A Mentat is a fictional type of human, presented in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. In an interstellar society that fears a resurgence of artificial intelligence and thus prohibits computers, Mentats are specially trained to mimic the cognitive and analytical ability of electronic computers.
I've been unemployed for just about 16 months now, due to a serious family tragedy that required me to not only leave a past job, but also relocate from the east coast to a rural part of the midwest with no nearby tech job centers. The rural area also makes it borderline impossible to conduct Skype calls, because the tower-based internet service this far out is spotty and unable to handle video streaming.
I'm back on the job market and able to consider relocating, and I would be very interested in considering their services as a job seeker, but I can't tell anything from their website to suggest any way they might actually help me. Plus, I'm pretty idealistic in terms of my expectations for my next employer, and seriously won't compromise about some of the stuff.
It's a shame. This is nearly the sort of thing that would be worthwhile, but I don't know if I can justify almost $300 without more up-front information about whether they will be compatible with my search standards and exactly what effort they will put in.
If they just offer a resume make-over and then they troll Indeed and LinkedIn so you don't have to, that hardly seems worth it. The importance of resume formatting is extremely overstated (I know from being part of tech hiring teams within several past jobs).
I'm in the recruiting space. An enormous part of the disparity in applicant success comes down to "job-hunting skills". Will their resume, as presented & formatted, speak to the employers they're after? Are they applying to enough jobs? Do they tell the story of their career trajectory in a compelling way? It's very exciting to see a company trying to level the playing field the way Mentat seems to be.
All of these things seem like services provided by a Recruiter/Headhunter. I guess Recruiters only start providing these services once you reach a certain payband. External Recruiters are sales people for HR, and the higher the sale (% of your salary), the more services they are likely to add. Mentat looks like they will be targeting young professionals that haven't made it to that level yet.
That being said, people are woefully uninformed about the hiring process. Your resume is not a life story, its a flyer with keywords that convinces the Recruiter to pass your name to the Hiring Manager. Also networking is way more effective than any tool/trick/strategy when getting a new job.
Wow, I had this very same idea (get applied to jobs on one's behalf) like one week ago. Not from a startup point of view, but as job hunter. Actually I went as far as writing up my requirements and searching for some freelance recruiters near me.
(I already work for an awesome client, btw. Just wanted to experiment)
I had planned to keep my operation secret because if the employer discovered that I didn't personally apply, that could be an immediate discard reason.
Also, if you're already a good professional / job hunter, making sure the agent is equally good/consistent can be as demanding as doing the thing yourself in the first place.
Probably Mentat should keep those in mind - applying-on-behalf is a double-edged sword.
Hiring is broken. It's just broken into many pieces, especially as you get to larger organizations.
The first disconnect occurs when management wants something, but HR loses it in translation, and that job description is classified and immutable for the next decade. So it gets posted, and everyone complains that the "right candidates" aren't applying. Well, that's because we can't actually write job descriptions to tell candidates what we're actually trying to do.
If by some miracle I get to post a job the way I want to describe it, I have the option of receiving every resume that comes in or letting HR screen, whereby they interpret what I want and probably trash a lot of quality candidates. Because they were doing Java instead of Python or didn't include SQL or something like that. So I tend to do my own screening, looking for evidence of critical thinking, curiosity and potential, which takes some time.
Maybe I found my candidate and I've hired them. I mentioned I'm big on potential, critical thinking and curiosity. I think I'm a pretty good manager and people developer, and I'd even like to think that those who have passed through my team have learned a lot. Naturally I don't have the sort of pay scale or rapid advancement culture to work with, so I eventually lose them to someone who does. (As an aside, I used to work with a great HR recruiter, who could really deliver the right candidates - naturally she went somewhere else to get paid more!)
And then we start over. So I like the idea of startups like Triplebyte and such, who I can maybe trust to think like me and get me a few candidates for a last round interview and a hire. Naturally, my large, old school company will have none of that :)
From the candidate perspective, these same issues manifest differently, but share the same root causes. I can see why startups who understand the process on the inside are starting to try and monetize their knowledge of the game. Personally, I'm a pretty big fan of Jobscan - it's a really helpful tool to help you adjust the language in your resume to match the keywords from the job posting, which is useful in getting your resume into the hands of an actual human to read. From there, you may still run into the above issues, but the first hurdle has been cleared.
That would be less disheartening if any of the "hiring is broken, let's fix it" companies actually tried to fix it instead of just streamlining and/or automating the existing, broken systems
I feel like one of the things that a recruiter (or really, any separate person, like a good/pro-active reference) can do is actually tout your abilities. When we tout our own abilities, it often sounds way too self-serving or obnoxious.
Heh. I wonder just what the guarantee is in "Mentat guarantees job interviews, with a 99% success rate on more than 1,000 job applications." Would I get my $249 back when they can't get me a job.
