There was a time not long ago in the recruiting business when most resumes were delivered to companies by the U.S. Mail. That meant a wait of three to five business days merely for the resume review process to begin. In order to avoid delay, headhunters would try to arrange interviews with employers by pitching them job seeking candidates over the phone. It was a challenge and a skill for headhunters to "walk a candidate in live."
The Web has changed all that. Hiring authorities do not want a five-minute pitch from a headhunter - they expect a resume to be delivered to their inbox in seconds. E-mail has accelerated the creation and transmission of resumes. Have we changed for better or worse in how we use those resumes?
First, marketing candidates over the phone should not be consigned to recruiting history. The fact that a resume can be transmitted quickly theoretically means that a company has the ability to respond and hire at a faster rate. But in reality, a company can take days or weeks to decide which resumes should lead to interviews.
Given proper information by a client company, a good recruiter will know which candidates are a good "fit" with a client. Not every resume submitted to a company will result in an interview. However, an exceptional candidate warrants more than a fax or e-mail. A recruiter's added value is spotting the highly talented individual, but that value is wasted unless a company is able to respond. A five-minute telephone pitch can still make the difference between hiring or losing the better professionals.
As a headhunter, I prefer my candidates to write their own resumes and send them by e-mail. The candidate is still the best person to express her intricacies and individuality. E-mail allows for easy editing and formatting. Some companies will only accept resumes by email so I encourage its use. I review the resume to help make corrections, but most importantly, I examine whether the resume serves its purpose.
A candidate's experience and skill set must be described in a way that the reader can have an immediate and clear understanding of that individual's qualifications. The average resume is a page and a half long. A successful resume must contain enough information to convey the unique and noteworthy skills of a candidate. A hiring manager may have to choose six candidates to interview from a stack of several dozen highly recommended resumes.
A good resume must list the obvious, explain the obscure, and impress the reader. I try to anticipate what the hiring manager will perceive when reading the resume. The challenge is to look for what is missing. It is easy to match a resume to a job opening. The danger is that, inevitably, something is held back by the hiring manager or ignored by the candidate. Some placements have been made by the mere luck of conveying a piece of information not mentioned in either the job description or the resume. Conversely, companies have failed to hire the best professionals because of a misplaced piece of information.
A resume is a snapshot and guide to a person's skills and potential. While the last person hired might serve as a model for the next, the resumes will not read the same. A useful talent for both the recruiter and the hiring authority is recognizing the potential in a resume. We must look beyond the words for the skills that might exist but are not mentioned and then ask questions and investigate.
The best example I can give of this approach in evaluating resumes and skills is from my own firm. In choosing resume database software for ourselves, my partners and I wanted a piece of technology that was flexible, yet could search on many levels with precision and depth. Some systems take a job order and immediately search for a candidate that exactly fits the job criteria. In comparison, the majority of placements we make start with a general search. We then utilize our ability to spot talent and identify candidate interest to narrow the field. Technology is a wonderful tool, but it only succeeds when combined with our ability to use it properly. Despite the time involved, reading resumes and asking questions is still effort spent wisely.
Technology has increased the pace and volume of resumes submitted to companies. Recruiting software can recognize terminology and help organize the process. However, professionals are still needed to make evaluations and decide a course of action. The typical goal in hiring is to reject candidates that might fail the process and waste the time and resources of the company and its employees. But just as important are the viable resumes that should secure an interview but are overlooked among the dozens being reviewed.
Ronald Weiss has been a New York based technology headhunter since 1984 and started the BMW Group in 1990 with two partners. He remains a hands-on recruiter, in addition to training staff and co-managing the business. His degree in communication and science is from The American University.
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