Screening your resume is like playing word search

Understanding what goes through a recruiter’s mind when your resume is being screened

Recruiting was one of the many hats I wore previously. I typically seek out candidates (sometimes working with external recruiters), conduct interviews, and handle the entire recruitment process from first contact to orientation for new hires. I’ve picked up certain tips on recruiting/ resume screening, both through reflecting on my daily work, as well as learning from the experiences of professional recruiters.

As resume screening became a daily chore, I was becoming increasingly appalled by the quality of resumes I was looking at. Many of my friends back in Singapore were just graduating/ looking for employment/ internship opportunities in the technical field. I realised that while many of them were rather qualified, they missed out on getting a shot at the interview as they could never get past resume screening. The main issue was that they did not understand how recruiters worked.

The skill set checklist

Before opening up a position/ starting the search for candidates, I usually consult very closely with the team manager/ decision maker to find out the specific skill sets that are relevant for the position. These skill sets are typically grouped into “Must have”, “Good to have”, “Special bonus”.

• “Must have” — Typically, most of the must-haves include a degree (or not) in a relevant technical field, some years (or not) of experience in a particular programming language or technology.
• “Good to have” — Includes experience/ familiarity with secondary languages/ technologies which may not be directly relevant to what the candidate would be working on, but could be required due to some interfacing with other components of the project. It could also include softer skills such as being a good team player, clear communication, etc.
• “Special bonus” — Recognized skillsets/ experiences which are difficult to come by. Probably not a requirement, but would definitely be useful for the position

Now that I’m armed with this list, the search for candidates begin.

Typically, I do not seek that “one perfect candidate”. What I seek for is the “best fit candidate”. The search is essentially a numbers game. I know that for a specific job posting, there would perhaps be X applicants. At each stage of the interview process, some percentage of the candidates will be eliminated, leaving only a final Y% of the initial pool to choose from. Since Y tends to be a rather small number, recruiters will try to maximize X.

The 10 seconds glance

When I’m looking at your resume, I’m doing a keyword match against the skill set checklist. If I see a good amount of the right keywords in your resume, it is a pass. If I need to spend more than 10 seconds trying to figure out what you were writing about, it is a fail. If I see an excessive amount of keywords (much looking like spam), it signals a red flag and goes into the “maybe”. Depending on whether I think I have enough candidates for the day, you could eventually go into the pass or fail stack.

There are lots of articles writing about how recruiters only spend an average of about 10 seconds to screen each resume. The news is, this is true because resume screening such a menial, robotic and repetitive task. In fact, many applicant tracking systems (ATS) now are so advanced that they can parse your resume automatically, search for specific keywords in your resume, and score your resume based on the weights pre-assigned to each keyword.

Finding a job is a two way fit — the company wants someone with the relevant skills required, but it is also important for the applicant to fit in the company culture, and be able to gain something out of his stint. Hence, honesty is the single most important criteria in a resume.

There is a delicate balance between finding the right job vs. finding a job. Getting rejected doesn’t always mean you’re not good enough. Sometimes, it just means you’re not a right fit for what the company is looking for.

When hiring fresh grads, I know that many of them will not have as much experience as someone who has years of industry experience. Hence, I’d look out more for soft skills, such as attention to detail, initiative, passion, ability to get things done, etc. Note: this applies only if you’ve met the minimum threshold of proficiency/ competency in the skill set checklist.

If you’re interested in more actionable tips on how to improve your resume, check out this Quora blog post I wrote: 10 tips to get pass resume screening for College Students/Grads