We’re in the middle of hiring a system and network engineer and I wanted to share a few tips on how to get noticed if you’re considering applying for a position X-BAR.

I don’t know how these compare to what other companies—large or small—look for, but these are the things that we notice, for better and for worse:

1. Take a moment and tell us why you’re applying. What about X-BAR or the job description caught your attention? How does this position fit in to your longer-term goals? What about it might get you excited to come to work every day? We receive lots of resumes and the responses that include a brief and sincere explanation float right to the top.
2. Let us know if you’re concerned about not having the experience or qualifications we’re looking for. For us, hiring is an exercise in finding the best alignment of many different, and often unrelated, factors. If you don’t have a particular skill in one area, it may be that you have an aptitude in another area that we’ll need in 6 months. Overall fit is super important and a missing skill may not necessarily be a deal-killer (and mentioning it will let us know that you actually took the time to read the job description and consider what you have to offer).
3. Double-check your email and resume for spelling and grammar errors. This one should go without saying. Yes, we’re a technology company. Yes, clear and effective communication is important to our work.
4. Related to #3, don’t tell us you saw our job position on a site we didn’t post it on. Take a moment and get the details right, otherwise we might think you’re not good with details, which is critical to being successful at X-BAR.
5. Try to avoid submitting your resume more than once. Do you like receiving SPAM? Well, neither do we. And we often receive the same resume 5 or 6 times, which makes us wonder whether the candidate is really paying attention.
6. Think quality over quantity.  Can you sense a theme? We put a lot of thought and energy into the positions we post and the people we’re trying to hire and get super excited to meet folks that notice and appreciate this.
7. Give some serious thought to commuting. We’re in Pioneer Square and have pretty good public transit connections to many parts of our region. We also know how soul crushing a tough commute can be and that the challenge of commuting is likely to get harder before it eases. Plus, our impact on the environment is one we take seriously. If you live in Everett or Tacoma, find a local IT support company that would benefit from your experience and skills—or start your own! You’ll be happier and so will the planet.
8. Let us know how to contact you, if we’d like to talk further. Erroneous phone numbers aren’t helpful. Not responding to an email we send requesting a phone interview, isn’t either. Please respond if we contact you, or at least let us know you’re no longer interested in the position.

Posted by Brad Benner in X-BAR News on 14 April 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.