screening of resumes by HR clerks, machines

[Mark I Halpern <Mark_Halpern -at- SMTPGATE -dot- TESSERACT -dot- COM>]

     Colleagues,

        May I further enrich the broth by reminding you that these days
     many resumes won't reach a hiring manager at all unless they survive a
     screening by HR people who have only the sketchiest idea of what the
     manager is really looking for, or even a screening by a computer
     programmed to look for key words?

        This can be as much a problem for the hiring manager as for the
     candidate; when I was trying to hire people, I had a hard time getting
     HR to send me raw, unscreened resumes; they insisted on "helping" me
     by screening them, because my time was so valuable.  I had to enter a
     conspiracy with a woman in HR who sneaked me resumes as they came in,
     and then I had to conspire with some candidates so that they and I
     could both evade the HR helpers.

        Given these facts, our discussions about minutiae like inclusion of
     hobbies sound positively quaint; we might as well be wondering if we
     should include a sprig of lavender with our resumes.

        On another resume-related topic: I find it incredible that so many
     people who can't write nevertheless get job after job, as your
     messages indicate they do; why is it so hard for a hiring manager to
     find out whether a candidate can write?  If the discussion between
     candidate and manager isn't sufficient to make it clear, and if the
     writer has no samples to offer, then the manager can set the candidate
     a little writing test to be taken then and there, on a topic of the
     manager's choice.

                                                 Mark Halpern
                                                 Project Manager
                                                 Tesseract Corporation
                                                 San Francisco