Ask Steve: Insane Lists of Job Requirements And You

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Thanks to our own Tamara Hecht for noting a need for this post – and it's a chance for me to launch an experimental "Ask A Progeek" section (thinking of having it organized both for individuals and in general).

So it happened.  You found your perfect job, or come to think of it in this economy, any job.  Anyway, you look at the list of requirements, which almost inevitably is some kind of insane wish list, and you realize you don't meet them.  Yet, you still want that job and indeed can do it.

What do you do? 

First, let me put your mind at ease – if you think that that entire list has to be fulfilled perfectly, you're almost inevitably wrong.  Except in the case of certain scientific, engineering, and legal requirements, you don't have to fill the list out perfectly.  Chances are that list has been through so many hands no one actually cares that much.

Keeping that in mind, there's three things to do:

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Netflix Is Back?

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OK they may be still playing juggle-the-rights, but Netflix did pretty well for Q4 (beating expectations), and numbers suggest they might be over that hump of sort of annoying everyone.

They're also abandoning their video game rental plans, which makes total sense.

Frankly this is a bit better than I expected, but as a Netflix booster who got disappointed in some of their activities, I'm not sure I can say "they're back," even though I love the service.  It's a positive sign definitely – and it looks like they're aware that Amazon is coming for them.

Oh, and again, where's OnLive in all of this . . .

– Steven Savage

The Resume May Be Dying?

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Well, not quite, but here's some interesting insights on how some companies are going more non-standard routes with resumes.  It's a bit fluffy, I'd have liked more information and statistics.

Now one thing to take away from this is that there's some cool ideas in here you could use no matter how traditional a company may feel about a resume:

  • You could do a video application of yourself and store it privatley, linking a potential employer or client to it.
  • You could work on your web presence (which I've hammered on anyway).
  • You can demonstrate your skill with projects.

Maybe you can get a jump on a trend – or make life more interesting for some poor sot in HR reading the 400th resume.

– Steven Savage