Re: For those who hire... what makes a resume stand out?
I also think this is an outgrowth of "Burnism." So many companies have
been so badly burned by incompetent tech writers that they are hesitant to
hire anybody without running them through the ringer. I get it too. I meet
with new clients and they treat me like crap. Its just part of the game -
you have to prove yourself FIRST. Then you get loved.
It's also simple pragmatism. Given the large number of resumes that arrive at the small companies where I've been working for the last few years, I can barely imagine the hundreds that a large company must receive. Unless one or two people are going to do nothing except sort resumes, companies need a tactic to cope. One of the easiest ways to cope is to scan each resume for something of interest. Usually, that interesting something has to be on the first quarter page, or the rest of the resume doesn't get scanned, much less read.
Layout and clarity are also used the same way. The reasoning seems to be: if someone doesn't care enough to present themselves well, why should the company hire them, or even read their resumes?
At first, these tactics sound harsh. And it's true that they will sometimes result in talented people being overlooked. However, they also weed out most of the people whome the companies aren't interested in, and make the hiring workload managable.
Editors have used the same techniques with unsolicited manuscripts at magazines for over a century.
--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com
"What you don't ponder in your life
You'll ponder when you're dead."
- The Mollys, "Yer Drunk Again/Polka del Diablo"
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