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Any advice applying for roles that don't seem to care about technical skills? (gov)

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    Any advice applying for roles that don't seem to care about technical skills? (gov)

    In my quest to get another job I found an FTC working for the gov for a very senior technical role.

    However it lists literally 0 about any technologies or infrastructure or applications or specific projects.

    Instead, the entire job description is just HR generated perm-speak. "Thrive and work collaboratively with teams. Foster communications between departments. Enthusiasm and passion for technology". Just pages of that.

    My CV is 100% technical. It lists all my technical skills, my job history, and the descriptions are very technical explaining what projects I did and what skills I used.

    The question is, for applying for this kind of role, should I be stuffing my CV full of flowery crap and binning off most of the technical stuff? Eg rather than putting something like "I developed RESTful webservices deploy to AWS" should I be putting "I synergised with a team of 6 developers to leverage and deploy data into the cloud" or some crap like that?

    Not really sure what they're looking for in an application!

    #2
    Originally posted by FIERCE TANK BATTLE View Post
    In my quest to get another job I found an FTC working for the gov for a very senior technical role.

    However it lists literally 0 about any technologies or infrastructure or applications or specific projects.

    Instead, the entire job description is just HR generated perm-speak. "Thrive and work collaboratively with teams. Foster communications between departments. Enthusiasm and passion for technology". Just pages of that.

    My CV is 100% technical. It lists all my technical skills, my job history, and the descriptions are very technical explaining what projects I did and what skills I used.

    The question is, for applying for this kind of role, should I be stuffing my CV full of flowery crap and binning off most of the technical stuff? Eg rather than putting something like "I developed RESTful webservices deploy to AWS" should I be putting "I synergised with a team of 6 developers to leverage and deploy data into the cloud" or some crap like that?

    Not really sure what they're looking for in an application!
    Why is your CV 100% technical? Surely you can combine technical and soft skills in one CV?

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by edison View Post
      Why is your CV 100% technical? Surely you can combine technical and soft skills in one CV?
      Soft skills just seems more and more bollocks the more technical you get so I'm not really sure how to do it. I can list HTML as a skill and give an example of a HTML project I worked on, but how do I put 'being enthusiastic about technology' without sounding like an idiot? Serious question, perhaps that's what I'm supposed to put?

      Seems a bit dodge if I'm putting it for contract jobs though cos I just did any contract I was technically qualified to do...

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by FIERCE TANK BATTLE View Post
        In my quest to get another job I found an FTC working for the gov for a very senior technical role.

        However it lists literally 0 about any technologies or infrastructure or applications or specific projects.

        Instead, the entire job description is just HR generated perm-speak. "Thrive and work collaboratively with teams. Foster communications between departments. Enthusiasm and passion for technology". Just pages of that.

        My CV is 100% technical. It lists all my technical skills, my job history, and the descriptions are very technical explaining what projects I did and what skills I used.

        The question is, for applying for this kind of role, should I be stuffing my CV full of flowery crap and binning off most of the technical stuff? Eg rather than putting something like "I developed RESTful webservices deploy to AWS" should I be putting "I synergised with a team of 6 developers to leverage and deploy data into the cloud" or some crap like that?

        Not really sure what they're looking for in an application!
        Reading this I am reminded of an "interview" for a contract at the House of Commons about 8 years ago.
        Only about 5% of the interview were technical the rest all were political correctness and flowery HR crapola.

        Stuff like:

        "picking the low hanging fruit"
        "syngergistic diarising"
        "leveraging deffered successes"
        "collaborating and thriving with a swivel chair"
        "left handed inclusion of a wheelchair in a pizza"

        "Tell me of an occasion you simultaneously picked the low hanging fruit and synergistically diariased a lobotomy in a Brixton multi-storey car park?" is a question example for you.

        Yes I made some of these up but you get the gist.

        diversity and inclusion popped up in every question

        Very little about my skills in recovering a completely shagged AD

        When I asked them questions they avoided answering anything near technical.
        What I should have asked is "what's the coffee machine like?"
        Like you back then I had 100% tech CV. Whereas I now have 3 CV's and some other supporting documents.
        Former IPSE member
        My Website

        Comment


          #5
          Not much to go on without a job title, but any very senior tech role is probably looking for strategy/direction setting or management or both. Tech skills are important but mainly for decoration because you won't be doing any of the actual work. You'll either be leading teams or vendors delivering it, and working with senior stakeholders, etc.

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by FIERCE TANK BATTLE View Post
            Soft skills just seems more and more bollocks the more technical you get so I'm not really sure how to do it. I can list HTML as a skill and give an example of a HTML project I worked on, but how do I put 'being enthusiastic about technology' without sounding like an idiot? Serious question, perhaps that's what I'm supposed to put?

            Seems a bit dodge if I'm putting it for contract jobs though cos I just did any contract I was technically qualified to do...
            Have you ever delivered any value to a client or employer? If so, quantify it - ideally in economic terms - and describe how you delivered that value through a combination of your technical work and however it is you ensured that it was going to deliver value to the client / employer.

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by FIERCE TANK BATTLE View Post
              Soft skills just seems more and more bollocks the more technical you get so I'm not really sure how to do it. I can list HTML as a skill and give an example of a HTML project I worked on, but how do I put 'being enthusiastic about technology' without sounding like an idiot? Serious question, perhaps that's what I'm supposed to put?

              Seems a bit dodge if I'm putting it for contract jobs though cos I just did any contract I was technically qualified to do...
              don't waste your time or theirs then.
              If you don't know what to write to sell yourself then it's not a role for you.
              See You Next Tuesday

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by Lance View Post
                don't waste your time or theirs then.
                If you don't know what to write to sell yourself then it's not a role for you.
                You are probably correct. But it's a good idea to start adding in some value statements into CVs even for purely technical roles.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Worked with a multi-disciplinary group located across four countries to deliver a xyz solution that did something fabulous

                  Brokered agreements between stakeholder groups to ensure the success of abc project to implement a widget

                  blah blah blah

                  First half of the sentence is HR waffle, the second is the techical. It's not that hard if you think about it.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by FIERCE TANK BATTLE View Post
                    In my quest to get another job I found an FTC working for the gov for a very senior technical role.
                    .......
                    There is your answer, very senior roles are less about technical skills and more about soft skills
                    Originally posted by Stevie Wonder Boy
                    I can't see any way to do it can you please advise?

                    I want my account deleted and all of my information removed, I want to invoke my right to be forgotten.

                    Comment

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