Thread by @Shpigford

1/ It's always really interesting to me how many people espouse resumes.

Having read through thousands of job applications, I've never seen a resume that did a better job communicating ability/skill than a few free-form text fields.

2/ I get it. When you're applying to dozens or even hundreds of jobs, having to actually write out answers is exhausting and can be demoralizing (especially when you never hear back).

3/ But the alternative is the company potentially hiring you ends up judging you 100% on your past work. Which can be a terrible indicator of your ability and potential fit.

If anything, it makes it *easier* for a company to quickly throw your application out the door.

4/ Again, I get it. There's a weird power dynamic at play. "I have a job opening, and you need this job, so I can ask you to jump through all sorts of hoops."

But resumes are just far too reductive.

5/ For context: I've only hired a few dozen people over the years (though have received many thousands of applications for those roles).

I'm sure it's different when there's a hiring manager involved or it's at some massive corporation. But that's not this.

6/ Also, hiring techniques are indicative of company culture (both good and bad). If you don't like the hiring process, you probably won't like the way the company is run.

That's fine. Every company operates differently.

7/ We ask questions that require written responses because that's how we function. Lots of asynchronous writing.

We don't ask you to "hop on a call" during the interview process because we don't do that as part of our normal operations. We write.

8/ If you reaaaallly hate writing out answers to questions as part of the hiring process, then bless your heart, you're going to absolutely loathe working here.