Tips For Sorting Through Resumes

When a person pulls together their resume they are creating a marketing campaign. They are marketing themselves to employers. A candidate should put quality time into the process. It should go out the door as a finished work product. As an employer, you can safely assume that the finished work product that the candidate will eventually deliver for you if hired, will not be any better than the quality of the resume in front of you.

Some tips scrutinizing:

If a resume is poorly written, has typos, or looks as if it was thrown together last minute, it is a clear indication that the candidate may do work for you that is poorly written, has typos, and is thrown together. If they don’t pay attention to detail on their own resume, they certainly will not put forth that effort for you.

Job hopping is not always a red flag. Consider possible reasons. Were they perhaps working in temporary assignments? Was each move upward? If a person is moving laterally between jobs and companies it can be a signal that the candidate is hard to satisfy.

Vague resumes are often hiding something. Things like listing positions, but not listing the dates employed, listing degrees, but not mentioning the school. All can be signs the person is hiding something.

Unprofessional email addresses. The candidate seems to have all the skills you are looking for. You decide to make contact. You look at the top of the resume for contact information and you see an email address that says druggie101@hotmail or partygirl89@yahoo, reconsider the interview. The email address is telling you something; be smart enough to listen.

Keep in mind that resumes are not legal documents. Most of them have “embellishments.” Always have the candidate fill out a complete job application when interviewed. The job application is a signed legal document that is stating clearly that everything listed is true. If you make a hire based on something signed and attested to on an application, and you find out it was deceptive, you have a much more clear reason to terminate.

A resume should be used as a screening tool; your first chance to weed out a potential bad hire. Don’t skim, scrutinize.