Either we can learn together, or we can make use of the phone and the menus. :) - Rahsheen™

I cook. With only one delivery shoppe around, the bakery that doesn't normally do delivery but hooks me up at times, I have to cook. I love to cook, usually, anywho. - Michael W. May

I agree with Tina . . . but we all have different things we're good at. Don't sweat it. - Lindsey Smith

I just never had to learn. I can make a few things, obviously but I don't love to be in the kitchen. I don't have signature dishes and when talking about potluck situations, my answer is to just buy something. This has always been an unacceptable answer. It would be fine with me if they gave me the argument that all people should know how to cook but it always seems to boil down to, "But you're a woman." Yeah? And? That's the best you got? - pea does NOT ♥ pain

And also, some of the great chefs of the world are male. Or is that sexist, as well? - Mark VandenBerg

Pea, see this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.... - Mavericks of Troy, NV!

Ew. "Women should..." Ew. - Ayşe E.

Ayse, women should stop saying "ew." It's not ladylike. Pea, one of my best friends growing up had a dad who always made the joke "when I get home and ask your mother what's for dinner, she grabs the keys and gets in the car." HAHAHA - Trish R

My dad does most of the cooking and kicks ASS at it. - (teh)Kenny

see in my family, it's the man who cooks. my grandfather raised the boys to know how to cook, so the women are hopeless. on my dad's side it's the same thing: the men cook. and while i love to cook and bake (which makes me a weirdo in my family) i married a man who cooks. if he didn't, we'd starve. - Faboo Mama

Alex - peeing my pants over your new nickname. ;) - Aaron Strout

Define cooking? And thanks Aaron...I'm just being a maverick...by going with the flow...uhh... - Alex "Maverick" Scoble

Nothing. Plus you have no dishes to do. :) - Denise via twhirl

Me...living closer. I'd cook but you'd have to do the dishes :-) - Shannon

She did as expected - LPH

@Colide81 she believes MAN and DINOSAURS walked the earth at the same time... what exactly does that say about her?? - Jeremy Toeman

I'm not sure anyone won. Biden was just less bad. I don't want either of them to end up in charge of my country. - Jaemi Kehoe

I believe the same thing though so lol tell me what does that say about me? - Colide81 (James)

Palin win? Tell me which question she gave a real answer to, and I will give you that win. - Shout out 2Jody

Palin didn't win. No way in the world did she win - Duncan Riley

@Collide 81 Idiots usually think that their kind aren't idiots. Just saying. - Stephan Miller

both dumb as rocks - Gregory Lent

Biden showed better command of the issues and more experience; Palin didn't vomit, fart, or swear, and sounded so folksy I wanted to puke -- she wins for Joe Six-Pack American - William Harryman

james, she didn't answer a question and she talked around in circles with half-lies, full likes and outright WTFness, I'm glad that her sportscaster background came through, but if you say that you want to expand the power of the VP and don't even know that the VP is part of the executive branch, then yeah...you're a idiot and don't deserve the job. - Faboo Mama

William, I'll accept that in terms of the pointed folksy stuff and connecting with people by playing dumb, she did it well, but the key points didn't win it for McCain either, intellect and understanding won before, and I'm betting it wins here - Duncan Riley

Duncan - Exactly what I thought. - Jim McCusker

Yes. Beverly Hillbillies worked in Beverly Hills. Not in the White House. - Stephan Miller

She can't even finish a sentence. She stops halfway through and starts another one. - Vez ৩

Palin won. - Mona N.

Duncan: I hope you're correct - whenever I think Joe Six-Pack can figure that stuff out, I end up w/ a Bush in the White House -- "intellect and understanding" are taboo to the mainstream American, akin to the plague - William Harryman

Mona - So, by simply showing up and reading cue cards, you've decided that she won? Did you listen to her responses and compare them to Biden's? Seriously??? Trust me.. I am a total skeptic of both parties, but Biden did way better than I expected. Palin on the other hand was rehearsed and didn't sound like she was speaking with her own voice. - Jim McCusker

Palin had a better showing than anticipated, but that will only net her a few points. Biden did as well as expected so he wont lose points. - Geoff "Maverick" Schultz

palin didn't win. expectations for her were SO LOW all she had to do is not have another 'couric moment.' so if that's the standard, then she exceeded that requirement. but that's embarrassing. i actually want leaders to be smarter and more accomplished than 'regular' folks, and she's not...by a mile. she's not an idiot but if you think she won, them we must agree to disagree. - .LAG

Faboo Mama (and Zee) - I've gotta agree with you. Just because Palin didn't fall on her face like she did during her interviews with Katie Couric doesn't mean she won. There was close to zero substance to her answers (and I think that was by design). Biden on the other hand was able to go for McCain's jugular the entire debate while acting like a gentleman toward Palin. - Aaron Strout

I'm with Faboo Mama on this one. I texted my friend and said "Palin's not as much of a train wreck as I expected." Right after that she made her comment about expanding the power of the VP. I texted and said "spoke too soon." - Jennifer Leggio

It doesn't matter what the experts and those who are actually listening say. What matters is the general American population. The last election was the best example. Dubya was more relatable than Kerry. - Mona N.

