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Resumes: The story from Employer’s side!

October 7th, 2007

The stack of resumes is about two feet tall. The person whose job it is to look at all of them and select the most promising candidates is already tired. She has the beginnings of a headache and the crisp black-on-white papers begin to look like the skin of a zebra.

As she steels herself for the task, she mentally goes through the procedure that she will follow. First she will read the name and the address. Then she will check their educational requirements. If those check out then she will check for job experience. Already well versed in corporate culture, this resume scanner thinks she has a good idea of what the company is looking for. And she looks at each resume for anything that doesn’t match. Anything!

If there is a misspelling, the resume goes in the reject pile. If the resume is written in a font that strains her eyes even more, it goes in the reject pile. If the resume is poorly organized and hard to read, it goes in the reject pile.

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Job candidates who worked hard to prepare their materials would find it a wonderment that the process would come down to this – the state of mind of the resume scanner. What are some situations that might influence the scanner regarding a particular resume?

• 1. The scanner loathes errors – Having been called on the carpet herself for mistakes, the scanner takes no pity on a job candidate who does not know how to spell ‘responsibility.’ Without even a backwards glance, the resume with an error in it goes to the reject pile no matter how well every other aspect of the resume fits the advertised position.
• 2. The scanner is pressed for time – The interviewer has given the scanner a very short amount of time to look at the resumes, suggest those that should be called in for an interview, and get the interview schedule set up. Even the tiniest confusion on a resume will be an excuse to look no further and throw it atop the reject pile. If the scanner has to search around for important information that was mentioned in the position advertisement, it might be another excuse to reject.
• 3. The scanner is not well versed on what the boss wants – Even with a good working knowledge of the corporate culture, if the scanner is not entirely clear on what the employee will be doing, she will likely toss away resumes for vague reasons that may have nothing to do with the job requirements or the ad.
• 4. The scanner really hoped to be considered for the job herself – Kind of like the ‘invisible’ woman in the ‘What Women Say,’ movie, if the scanner believes she would be excellent in the position she might find herself a little defensive about an applicant that seems more than qualified. In a sense, she tends to favor people who more closely match her own set of credentials.
• 5. The scanner is trying to impress the boss – Wanting to bolster up her own job security, the scanner wants to do a fantastic job of weeding through the pile of resumes, but becomes frustrated with the process and begins to be arbitrary about the reject pile.
• 6. The scanner is working in a distracting environment – The scanner is sitting amidst other workers. Someone is listening to music nearby and the words of the song are confusing her brain as she tries to read. People are walking by her desk and greeting her, expecting a response. She feels overwhelmed and stressed and begins to take out her frustration on the resumes in the pile.
• 7. The scanner is bored to tears – Something interesting on a resume will catch her attention and might get the applicant’s resume on the interview pile. It might be a volunteer post or an international experience. It can be risky for the applicant to include something really different because the scanner is the only thing between the reject pile and the interview pile, but it might pay off.
• 8. The scanner is very happy about a piece of good news from home – Whereas just a couple of hours before, the scanner would not have bothered looking at the resumes more closely, she is now in a very good mood and finds herself feeling fair-minded.
• 9. The scanner has received a promotion – The scanner is so grateful for the new position that she doesn’t want anything to rain on her parade. She looks at the stack of resumes with gusto, and wants to read every detail. She might even be interested enough to take some of them home with her. In that case, anything that stands out above the crowd might net an interview.
  10. The scanner knows someone who desperately needs a job – The pile of resumes now almost haman face on it for the scanner. She pictures her own friend’s resume sitting on another desk in another part of town and she hopes that the person viewing them will pick her friend. Her empathy spills over into her own work and she tries to do diligence. She doesn’t want to overlook anyone who might be a worthwhile candidate.

Since the scanner is in essence a gatekeeper in the job search process, it is absolutely vital to make sure that the resume is well proofed. Typographical errors spell reject pile almost every time. The applicant should make the scanner’s job easier. The resume should be well organized, easy to read with the most important information first. Anything that was listed on the ad should be on the first page without question. Depending on the requirements for the job, try to keep the resume to no more than two pages.

There are no known statistics on how many job candidates are rejected in the first pass because of errors. There is also no reason to give information that has every chance of getting the candidate rejected out of hand. A resume is a work in progress and it should reflect that – the job candidate is moving up and gaining experience. The resume should contain action verbs, ‘Coordinated, Organized, Wrote, Designed.’ Years ago resumes routinely included age, number of children and state of health. How things have changed! The scanner must try to ascertain whether or not the applicant is a good fit for the company and in essence ‘read between the lines.’ Getting by the gatekeeper is the key.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 7th, 2007 at 4:02 pm and is filed under Resume. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

2 Responses to “Resumes: The story from Employer’s side!”

1. Nina Says:
   October 28th, 2007 at 5:24 pm

   While the resume is a powerful tool to establish a person’s strengths, reliability, and character…how much is too much? I have gone off this example before hand and I will use it again. A college graduate has usually no work experience besides a few internships here and there-but as far as ive heard internships are pretty much mail running jobs. So how do you relate a post runner to a management or maybe a financial aid position?

2. N125 Says:
   December 28th, 2007 at 5:24 pm

   It is kind of scary, how much of the environment a resume is read in is beyond the control of the resume’s originator. There just has to be the best circumstances. It makes you want to do something special, like send a bunch of flowers or some cookies and hope they make the resume reader a bit more kind towards viewing your resume. While there are certain factors hat I can’t control, I know from now on I will do what I can to control my part of the application process. I think I see now why resumes should be perfect and gone over repeatedly before submitting to a job opening.

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