What should you look for when reviewing resumes?
Your recruiters have tapped their networks, completed a successful outreach program, and netted you a rather large stack of resumes to sift through. You want to be objective and fair in your evaluation, read elimination, process. How do you fairly evaluate your candidates’ resumes to ensure that unqualified applicants are quickly eliminated, and the cream rises to the top? These steps will get you on the right path.
Quick Elimination Scan
Your desk is piled up with dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of resumes for your review. The first step is to perform what I call the quick elimination scan. It’s just like it sounds. You quickly scan resumes for deal breakers. For example, does your position require a college degree? If so, you can quickly eliminate all applicants who don’t have a degree. I’ve often found that this quick elimination scan reduces my stack by around two-thirds.
Grammar Police
big deal. We simply correct them and move on. Mistakes on resumes, on the other hand, may be a big deal after all. Presumably a candidate will be at the top of her game, professionally speaking, during recruiting. Ergo an applicant’s resume and cover letter may be the most professional documents they create. If they are riddled with errors, imagine what their future communications with your customers will be like.
Relevant Experience
This is another quick scan to eliminate unqualified candidates. Simply scan their prior job experience. Reject the resumes that don’t align with your requirements.
Red Flags
Assessing resumes for red flags requires a bit more analytical skill. Often the things you are looking for here fall into a range of maybe, rather than instant elimination. For example, a large gap in employment should raise a red flag and require you to dig a little deeper. There may be a great explanation, or not. Your analytical skills you’ve developed over your career will kick in here to make the best decisions.
Superstar Standouts
You have filtered through the mountain of resumes and now it is a much smaller hill of qualified candidates. You may choose to stop the process here and move on to interviews. In other instances, you could find yourself with more qualified candidates than you can accommodate for interviews. This is when you look for clues that superstars are in your midst. Look for things like quantifiable results, industry awards and recognition, or educational achievements. What you look for specifically will vary depending on your requirements. Going through this step will yield you a field of the best-of-the-best.
With a bit of practice, you will hone your resume evaluation skills. You’ll find that not only have you saved yourself a lot of time, you’ll also be much better at advancing the most qualified candidates into the interview process.
Danielle Foppe is a Recruitment Manager at Business Centric Technology. If you are interested in learning more about how to get the best IT talent in the Dallas metroplex, contact Danielle specializes in recruiting IT talent in Dallas, Ft. Worth and North Texas. If you are looking for a rewarding career contact us today.