Hiring? How to Find That Needle in a Haystack Resume

You’ve gotten the green light to launch your search, so naturally you sound the alarm to get all hands on deck to help you find that rockstar. Between your employer site, recruiting partner and social media, you’ve suddenly found yourself drowning in a sea of resumes. You might even be able to hear mom’s voice echoing… “Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it!”. So, where do you even begin? How do you sift through countless resumes when you only need one? AND you’ve got a zillion other things to do?

Don’t stress! We’ve got some great hacks to help you quickly get to the bottom line on each and every resume.

Hack #1: Look for Common Denominators

You’re only going to spend about seven seconds reviewing a resume before reaching a decision. A good litmus test for sizing up your candidates quickly, is to zero in on the most relevant things:

Have they recently sold similar products, worked in a similar environment with similar call points?

Hack #2: Look for Performance Patterns

Anyone can have a lucky year or walk into a locked and loaded territory, but don’t get fooled by one-hit wonders. You’re looking for the guy or gal who displays a pattern of consistent performance. It doesn’t matter if they’re selling ostomy bags or robotics, your focus should be:

Do they consistently perform well, despite the circumstances?

Hack #3: Look for First Impressions

The saying “never judge a book by its cover” does not apply here. It’s like the bumper sticker “Prius’ are cool”… said, no-one). If someone has a sloppy resume, with a template from the ’90s, and hasn’t cared enough to fix the half dozen spelling or formatting errors, then that’s a problem. You probably shouldn’t give them the benefit of the doubt. Ask yourself:

Would our biggest customer be impressed by this writing sample?

Using these 3 hacks will allow you to trim a huge pile of resumes into 3 manageable buckets:

Heck Yea’s
Let me get back to you’s and
Bye-bye’s