Employers have high expectations when it comes to filling their vacant
positions. Meanwhile many confident job seekers say, “If I could just
get the interview, I could get the job.”
Landing that interview, though, is becoming increasingly difficult,
particularly when most employers use applicant tracking systems to
filter thousands of résumés quickly for job specific requirements.
If you are lucky enough to get through this first filter, you have a
very good chance of having your résumé reviewed by a corporate recruiter
and making it to the hiring manager's inbox.
So what happens when your résumé gets reviewed?
In collaboration with Dr. Kenneth Levitt of Frostburg University School
of Business, The WorkPlace Group examined 19 distinct résumé
characteristics. Rather than speculate about what might drive interview
decisions, this study based its conclusions on actual interview
decisions made by hiring managers.
From a pool of more than 1,000 résumés, 200 were randomly selected and
analyzed. All résumés selected met the basic qualifications for the job
as described in employers' job advertisements, and all candidates were
called in order to verify their qualifications.
These résumés were then presented to hiring managers. Our objective was
to see which of 19 resume characteristics would predict who would
receive an interview.
So what are recruiters and hiring managers looking for when it comes to
your résumé? How do they decide who to invite to an interview?
Our results can be summarized into three primary résumé characteristics.
1. Relevant, current and continual work experience
