Articles¶
On applying for jobs¶
These articles address hiring, for the benefit of hopeful job applicants in need of advice. They’re written from the perspective of hiring in the software industry, though a lot of the advice applies more generally too.
There’s no shortage of easily-discoverable advice aimed at job applicants, and I don’t aim to repeat basic principles that have been discussed perfectly well many times over. Instead, these articles are based on what I have seen, and contain the advice I would like to have been able to give many of the candidates I have seen who ought to have done better than they did.
What do I know about all this?¶
During my time as a hiring lead at Canonical, I have been in charge of pipelines that have handled many thousands of applications and have hired dozens of new colleagues, in different roles.
I have personally reviewed thousands of applications (and read thousands of CVs) and conducted hundreds of interviews. I have trained around two dozen interviewers for these roles, and guide and mentor new hiring leads.
Together with other hiring leads and colleagues involved in hiring I review our practices and approaches, to maintain quality and improve the way we do things.
I have made several thousand final decisions about individual candidates, and contributed to decision-making about thousands more.
Many of those decisions have been based on the principles and thinking that you will find discussed in these articles.
Other people and other companies will do some things differently - this is my advice, not anyone else’s.