That's amazing ! Post incredible facts here.

[pErvinalia]

That's called bullshitting. I'm going to do this and that for your company. Yeah right. The only verifiable measure on potential future performance is past performance.

[DRSB]

That's called bullshitting. I'm going to do this and that for your company. Yeah right. The only verifiable measure on potential future performance is past performance.

The most unreliable predictor of future performance is past performance.

[Hermit]

That's called bullshitting. I'm going to do this and that for your company. Yeah right. The only verifiable measure on potential future performance is past performance.

The most unreliable predictor of future performance is past performance.

During the past five years job applicant X has sold a record number of widgets while working for company Z. Not gonna happen a second time, right?

During the past five years job applicant Y has sold an ordinary number of widgets while working for company Z. Bound to break X's record while working for us, right?

[pErvinalia]

That's called bullshitting. I'm going to do this and that for your company. Yeah right. The only verifiable measure on potential future performance is past performance.

The most unreliable predictor of future performance is past performance.

That's nonsense. What are you going to replace checkable claims with - someone just bullshitting? How could you possibly expect that to be a better predictor of future performance than actual recent performance??

[DRSB]

What you did in a different context for somebody else is no predictor of what you will do in a new context for this same person or even for yourself. What you can do for me depends on what you bothered to find out about me. If it is a company, it is about what you researched and how you see a match. If you are so hooked on your exes, go to them.

[pErvinalia]

So basically you want the best bullshitter? That's crazy talk.

[Hermit]

What you did in a different context for somebody else is no predictor of what you will do in a new context for this same person or even for yourself. What you can do for me depends on what you bothered to find out about me. If it is a company, it is about what you researched and how you see a match. If you are so hooked on your exes, go to them.

The majority of job-seekers want to find a very similar job to the ones they have left. Sales managers apply for jobs as sales managers. CEOs apply for jobs as CEOs. Head hunters and prospective employers actually want to see the historical record of achievement, and that is what a good résumé provides, including contact details of what you so irrelevantly term "exes". You see, those exes are not ex-lovers the applicant is hooked on. They are ex-bosses, who will hopefully confirm your claims of success in a job quite similar you are applying for.

My current résumé provides historical details of work I've done for three prime contractors and at least one contact to serve as a checkable reference from each. All of them were in the same field: Road freight transport. It isa couple of lines short of filling a page. Anyone who is looking for a truck driver will want to know if the applicant has done that sort of job competently and reliably so, over a good period of time. The record does not, here I agree with you, guarantee continued success, but, and here I disagree with you, the lack of one makes success less likely.

Should I look for an entirely different job, my résumé is almost useless. At best it indicates that I can stick with one prime contractor for 13 years, and that I can work autonomously and without the need for supervision. I'd probably cut three quarters of it out and reuse the saved space to persuade the prospective employer by other means that I am the right choice for the job s/he wants done. In either case your analogy to exes is misplaced.

[DRSB]

I agree on the CV or resume, definitely, it is all about social proof. What I was refering to is the letter of motivation, provided you write one at all. This piece should be all about the new passion, not about the exes.

[pErvinalia]

"Definitely"? You appeared to be arguing above that past experience is essentially irrelevant. There's a disconnect there.

[DRSB]

"Definitely"? You appeared to be arguing above that past experience is essentially irrelevant. There's a disconnect there.

Not about the past experience in itself, but about the document. It belongs into the CV, not in the letter of motivation.

[laklak]

I once filled out the "professional goals" portion of annual performance appraisal with "to beat more money out of you cheap bastards".

[Hermit]

"Definitely"? You appeared to be arguing above that past experience is essentially irrelevant. There's a disconnect there.

DRSB's first post on the issue does make it clear that she is talking about what to write in a motivational letter. I did miss that myself. To be honest, I have never heard of such a thing as a motivational letter to go with a CV. Is that a relatively recent development?

Apologies to you, DRSB. And you are right in so far as that letter is not the place to deal with the past. I still disagree with your assertion that the most unreliable predictor of future performance is past performance, though.

[DRSB]

Thanks, Hermit. Many recruiters say they read the motivational letter first and do not proceed to the CV unless satisfied. It is one of the two obligatory documents in Europe. Agree to disagree on history being a predictor for future success or even conduct, I am probably too much of a Nassim Taleb fan.

[pErvinalia]

"Definitely"? You appeared to be arguing above that past experience is essentially irrelevant. There's a disconnect there.

Not about the past experience in itself, but about the document. It belongs into the CV, not in the letter of motivation.

No, you said past performance isn't any predictor to future performance. That's an absolutist statement that isn't going to change regardless of what application document it appears in.

[pErvinalia]

"Definitely"? You appeared to be arguing above that past experience is essentially irrelevant. There's a disconnect there.

DRSB's first post on the issue does make it clear that she is talking about what to write in a motivational letter. I did miss that myself. To be honest, I have never heard of such a thing as a motivational letter to go with a CV. Is that a relatively recent development?

Apologies to you, DRSB. And you are right in so far as that letter is not the place to deal with the past. I still disagree with your assertion that the most unreliable predictor of future performance is past performance, though.

Yeah, I missed that too. I suspect it's just the new bullshit speak term for the "cover letter". But it's irrelevant to whether past performance is (or isn't) a predictor of future performance.