From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Apr 28 00:33:41 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CE3BC106564A for ; Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:33:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from perrin@apotheon.com) Received: from oproxy8-pub.bluehost.com (oproxy8.bluehost.com [IPv6:2605:dc00:100:2::a8]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 8819C8FC19 for ; Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:33:41 +0000 (UTC) Received: (qmail 6473 invoked by uid 0); 28 Apr 2012 00:33:41 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO box543.bluehost.com) (74.220.219.143) by oproxy8.bluehost.com with SMTP; 28 Apr 2012 00:33:41 -0000 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=apotheon.com; s=default; h=In-Reply-To:Content-Type:MIME-Version:References:Message-ID:Subject:To:From:Date; bh=uJzVAQ0FDgeuvtuR4WQNIZ/Yz0wqa72bPV9jhGM8t2I=; b=kXOkp5/V55kGPbEDKwpLptKsb48evJZXt5gSb+smUgK5pn0gc/Spay2UjmQNX8MjIOY8tvma78oncAANEHWx4H5wDseQo5xCjKa+H8svuiUzZHXn+S/NgKk2xImxBA1O; Received: from c-24-8-180-234.hsd1.co.comcast.net ([24.8.180.234] helo=localhost) by box543.bluehost.com with esmtpsa (TLSv1:AES128-SHA:128) (Exim 4.76) (envelope-from ) id 1SNvbY-0004MN-Ks for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:33:40 -0600 Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:33:40 -0600 From: Chad Perrin To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20120428003340.GB22822@hemlock.hydra> Mail-Followup-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <20120424175026.GD1303@mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk> <201204241833.q3OIXwTR013401@mail.r-bonomi.com> <20120424190227.GA1773@mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk> <20120425053133.e920b091.freebsd@edvax.de> <20120425064507.GA4673@mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk> <20120425085555.36f91b3a.freebsd@edvax.de> <20120426215256.GA30059@hemlock.hydra> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) X-Identified-User: {2737:box543.bluehost.com:apotheon:apotheon.com} {sentby:smtp auth 24.8.180.234 authed with perrin@apotheon.com} Subject: Re: editor that understands CTRL/B, CTRL/I, CTRL/U X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:33:42 -0000 On Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 02:33:29PM -0700, David Brodbeck wrote: > On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 2:52 PM, Chad Perrin wrote: > > Indeed -- and the employer who bucks this trend does him/her self a huge > > service, because large numbers of very skilled and/or talented people are > > being rejected on entirely arbitrary criteria that have little or no > > correlation to their ability to do the job. > > Keep in mind in today's job market, and given Internet methods of > advertising positions, the problem isn't in finding qualified people > -- the problem is in whittling down the couple thousand or so resumes > you get to a manageable pile. You can afford to reject some qualified > applicants in that process because there are always more looking. That's not exactly true. The problem is cutting out the people who only *claim* to be qualified, and end up with the best candidate for the job (or to get as close to that as possible). The fact that most organizations' "responsible" parties in the hiring process just punt on that and go straight toward "I don't care if he's good at the job -- I only care that I do things in a way that ensures I don't get blamed for any failures" does not change that fact. That also completely ignores the fact that many employers complain that they can't find qualified candidates, ever, for skilled technical positions. > > Again, this is one of the reasons credit scoring is becoming so > popular -- it's an almost automatic way to narrow down the pile. > Another method in common use right now is to throw out applications > from anyone who's currently unemployed, and only look at ones who > already have a position and are looking to change jobs. . . . which just reinforces the point that most organizations are optimizing for finding people who land around the fiftieth percentile in terms of a good fit for the job, when they could benefit much more from getting somewhere up around the range of the ninety-eighth percentile. Luckily for those who buck the trends, it's a lot easier to get someone in that range than it should be, because many employers are cutting a lot of those candidates out of their job searches based on essentially arbitrary criteria. -- Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]