Do You Know Who Is Reading Your Resume?

John Krautzel
Posted by in Career Advice •


When you fill out an application for a job, chances are good that one of three people will read your resume to discern if you're a good fit for the position. How you deal with each of these people is a little bit different, so it's important to know how the hiring process works for each employer as you search for a new job.

The size of the company may determine the people who read your resume. Larger firms that have a lot of revenue may outsource their initial screenings to save HR staffers time, energy and effort. Mid-sized firms might put one individual in charge of hiring a new staffer for a specific position, and that supervisor works with HR to onboard someone. Nonprofits and smaller companies could have a small HR department that oversees all hiring decisions. To figure out who is responsible for hiring you, do a little research, and learn the right approach for submitting your resume.

1. Hiring Manager

A hiring manager is the person who requested the new position. This person represents your future boss if you receive an offer. Hiring managers read your resume as if to visualize working with you on a daily basis. Research this person's name and job title before submitting your application and resume. This means look on LinkedIn, peruse the employer's website and search Google for this person's details. You might talk to people in your network to see if they have insider information as to this person's name, title and vital stats.

Once you have the hiring manager's details, tailor your application, resume and cover letter accordingly. You want to show you're a team player, work well with others and can get results. Keep any direct contact as brief as possible because this person is very busy.

2. Recruiter

Large firms use recruiters to vet future employees. Recruiters read your resume to make sure your qualifications match the needs of the employer. These specialized companies may not disclose the name of the firm that hired them to find employees until later in the hiring process. Your resume should match the posted qualifications as much as possible, and your document needs to be succinct and full of tangible, clear examples of how you are the best fit for the employer. Talking to a recruiter entails knowing precisely what you bring to the table so you can convince the person to send your name to the right people.

3. HR Professional

Human resources professionals are extensively involved in the hiring process from start to finish. These people read your resume to see if your skills, experience and qualifications merit a second look. Human resources might use applicant tracking systems rather than recruiters to weed out less-qualified candidates. Therefore, your resume should include keywords found in the job description. HR professionals conduct phone or video interviews to screen candidates further. An HR staffer may only know the generalities of the position rather than your daily job duties. Save specific questions for the job interview with your hiring manager.

These three people who read your resume hold the keys to hiring you. Knowing these types of people gives you an edge over other candidates as you try to gain every possible advantage in a competitive job market.


Photo courtesy of Dean Meyers at Flickr.com
Comment

Become a member to take advantage of more features, like commenting and voting.

Register
Sign In
  • Nancy Anderson
    Nancy Anderson •

    @Barb thanks for your comment. Believe me when I say that you speak for thousands of others in your same place. It truly can be maddening. I am watching my sister go through all of these same hoops and I hear her frustration every day. Personally, if the application requires my SSN, salary info, etc. - I discard it and move on. I am with you in that they don't need to know any of that stuff until/unless they are truly considering me for the position (after the interview, of course) and they need to do a background check on me. Then, and only then, will I give them that information. Larger companies are not going to move away from ATS - not in the foreseeable future. So we have to try to adjust our resumes and cover letters to include as many keywords as we possibly can -without sound ridiculous - so that we can make it through the ATS and have our information placed in a hiring manager's hands. Then we at least have a fighting chance. Yep - deep breath every morning and dive into it again. Make sure that you are giving the search the time and attention that it needs. Make sure that you are following up on any job possibilities that you can and that you are networking both in person and online. All we can do is keep at it.

  • Barb M.
    Barb M. •

    I agree with Sharon B! Companies complain that they cannot find good talent or people with great skills. Maybe it's because the "systems" in place to "find" candidates don't work well for large companies. I have found several job search websites that make it easy and fun and simple to apply for a position. But when I am asked for my SS#, address, my salary information on all past jobs, details on why I left a job, my GPA from college, etc. it is maddening. You haven't even talked to me in person yet to get to know me, my background, my experience. I feel insulted by having to give you all that information up front. So you have all this data on me and I don't even get the courtesy of a phone call or email to say no. So I realize I'm preaching to the choir and this is the way of the job search world. I am trying to partner with key recruiters as way to combat the black hole of applications on company websites. I take a deep breath everyday :-)

  • Nancy Anderson
    Nancy Anderson •

    @Sharon thanks for your comment. No doubt something needs to change but it's not going to change in the way you are hoping. We will never go back to the way things were. The ATS or a like system are here to stay. As long as resumes are coming in and companies are interviewing applicants, they are covered and don't need to be concerned with any lawsuits. As much as we may like to or want to, bucking the system is not going to get us anywhere and it certainly won't get us a new job. So take a deep breath and dive in. All the best.

  • Jessie M.
    Jessie M. •

    Thanks for the tips will seriously consider these three groups of people.

  • Sharon B.
    Sharon B. •

    What the responses show is the frustration many have felt dealing with the current application system. For all of the HR managers, recruiters, and Hiring Managers out there, this current system does not appear to be working very well for many applicants, and this may result in good applicants not bothering to apply. Something needs to change to improve the application process.

  • Nancy Anderson
    Nancy Anderson •

    Thanks for the comments. @Varkey the articles that are posted on our sites are based upon what is happening in the job world. We try to offer true, up-to-date information to assist you in your endeavors. Sorry this one wasn't for you but you may find helpful information in other articles posted on our sites. You are right in that a manager doesn't look at your application until it has gone through the ATS and, more than likely, someone in HR before it lands on his desk. But once he receives it, he does read it to determine if he wants to interview you or not. Not that I am excusing the hiring companies but you have to appreciate that they receive tens of thousands of resumes for one posted position. Lots of competition out there so you have to make your resume as strong as possible @Barb and make sure that you are using specific keywords so that it can get in front of a hiring manager. It's a different world out there when it comes to finding a job. I do not see us ever going back to the ways things were 10 years ago. ATS or some like system are here to stay and we, as job seekers, just have to modify our approach as well as our attitudes to accept that it's here and to learn to work with it instead of against it.

  • Jolly K.
    Jolly K. •

    Sometimes when I read these types of article, I really feel sympathy towards these authors. As said, "Tongue has no bones", so you can twist in any way to justify your reasoning and in the same way "Pen has no eyes and mind" so you can write whatever you feel like. I don't think any of these manager even look at you resume or cv what she/he has written. Sorry, for me this piece of information is useless.

  • Barb M.
    Barb M. •

    I don't know who is reading my resume. Especially when I go through a one hour or more process of submitting an "application" on a company website that virtually regurgitates what is on the resume I also upload. The bigger the company, the less personal this whole job search process is and the less likely they will contact you at all.

  • BRIAN A.
    BRIAN A. •

    This assumes your resume gets past the automated screening software. I once got a rejection from said software before I even received the automated acknowledgment for receipt of my resume!

Jobs to Watch