Can you send CV's (Resumes) and then decline?

[vitinho444]

Hi there people of IR

Today I was thinking, what if I start sending my CV to companies and see how they react to it.
This came to my mind, but then I thought that making it would be somehow shameful because I would end up declining any offer. (If there was any )

Do you think It's too bad to try out and see if I'm building a good enough CV by sending it to companies and see where that takes me? (I will always end up declining, I'm concentrated in finishing college for now.)

What you guys think?

[a_bertrand]

Yes you can decline at any time even after having signed the contract. However if you do it, it could well be that some people may put you in some "internal black list" where you may not get the next job. So avoid to apply on jobs you are not interested.

[vitinho444]

That was exactly my fear.. I guess I'll just wait ^^

[KyleMassacre]

Are you not interested in working for any companies you plan to apply for? I know people who have sent in their resumes in to apply for a job and couldn't take it because they were in school. It was just to act as a placeholder for that company and if the company didn't mind waiting they would take them when school was done. I don't know if this is the case with you but maybe you can play ball with them and see if they can give you an offer you can't refuse. You can always let them know that you have applied else where and you are waiting to here from them and that they are the firsts ones to reach out to you

[vitinho444]

Well, my main goal with this would be to see how good my CV is so far. Because I'm using a lot of my free time to enhance my CV, I know lots of languages, lots of frameworks, lots of stuff (not enough though), and I just want to know if those things get me somewhere without my college degree.
So at first it would be just a test on my CV.

Of course if some company would accept me and offer me something I couldn't refuse, let's say 3x the min. wage (here in Portugal that's a lot, specially for a 19 year old without a college degree (yet)), and the hours would fit my college hours, I think I would accept, but those are two big IF's.

I don't know about me "liking" to work on a certain company, because I don't have anything to compare. Never worked anywhere in my life (not that I'm lazy, I work on my projects, just not a company that's all).

But like Alain said, they may put me in some kind of black list, and I might lose a great chance in the future...

[Callan S.]

I think networking will probably get you further - networking being 'who you know, not what you know'. If you're dropping of a CV in person, then you're networking with the front desk person.

Work on who you know and who they know, if you want something to do in the meantime.

[a_bertrand]

Indeed a good network of people is important as previous works done. Could be open source works or works you did for other companies. That shows what you can do

[vitinho444]

That can be a problem.. I have my github with some of my Open Source projects, but all my projects are made only by me... (and Alain that did the 3D stuff on one of my games I didn't forget that Alain), so there's not much networking going on here... But I will see what I can do, I have this kind of phobia of working with other people... It's something in my head that comes from past failed experiences, and now it's very hard to me to trust someone with 50% of the development process on any project.

I'm sure it will change when I start working, at least I hope so.

Other than the front desk person, how would you "network" in a daily basis?

[Callan S.]

It doesn't necessarily mean working with someone. It could just be discussion on a forum, for example.

The idea is the more people you know, the more likely one of them will A: know of a job opening and B: think of you in regard to it (and C: Convey that to you ). And vise versa, once you've gotten into the business (it's reciprocal)

[vitinho444]

Ah I see!

Well.. I have you guys..
I'm also a member of several programming facebook groups so thats other..