My estimation as well Duncan - Aaron Krug

Mona, before the McCain debate I would have agreed with you 100%. But this time around there's a sizable shift that sees people looking for real leadership, real intellect, and real understanding on the issues, not just glib one liners. Remember, I called the last debate for McCain for the EXACT same reason you're giving it to Palin - Duncan Riley

@Duncan - Dare I summarize? Simply showing up for the debate is not good enough. 'nuff said. - Jim McCusker

Duncan: The official numbers are out and Biden won. THANK GOD! I was really nervous because Miss Congeniality has way more presence than Biden. Phew, America is NOT a lost cause LOL - Mona N.

tina fey could have learned those lines in her sleep - Gregory Lent

@Gregory - Stop. She definitely showed up tonight and perhaps gave a few (not many) responses off the top of her head. But she clearly stuck to her talking points and kept redirecting back to them at every opportunity. She appeared to be reading cue cards (we'll know for sure tomorrow when photo's from behind her come out). But this was not fodder for the next SNL skit - Jim McCusker

I think Mona, part of the problem is that you're looking at this through the prism of 2004. While Kerry had the record, he ran a crappy campaign by listening the DLC-types. Obama, has run a vastly smarter campaign. We are 4 years out and everything is worse. People are ready for change and most people who fell for platitudes in '00 and '04 are actually paying attention. Listening to words. - Faboo Mama

I'm personally tired of all of the partisan b.s. Let's all be real and try hard to objectively analyze tonights debate. Palin showed up... was not an idiot (as some speculated). But to me, she clearly articulated canned lines. Biden (perhaps more experienced) came across as genuine and appeared to be thoughtful in his responses. - Jim McCusker

I agree. She did very well. But we'll be seeing more of Tina Fey's Palin on SNL no matter how well she did tonight. You can't deny that. - ::Kristen::

Palin spoke well "also" and she can read well "also". - kbourke

Biden clearly wins. Palin fake and stumbled her way through. - Mike Reynolds

Actually Tina Fey does a better Palin than Palin, or is that a bit naughty? - Sally Church

PALIN TOOK NAMES TONIGHT! - AnotherⓃⓄⒶⒽ

Noah, the name she took was Joe SixPack... - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)

@faboomama I have no idea what soul caliber iv is but is sounds cool - especially if it involved Yoda. - Aaron Strout

THUD <gasp!> 'no idea what soul caliber iv is'???? Only the greatest fighting game EVER. http://www.soulcalibur.com/ and yes, it's cool they have different characters in it, but i know that if i buy it, it'll take forever to get to the level where i can fight yoda. - Faboo Mama

That is amazing. - Mattb4rd

it is to be fair - i had no idea they looked so much like the damn cartoon :) - Zee from WeDoCreative

my heart. it has melted. that last picture is so great, look at those ears! i just want to pet and kiss them. What a beautiful baby. - Aden

oh my god . . . cutest thing ever - Lindsey Smith

Awwwwwww. - Roberto "Maverick" Bonini

venison - Andrew Smith

@Andrew Smith, LOL. BTW, it's veal-venison. - Trevor Carpenter

وووووووووووویییییییی - A.J.

Not much of a meal there anyway :) - Andrew Smith

Ok, there is NONE cuter than this animal...I DEFY anyone to show me anything cuter... - Live4Soccer

Bite sized? - ☛ Adam Helweh ☚

L4S this comes real close: http://friendfeed.com/e/540c44... - Cee Bee

+1 L4S - Robin Barooah

it's only cute cuz it looks like a cartoon...which might actually be the definition of cute? - Rahsheen™

naa, i've seen plenty of ugly cartoons Rah - Zee from WeDoCreative

Cee Bee, that's close...more of a "that's bad ass" reaction to that Pug...reminds me of the dog in MIB...good effort though, but I still contend the Bambi pics are still an 11 on the Cute Scale... - Live4Soccer

aaaaaaaahhhhhh...... so sweet. - Mary Anne Davis

I just closed my door and I'm softly weeping into my hankie... seriously though, that is one cute deer cub. - Aaron Strout

ahhhhhhhhhhh too friggen sweet!!! I want one! - mortisha

must resist Like, will not look macho - adolfo foronda

heck - how do you think i feel submitting it! :) - Zee from WeDoCreative

Thanks for sharing! - J. D. Ebberly

hey no need to thank, all the likes makes it worth it :) - Zee from WeDoCreative

that so didn't rhyme. ;P - Faboo Mama

:p - Alex "Maverick" Scoble

Alex, that even SOUNDED white, reading it. LMAO!!!! - Trish R

Maybe it didn't flow right, but I'm obviously no LL Cool J. :) It did rhyme tho. Well except I guess I didn't rhyme anything with rears...maybe someone can add a sentence there for me. Call it a twitch media work in progress. - Alex "Maverick" Scoble