Re: For those who hire... what makes a resume stand out

["Jim Morgan" <jim -dot- morgan -at- portalplayer -dot- com>]

I am gaining a new perspective on this debate and thought I'd chip in: I am
writing from India, where I'm interviewing this week for a W/E for our
office here. For a recent hiring effort in my home base of Seattle, I
received perhaps 40 resumes, almost all appropriate (though
occasionally...over-optimistic, if you will). The count for the India hiring
is more than 200, from essentially the same ad, and continues to grow even
though the classified ran just once a week ago. Almost all have nothing to
do with tech writing. Fortunately, most have an objectives statement
indicating their interest in being a programmer or a business analyst or
such, and I therefore could quickly weed them out.

Because I solicit resumes directly, I used to hate objectives statements. I
figured, "Of course they want 'a challenging career in technical
communication' or they wouldn't be applying for the job.") Now I see the
beauty of them, especially if you're having to break through the HR
firewall. I still hate skills lists--I'd much rather see skills within the
context of the job in which they were used, giving me a better feel for how
much experience the person has with those skills. And as noted by others,
anyone who has used a word processing program can pick up another one in a
day or two. But thanks to this thread, I now see why people include them,
and won't groan as much when I see that format.

Bottom line, to answer the question:
--Specific mentions of skills indicated in my ads, which include detailed
job descriptions.
--Proof that the applicant meets the minimum requirements in the ad (when I
say 'THREE years of TECHNICAL writing,' I mean it!)
--A cover letter, because I specifically request one, so if you don't
include one, you either don't pay attention to details or you can't follow
instructions.
--Bad design and/or spelling errors. In this case, having your resume stand
out isn't a good thing. ;-)

Thanks for the good discussion,
Jim

Jim Morgan
Technical Communications Mgr.
PortalPlayer, Inc.


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