What To Look For in a Résumé

In previous articles, I wrote about the hiring process, from how to build a job description to what to ask in an interview. These next few articles will look at some of the basic blocking and tackling that will help you refine your hiring process and get better people into your practice.

So you’re sitting in front of a pile of résumés. How do you begin to sort the wheat from the chaff?

Don’t make up narratives

This seems like a simple idea, but I see hiring managers tell stories about why a person might have made certain career moves all the time. You should never do this in a résumé screen because you’re looking for facts. Just like looking at a radiograph, you can see bone loss, but in reality you can only guess the reasoning behind the bone loss without examining the patient further.

Length of employment

This is a tricky one. I know everyone wants to see an employee who has 10 years at a single employer, but this becoming more infrequent these days. During the recession, many people were out of work through no fault of their own. If you see a pattern of yearly job changes over their whole career, this might be a red flag, but some jumping around might be normal. If you like their overall experience, it’s your job to ask them about this in the interview. That being said, a potential hire with the right experience and three to six years per employer should definitely edge out other candidates.

The look of the résumé

This is a clue as to how professional they actually are in an office setting. There are hundreds of resources out there on how to build a résumé. A quick Google search can produce templates, tips, and how-to guides. If they’re unwilling or unable to do this, then do you really want them in your practice? Along those lines, look at the email they use: Do you really want partygirl@gmail.com working for your practice? Or do you think someone with an aol.com email is going to be on the cutting edge of technology?

There are many things you can pick apart, but remember the purpose of the résumé screen is to figure out who is worth 10–15 minutes of your time for a phone call. In short, you’re not picking whom to marry, but whom you might meet for drinks after work.