Software development got so popular as a job in recent years and nowadays we are seeing that many people jumps out from some random courses and start apply for anything they see with their painted profiles. I am saying painted profiles because this is the trap which many recruiters fell into unfortunately. We can probably agree that, it is forbidden to get ‘doctor’ title without actually having it. But recently I personally see a lot of (really a lot) profiles with ‘engineer’ title after having an unrelated degree or just some courses. Linked-in turned into Instagram…

I know, almost all the companies have multiple steps in their recruitment process. So it is very possible to eliminate the applicant which are faking. But I absolutely believe that those fake titles and super painted profiles affects too much for honest people’s (real engineers) chance to gain interview step.

*Interviews depends on preparation*

I think, there is no way to test someone to understand ‘after this person comprehend our projects, architecture or infrastructure; how he/she will perform?’. This is why we have not very related steps for the job itself in the interviews. There are some specific questions we all hear in the HR interview step. And I think, the person who memorized the answers from some youtube videos has more chance than the person who replies with their sentences. However, if you are keep asking similar questions to someone to test his/her behaviors, there can be two options in my opinion. Either you don’t trust the companies your applicant worked for or you think that person faking about his/her experiences.

Home assignments. Don’t we think, someone who can fake his/her title and skills, also can prepare for an assignment with someone else’s (this can be AI anymore) solution and explanations?

Algorithm problems. I personally find them pretty beneficial in order to improve problem solving abilities. Anyway, this is more likely depends on preparation. After you prepare for your interviews and got the position in a company and try to do your best for specifically for their projects for long time, you probably need to re-prepare to solve algorithm problems again. Even algorithms and data structures are so important, they are not very related to today’s development.
*Cover letter*

Recently, I spent a good amount of time to write a cool cover letter specifically for a position and I got feedback like ‘it looks like a template’. I am not planning to waste my time again. Copy/paste similar stuffs as anyone else has more chance.

*Non-tech persons trying to find good engineers*

As a first step of our application, we are mostly being evaluated mostly by a young recruiter with fancy title like ‘amazing tech recruitment specialist’ who spends most of her/his time on instagram (and lost their reality). I basically don’t think most of them have an ability to understand who is faking, who is real, who is better. All they ask is ‘how many years of experience with X?, do you know scrum?’. Really, do we all have same capacity to learn something in X years?

*Faking works somehow*

With all that being said, personally I worked with 5 different companies with more different teams over 5 years. And there are a lot of times that I thought like, it is not person who deserves to be here. At the same time, I newer saw them to be fired (did you?). They were mostly good person with low skills who is relying on better teammates (me!).

*Luck*

Nowadays, I am looking for a new position and I am chasing for projects which I can get more fun instead of more money. After evaluated by recruitment professionals(!) I got some rejection for the positions which I think I am literally a perfect fit, and got approval for some positions I am not even sure I can perform well. I think, all I need is luck. How I improved myself doesn’t matter that much anymore. There are huge amount of profiles proven better than me just by typing there.