This morning I posted a job on Naukri.com, a general job site for Indians. It is $50 for the most expensive single job post, which is still 1/7th the price of posting on Gamasutra. I always hear that Indians work harder and cheaper than Americans so it was worth a shot.
When I got home, I saw 88 replies in my job inbox. Great! I thought, until I started reading them. The way it worked out was that my job post has an “Apply Now” button that allows a user of that site to send you their resume. Which is utterly worthless. As far as I can tell these guys just went down every job on the site, rapidly clicking “Apply Now” without even reading the job posting.
I have specific instructions in my job post on what you must include to apply to the job, and not a single spammed resume included all the information I asked for. Normally I’d just delete those resumes but if I did that I’d have no resumes at all. So I just spammed back a form letter indicating that if they want to reply to the job they need to include the information I asked for.
This has given me insight into something I knew, but didn’t consider to this extent before. Spamming your resume to employers gives the impression that the potential employee doesn’t care about your job. Nobody wants to hire a potential employee who doesn’t care about your company or what the job actually entails. Conversely, if I were to actually get a resume that shows the applicant read the job posting and is actually applying to my job they’d already have a foot up over all the other canidates.
What this does is to push the work from the employee (applying to jobs they are qualified for and including the information the company wants) to the employer (to filter through spammed resumes to see who actually has this information). Well sorry, but do I really want to hire someone too lazy to read a job description at a company they are asking to pay them?
Some choice quotes, from the few applicants that actually even bothered to write a generic cover letter:
“Currently i am looking for job in a company like yours where can i explore my potential.”
Um, thanks. A company like mine, and every other company on earth.
“I am a BE in Computer Seience.I have enclosed my Curriculum Vitae for your consideration. ”
But obviously not a degree in spelling.
“I have attached my CV for your kind perusal. Please do the necessary. ”
If by necessary you mean hit the delete key, yes I will.
“I came to know about u r company through website.
I send my resume by attachment. And I request u to go through my resume.
And I hope having response from u. ”
I will reply to u as soon as u learn to write English.
I will hire the first person to reply to my post who actually read it!
* Update *
So I got some replies to my form letter demanding more information.
Thanks for your interest in working for Jenkins Software.
As per the job description, you *** MUST *** include:
1. Your resume
2. Contact information
3. A link to self-contained sample code
4. Your salary requirements in US dollars
5. Your work availability in Pacific Standard TimeIf your cover letter does not include these five items your application will be not be read and you will not be considered further.
One reply was a blank email with a spam image link.
One reply was the exact form letter the guy sent me in the first place.
Three replies didn’t include salary requirements.
No replies gave the information I asked for.
Is this a language thing? What part of my reply is not clear?
On top of that, a couple of replies with salary information asked for nearly the same wage I pay in the US. From guys who are completely unqualified, with no experience at all in any industry, much less the game industry. What the hell? I wouldn’t even pay a guy in the US what they are asking for much less hire them to begin with.
I’m getting the feeling this was a waste of time.