<story><title>Facebook recruiting and Unix systems</title><url>http://imgur.com/hw2pnDt</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>L_Rahman</author><text>Hi, I think you could have massaged the snark in the sentence that says &amp;quot;Beyond software developers who have programmed in the 1970s, most people do not have experience with a true UNIX OS&amp;quot; but other than that I think you should walk away thinking that your communication was clear, straight-forward and respectful.&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s what happened - the recruiter had a list of keywords, received a large volume of inbound resumes and filtered for == &amp;#x27;UNIX&amp;#x27; and dumped everything else.&lt;p&gt;They (and the company they represent) could have done a better job if they&amp;#x27;d taken the information given, created an actual human mental model and filtered accordingly but chose to behave like a computer program instead. Their loss -  move on and don&amp;#x27;t feel bad about this.&lt;p&gt;But I want to point out that like the recruiter you too got stuck in the literal filter. You assumed, I&amp;#x27;m guessing correctly, that the hiring team is probably looking for someone with experience working on UNIX-like operating systems.&lt;p&gt;A bit of advice: When you encounter imperfect systems like this in the future a good practice is to ask yourself if you know what the actual desired outcome is, and give the lossy filter the input it needs to get you to the next round.&lt;p&gt;Here it would have been simply updating your resume to list UNIX instead offering an explainer. This would get you through the recruiter filter, and during your actual phone screen with someone on the hiring team, you could discuss your UNIX-like experience if asked. If they did want literal UNIX experience, you could apologize for misinterpreting the requirement and move on. No harm done.</text></item><item><author>aspyrx</author><text>Hey folks, I&amp;#x27;m the student writing the emails in the post here. Thanks to everyone for their criticisms. While I was initially kind of shocked by the recruiter&amp;#x27;s response, I&amp;#x27;ve had a lot of time to think about it today and have realized that I was being pretty damn condescending and spoke out of line without regards to the context. It&amp;#x27;s been a hard lesson learned. I honestly regret the whole exchange, and posting it online was inappropriate as well. I briefly debated deleting the image, but decided to leave it up for sake of posterity and accountability.&lt;p&gt;Also, just to be clear, I do not (and never did) hold any hard feelings towards the recruiter; in fact, it was very kind of them to point out why I was not qualified in the first place. This has been probably the most reflective of how I let my ego get the best of me at times, and I hope it might serve as a warning to those who might be tempted to do the same &amp;quot;devsplaining&amp;quot; in similar situations.&lt;p&gt;Please let me know if you have any other criticisms beyond the ones already voiced in this thread. I&amp;#x27;m reading through the comments here as I can, and it&amp;#x27;s been a lot of good advice. Thanks again.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ricardobeat</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s the most cringy part - in the second iteration you&amp;#x27;ll note he &lt;i&gt;did&lt;/i&gt; list UNIX as a skill, but then the recruiter went on about the lack of  Linux experience (which he had just replaced)! Like playing whack-a-mole.</text></comment>
<story><title>Facebook recruiting and Unix systems</title><url>http://imgur.com/hw2pnDt</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>L_Rahman</author><text>Hi, I think you could have massaged the snark in the sentence that says &amp;quot;Beyond software developers who have programmed in the 1970s, most people do not have experience with a true UNIX OS&amp;quot; but other than that I think you should walk away thinking that your communication was clear, straight-forward and respectful.&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s what happened - the recruiter had a list of keywords, received a large volume of inbound resumes and filtered for == &amp;#x27;UNIX&amp;#x27; and dumped everything else.&lt;p&gt;They (and the company they represent) could have done a better job if they&amp;#x27;d taken the information given, created an actual human mental model and filtered accordingly but chose to behave like a computer program instead. Their loss -  move on and don&amp;#x27;t feel bad about this.&lt;p&gt;But I want to point out that like the recruiter you too got stuck in the literal filter. You assumed, I&amp;#x27;m guessing correctly, that the hiring team is probably looking for someone with experience working on UNIX-like operating systems.&lt;p&gt;A bit of advice: When you encounter imperfect systems like this in the future a good practice is to ask yourself if you know what the actual desired outcome is, and give the lossy filter the input it needs to get you to the next round.&lt;p&gt;Here it would have been simply updating your resume to list UNIX instead offering an explainer. This would get you through the recruiter filter, and during your actual phone screen with someone on the hiring team, you could discuss your UNIX-like experience if asked. If they did want literal UNIX experience, you could apologize for misinterpreting the requirement and move on. No harm done.</text></item><item><author>aspyrx</author><text>Hey folks, I&amp;#x27;m the student writing the emails in the post here. Thanks to everyone for their criticisms. While I was initially kind of shocked by the recruiter&amp;#x27;s response, I&amp;#x27;ve had a lot of time to think about it today and have realized that I was being pretty damn condescending and spoke out of line without regards to the context. It&amp;#x27;s been a hard lesson learned. I honestly regret the whole exchange, and posting it online was inappropriate as well. I briefly debated deleting the image, but decided to leave it up for sake of posterity and accountability.&lt;p&gt;Also, just to be clear, I do not (and never did) hold any hard feelings towards the recruiter; in fact, it was very kind of them to point out why I was not qualified in the first place. This has been probably the most reflective of how I let my ego get the best of me at times, and I hope it might serve as a warning to those who might be tempted to do the same &amp;quot;devsplaining&amp;quot; in similar situations.&lt;p&gt;Please let me know if you have any other criticisms beyond the ones already voiced in this thread. I&amp;#x27;m reading through the comments here as I can, and it&amp;#x27;s been a lot of good advice. Thanks again.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pwdisswordfish</author><text>&amp;gt; the recruiter had a list of keywords, received a large volume of inbound resumes and filtered for == &amp;#x27;UNIX&amp;#x27; and dumped everything else&lt;p&gt;To be fair, I wouldn&amp;#x27;t expect this kind of &amp;#x27;recruiting by grep&amp;#x27; to happen at &lt;i&gt;Facebook&lt;/i&gt; of all places either.</text></comment>