Location: Arizona, US
Remote: Yes, preferred
Willing to relocate: No
Technologies: Keyboards, typing
Résumé/CV: On Request
Email: gearratiossc at gmail
Who I am:
I'm the Resident Contrarian, a known blogger/writer with an audience of thousands-to-tens-of-thousands per post and a half-dozen HN frontpages. I'm recommended by Slate Star Codex/Astral Codex Ten and Ben Kuhn's blogroll, and I've been linked by Marginal Revolution and Andrew Sullivan's The Weekly Dish.
My last two years were spent at a YC healthtech company creating high-quality outward-facing content (blog posts, profiles, website copy, etc) and I'm looking for new opportunities doing the same.
Author here. I don't think any of these points are unreasonable.
I think the apparent conflict comes into play when we treat your point and my point like they are mutually exclusive. But they don't have to be - the resume system can be horrific and the alternatives can be bad in other ways, all in one swoop. It would honestly be weirder if it weren't so - it would imply a perfect process.
For what it's worth, I'm not exactly proposing a "system based on recommendations", and I'm not sure how that would really work if I was proposing it. I'm more saying that the kind of treatment people get when they can bypass the resume-first system is much more human - ideally, there would be a fix that would bring the resume-first system up to the nepotistic treatment level, but I don't claim to know what that is.
Author here, and agreed. For different reasons, though - I think that when you've picked someone out of 400 applications, both you and they feel like they got "lucky", as opposed to being the handpicked winner of at least a couple hundred mostly-qualified applicants.
I contrast this most heavily with, say, someone the company has done cold outreach to get in touch with; like, yeah, there's a reason you did the cold outreach, they probably look like a good fit. But more importantly the power dynamic is different - the employer had to go to the applicant and ask for their attention. The applicant feels like something the employer might "lose" if they don't play their hand right, as opposed to someone who should feel honored to take the lower-mid of the payrange.
Who I am:
I'm the Resident Contrarian, a known blogger/writer with an audience of thousands-to-tens-of-thousands per post and a half-dozen HN frontpages. I'm recommended by Slate Star Codex/Astral Codex Ten and Ben Kuhn's blogroll, and I've been linked by Marginal Revolution and Andrew Sullivan's The Weekly Dish.
My last two years were spent at a YC healthtech company creating high-quality outward-facing content (blog posts, profiles, website copy, etc) and I'm looking for new opportunities doing the same.
You might have read:
On Being Poor-ish
https://www.residentcontrarian.com/p/on-the-experience-of-be...
Employee Value Prop and Hiring
https://www.residentcontrarian.com/p/a-limited-interest-arti...
A Defense of Q-tips:
https://www.residentcontrarian.com/p/on-the-exciting-subject...