It occurred to me in the midst of reading a pile of resumes
that writing a proper resume is a rare skill. Resumes are an easy way for employers to narrow
the pool of candidates.
We’ve all heard stories of an employer placing an ad
for an open position and receiving hundreds of resumes. This is true. What is
also true is that there are few applicants that have all the requirements to
make it to the top of the pile for a call to interview.
Case in point:
The marketing person placed several
ads for an open position at the company. I was charged with narrowing the
candidates and conducting first interviews.
Out of over 500 resumes submitted for one position,
I narrowed the pile down to 10. It was a simple process.
Of all the resumes submitted more than half were
incomplete. The ad specifically asked for a resume and a cover letter. There
were more resumes without cover letters but there were a few cover letters
without resumes attached.
One of the items listed in the ad was the request
for salary expectation. The department budget allowed for a certain range for
the position. Anyone listing too high likely wouldn’t take the position, so
interviewing would be wasting their time and mine. Anyone listing too low
likely had too little experience. Again, interviewing would be a waste of time
since several years of experience was a requirement.
The cover letter demonstrated the applicants’ communication skill level. All positions at this company interact with customers,
vendors and co-workers. Verbal communication and documentation of conversations in notes, orders or email is required.
Each resume is a snap shot of the applicant’s
experience. It also demonstrates how they organize information. Resumes should
be clear and easy to read. Those that were poorly organized were set aside.
While some employers require each skill in their ad,
I was looking for overall ability with a teachable attitude. The applicants
with at least most of the required skills and interesting additional skills caught my
attention. If there were other skills listed I knew they weren’t just using the ad to write their resume.
Contact information the resume and the
cover letter needed to match. If the phone number and email were available I knew the applicant
was eager to be contacted. I did see some resumes with no contact information.
I was a little nervous about narrowing to 10. Ten
applicants could take most of the day to interview. But there were applicants
who didn’t answer the phone or respond to the message. So the list was reduced to five.
Two out of five nixed themselves because they didn’t
show up to the interview.
After the interviews, I had three qualified
candidates. Each was given a second interview with the CEO. He liked them all
but only one followed up. She got the job.
The steps for selecting appropriate candidates were as
follows:
1) Resume
with cover letter (252)
2) Salary
expectation in cover letter (157)
3) Structured
cover letter with proper grammar and correct spelling (30)
4) Clearly
organized resume (23)
5) Appeared
to have the experience necessary (17)
6) Contact
information on the letter and resume (10)
7) Answered
the phone or returned the call for an interview within a day (5)
8) Showed
up on time with their resume in hand (3)
9) Followed
up after the interview (1)
10) Started the job on Monday.
