Employers: How to Sift Through a Sea of Resumes

With real unemployment hovering at around 12 percent, today’s employers are being inundated with resumes.  In most cases, the candidates are qualified for the job. They have the basic skill sets, experience and requisite degrees from recognized universities.

Still, there’s that something extra that separates a winner from an “also ran.”  But, these days, even your in-box of winners seems to be overflowing. What to do?  How do you pick the best of the best? Some suggestions to help you find the real winners to interview:

 

Sliding Scale of Skill Sets.  You may have initially requested some skill sets that are needed for the job. Now it’s time to drill down and decide which of the skill sets is most important. For example, the skill sets employers often seek in Systems Analysts include:

Deciding which of these skills is key by assigning a scale of importance to each can help pinpoint the right candidate.

Flushing Out the Fluff. Every resume has what I call fluff. It’s extra information that has no immediate bearing on the job. While a candidate may look good in terms of experience and skill sets, the extra years working in an unrelated department or doing things that only tangentially relate to the job you’re trying to fill can help weed out certain candidates.

Word of Mouth. These days a typical job ad will draw hundreds of resumes. One way to cut down on all that paperwork is to simply advertise through word of mouth.  Smart candidates will be “connected” and have their “ears to the ground” for new openings. They’re the kind of go-getters you want to hire. People with the initiative to know who’s hiring and when—without waiting for a newspaper or online ad to tell them. 

Don’t Over-Filter. Some automated keyword search programs and online filtering programs are so specific they often filter out good “interviewable” candidates. Make sure you keep these initial tests broad enough to admit qualified individuals.  Then manually filter those that show a track record of success in the areas you need to fill.

Nix the Job Hoppers. No matter how good a candidate appears on paper, if he or she has jumped ship several times in just a few years, they should be excluded from contention. Job hoppers are often prima donnas, salary “ten percenters” or benefit hounds. They may be initially satisfied with the job, but will always be looking to move—especially when the economy picks up. 

It’s not easy wading through a sea of resumes to find that ideal candidate, but there are things you can do to streamline the process. I used to hire writers and the first thing I looked for was creativity. As Einstein put it: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”