Noticed that too. Incredibly tone deaf. Kind of like a CEO saying "If I ever had to worry about cleaning my house, I'd choose e-Maids!!"
EDIT: And just to soften/clarify, I think the service sounds like a great idea--there is plenty of room for any attempt to make the horrible hiring process work better.
Just terrible wording on that quote--<head shake>!
[+] [-] DiabloD3|9 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentat
[+] [-] walrus01|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] p4wnc6|9 years ago|reply
I'm back on the job market and able to consider relocating, and I would be very interested in considering their services as a job seeker, but I can't tell anything from their website to suggest any way they might actually help me. Plus, I'm pretty idealistic in terms of my expectations for my next employer, and seriously won't compromise about some of the stuff.
It's a shame. This is nearly the sort of thing that would be worthwhile, but I don't know if I can justify almost $300 without more up-front information about whether they will be compatible with my search standards and exactly what effort they will put in.
If they just offer a resume make-over and then they troll Indeed and LinkedIn so you don't have to, that hardly seems worth it. The importance of resume formatting is extremely overstated (I know from being part of tech hiring teams within several past jobs).
[+] [-] 2muchcoffeeman|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nicolashahn|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rrecuero|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nsedlet|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] moron4hire|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dexwiz|9 years ago|reply
All of these things seem like services provided by a Recruiter/Headhunter. I guess Recruiters only start providing these services once you reach a certain payband. External Recruiters are sales people for HR, and the higher the sale (% of your salary), the more services they are likely to add. Mentat looks like they will be targeting young professionals that haven't made it to that level yet.
That being said, people are woefully uninformed about the hiring process. Your resume is not a life story, its a flyer with keywords that convinces the Recruiter to pass your name to the Hiring Manager. Also networking is way more effective than any tool/trick/strategy when getting a new job.
[+] [-] vemv|9 years ago|reply
(I already work for an awesome client, btw. Just wanted to experiment)
I had planned to keep my operation secret because if the employer discovered that I didn't personally apply, that could be an immediate discard reason.
Also, if you're already a good professional / job hunter, making sure the agent is equally good/consistent can be as demanding as doing the thing yourself in the first place.
Probably Mentat should keep those in mind - applying-on-behalf is a double-edged sword.
[+] [-] saadrizvi|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] edoceo|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SmellTheGlove|9 years ago|reply
The first disconnect occurs when management wants something, but HR loses it in translation, and that job description is classified and immutable for the next decade. So it gets posted, and everyone complains that the "right candidates" aren't applying. Well, that's because we can't actually write job descriptions to tell candidates what we're actually trying to do.
If by some miracle I get to post a job the way I want to describe it, I have the option of receiving every resume that comes in or letting HR screen, whereby they interpret what I want and probably trash a lot of quality candidates. Because they were doing Java instead of Python or didn't include SQL or something like that. So I tend to do my own screening, looking for evidence of critical thinking, curiosity and potential, which takes some time.
Maybe I found my candidate and I've hired them. I mentioned I'm big on potential, critical thinking and curiosity. I think I'm a pretty good manager and people developer, and I'd even like to think that those who have passed through my team have learned a lot. Naturally I don't have the sort of pay scale or rapid advancement culture to work with, so I eventually lose them to someone who does. (As an aside, I used to work with a great HR recruiter, who could really deliver the right candidates - naturally she went somewhere else to get paid more!)
And then we start over. So I like the idea of startups like Triplebyte and such, who I can maybe trust to think like me and get me a few candidates for a last round interview and a hire. Naturally, my large, old school company will have none of that :)
From the candidate perspective, these same issues manifest differently, but share the same root causes. I can see why startups who understand the process on the inside are starting to try and monetize their knowledge of the game. Personally, I'm a pretty big fan of Jobscan - it's a really helpful tool to help you adjust the language in your resume to match the keywords from the job posting, which is useful in getting your resume into the hands of an actual human to read. From there, you may still run into the above issues, but the first hurdle has been cleared.
[+] [-] lj3|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cloudjacker|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] civilian|9 years ago|reply
I feel like one of the things that a recruiter (or really, any separate person, like a good/pro-active reference) can do is actually tout your abilities. When we tout our own abilities, it often sounds way too self-serving or obnoxious.
[+] [-] J_Darnley|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] orky56|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nornagon|9 years ago|reply
Says rich man who's never had to look for a job.
[+] [-] ryandrake|9 years ago|reply
EDIT: And just to soften/clarify, I think the service sounds like a great idea--there is plenty of room for any attempt to make the horrible hiring process work better.
Just terrible wording on that quote--<head shake>!
[+] [-] throwaway26960|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lj3|9 years ago|reply