“Unbelievable,” Rudy exclaimed. “From his resume, you would have thought this candidate ran a big company like General Motors. Strategic meetings, board of advisors, five year plans, management team, culture, all the buzz words.”
“What happened?” I pressed.
“Turns out, this guy just read a bunch of trade journals about our industry, seemed to know all the players, really did his homework.”
“So, what was the problem?”
“He never actually did any of the things he talked about, he was just in the room.” Rudy calmed down. “I had this sinking feeling, like he was one of those experts on CNN, giving plausible sound-bites, but when you really dug down, the detail evaporated.”
Rudy looked down at his desk before he continued. “Problem is, a year ago, we would have made the hire, all with hope and inspiration.”
“What’s different now?”
“We ask better questions.”
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I recommend hiring managers have the ability to review all the resumes rejected by human resource departments. There are many excellent experience applicants that are rejected by the company gatekeepers. The position may require a 4-year degree but applicant has only a 2-year degree plus 10 years of experience. Or resume may not be professionally formatted or have a few typos. This means only the professional resumes with the proper keywords and format get to hiring managers. Your experience, education an accomplishments should speak louder than your format and keywords. I prefer a simple resume written by the applicant typos and all. I have yet to see anyone from CEO down have perfect diction and punctuation. Until we reward authenticity what else can you expect?