Are Applicant Resumes Sufficient to Determine a Candidate’s Suitability?

Job SearchRecruitment
Are applicant resumes sufficient for recruitment managers as they go about evaluating qualifications to interview for specific positions?

The job market today has made the resume one of the most important things that recruitment managers need before they can invite a job applicant for an interview. Before a potential employer decides to interview a job seeker, most of them want to first “meet the job seeker on paper.”

If you’re looking for work, impressing an employer — through a resume — provides the key to making your first impression. It’s the difference between being called for an interview and your resume being tossed into the bin. Job seekers are not able to compete without a compelling resume. This shows that the resume is very important when it comes to modern recruitment.

However, can recruitment managers use resumes to determine if a job seeker is suitable for a certain position?

Well, with proper screening, recruitment managers can use resumes to differentiate good candidates from exceptional ones. They can then follow it up with a physical interview to get the best from the exceptional candidates.

How to make your resume sufficient.

As a job seeker, you need to make sure that your resume shows exactly what you have, what you can do, and the differences you can make for your employer. You need to make sure that your resume does the work for you and convinces recruitment managers to give you a chance.

One way of doing this is by using a resume template tool. These tools optimize your resume to match the requirements of the job that you are applying for.

This is important for getting the attention of the recruitment managers. Some of the best resume template tools include Beamjobs, Enhancv, and ResumeGenius among others.

How to check if a resume is sufficient for your job opening.

Due to the increase in the number of online job boards, recruitment managers have many ways through which they can advertise their job openings.

This leads to them receiving large numbers of applications even for a single job opening. It gets quite difficult for them to eliminate the applicants who are not the right fit for their jobs.

However, with proper resume screening, they can examine all the individuals and eliminate those that are not suitable for the company culture and the job. Here are several things to look at.

Required Credentials

When screening the resumes you have received for a job opening, you should have the description of your job in mind.

For example, your company wants to fill a certain role with a person with ten or more years of experience. That being the case, you need to start by eliminating the applicants with less than ten years of experience.

Required and Desired Skills

There is a difference between required and desired skills. Most job descriptions will list required skills while just a few include the desired skills.

After getting all the resumes from job applicants, you need to start by checking those with desired skills. This is because the chances of the candidate with desired skills integrating to the company culture and meeting requirements are high compared to those with required skills.

This does not mean that required skills such as communication and leadership are not important. Applicants need these and other social skills to succeed at their jobs.

Customized Resumes

You need to be hiring applicants who have done enough research with regards to your company and the job opening that you have. Scan the resume to see if the applicant has customized their information for your position.

Customizing resumes is important in showing that a job applicant is dedicated and serious about the job opening.

Eliminate resumes that are not customized. Check to see if their skills and achievements match or are related to those required for the job. Make sure their work history highlights or shows the skills required for the job.

Applicants Information

Conduct all of the checks listed above. You will notice that you now have fewer resumes.

Since you used the information provided by the job applicants on their resumes, you need to verify the validity of the information.

You can conduct checks on their references or use background check tools. Use them consistently to confirm how true their information is and eliminate those with gaping holes.

Conclusion

Depending on the job you are recruiting for, you can use a resume to determine the suitability of job applicants.

With the right checks in place, you will eliminate most applicants. As a result, this frees you up to interview just a few to select the one who best fits your job opening.