When Technology Fades and Humans Enter the Candidate Evaluation Process - Resume Stacking (Resume Evaluation)

Technology has enabled a lot of things in the recruiting process - online application, the screening of candidates prior to an actual person seeing your resume, resume databases for passive job seekers, etc. One of the things technology can't do is make judgment calls on who moves forward in the process and who doesn't. Like American Idol, the process is somewhat subjective...

For the proper perspective on this stage of the selection process, remember the sales funnel (leads are worked into prospects, which are worked further until a sale is closed - meaning for each sale, a salesperson understands their funnel and ultimately knows how many leads are needed for each sale). The selection process operates under similar circumstances. For each job opening, raw candidates who have applied are the equivalent of leads, and the first step is going through the resumes to determine which candidates appear to be viable and which ones don't.

Who does this work? Here are a couple of flavors that are most common:

* Recruiter is responsible for determining who is viable and makes the determination before passing along screened candidates to the hiring manager.

* Recruiter is responsible for screening, and then passes resumes along to the Hiring Manager who does additional screening.

* Recruiter doesn't exist or simply provides all raw resumes to the Hiring Manager, who is responsible for gong through the whole stack.

Regardless who does the work, the process is fairly unscientific. At this initial screening stage, the Recruiter or Hiring Manager is probably spending a maximum of 30 seconds with your resume, after which your resume is more than likely placed in one of 3 "Stacks" - the Yes, No or Maybe Stacks. Resumes in the "Yes" stack are moved forward in the funnel, getting to the phone screen stage or whatever comes next in the company's process. Resumes in the "No" stack are out, and resumes in the "Maybe" stack are held to in lieu of the success of the next steps in the process with the "Yes" resumes. If the "Yes" resumes don't generate enough finalists to move forward, the "Maybe" resumes have the chance of being revisited.

You primary goal is to have a cover letter, resume, etc. that is customized to the job and show a clear value and match to the stated needs of the positions - and move forward to the next stage of the process, which is likely some type of phone conversation or interview. Keep in mind that other factors can eliminate you from consideration at this stage as well, such as salary requirements not being a fit for the position, etc. We'll talk about these as well moving forward…..

Comments

[BruttNece]

I do not want our children and grandchildren to live in a world where everyday they fear some regional strongman with weapons of mass destruction. We need to send a message to these future would-be bullies: you will not be allowed to threaten the world.

[Amelia]

Very good post. I definitely appreciate this website. Keep it up!

[Martin Buuri Kaburia]

Very profound contribution