Windows 7 Discount blog behind-the-scene-resume-re

Resume assessment & advice. Part I of II. (Read Part II) I’ve considered writing about resume advice since I started contributing to JobsBlog. However, I’ve put it off and even considered not writing about it at all because the subject matter can be VERY controversial. I’m not going to make you the empty promise that following my advice will *really* help you land that next job or get your resume noticed in the sea of resumes. Resume writing is more art than science and any advice charading as the singular truth can lead you down the wrong path. What I will share with you is, for better or worse, the process I use when reviewing resumes – and I’m going to give you the honest not-so-sugar-coated-truth about what goes through my mind when I click “NEXT.
This is an unvarnished account. Reader beware:Resumes, Resumes, Resumes
First off, I expect excellent resumes. However, I don’t expect applicants to be expert resume writers. I expect them to be expert engineers. Unfortunately, I’m going to confirm your biggest fear: when I sit down to read resumes, I’m literally sifting through hundreds (if not thousands) of resumes looking for that perfect fit. I also don’t have the benefit of the time to genuinely sift through them all. What does this mean for you? Well, just like any project, I’m constrained by time and resources. This, combined with the sheer volume of applicants,Windows 7 Discount, means that I need to make every effort to efficiently narrow the stack by artificial means, before my human eyes even see the resumes. It also means that the amount of time I have to dedicate to visually review each resume is short. Net: I’m going to have to make some quick decisions. Artificially reducing the stack
What I mean by this, really, is just using some simple Boolean logic (which is based off of the job description) to pare down the list of resumes to a more acceptable number. If I’m looking at applicants for a position, I generally try to keep this pretty basic, using keywords like C++, C#, asp.net, web services, SQL, win32, etc. If I am out looking for resumes on a job board, I’ll typically be more enterprising and also include action words like “lead,” or “drove,” or “designed.” Depending on specific job descriptions, I might also include terms like “Machine Learning,” or “Image Processing,” or “Distributed systems.” These are all just various examples from multiple positions I’ve sourced on in the past. Human eyes
Once my Boolean logic has reduced the stack to a reasonable number (hopefully 40-50 for applicants, or 4-500 for job boards), I’ll then begin the process of reviewing resumes. For applicants, I do actually read EVERY resume that makes it past the Boolean search. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time or resources to respond to every applicant to let them know I’m not going to move forward, and our system is not automated in a fashion to make this simple for me. In my opinion, this is a bug that needs to be fixed.
Now I’m down to a reasonably sized stack of resumes. What do I look for and how do I actually consider the different elements of a resume? You’ll have to check back to JobsBlog for Part II: How I evaluate resumes. -Kenji