The No. 1 Question Your Resume Should Answer

There was a post that identified what I've found to be one of the most frustrating issues with job hunting, the screening computer. I've dealt with these HR replacement systems on the employer side. From my experience as a hiring manager I don't believe I ever had a solid candidate success story that was referred from one of these systems. The mystery of the hiring algorithms that rejected good candidates and forwarded the worst ones, was always frustrating to me. Now that I'm on the other side, I've been tweaking my resume constantly for every job that I've applied for. It's always fun to get an auto rejection less than twenty minutes after you've applied. Just for kicks I applied for a job with my former company that I've hired people for this position. I created a resume and answered the job related questions perfectly. I received a auto-rejection within 30 minutes. And here is where the evil "screening" computer comes into play. I found out that this job wasn't actually available though it was still advertised on the company website. This is the case with most of the federal government jobs that are advertised on usajobs.gov. It seems that most of us are at the mercy of a system that provides no contact information and answers our applications with rejection emails that state "do not reply!" I was told by an IT guy who wrote software for one of these "screening" programs that the common factor is usually keywords in your resume that match the keywords in the job description. I don't know if this is true or not. It just seems that the old standard of applying and then calling or emailing the hiring manager to get some name recognition isn't even possible anymore. I'm not interested in beating the system but I'd appreciate the opportunity to at least get told face to face that I wasn't qualified.

MJF of KS 8:26PM April 27, 2010

Hi

If we go for the 10 interview for the same postilion the interview question is different according the company norms and rules. so it may be possible that they ask you something like that whatever you don,t heard till date. but major thing is that they ask you 90% question from your resume because that the resume have all the answer of his question.

anupam of IN 11:26AM January 07, 2010

Very relevant information of the power of a resume. Ultimately the GOAL of a resume is to get someone an INTERVIEW. A resume, even though it is important, will not get you hired. I blog on these principles frequently at http://www.theinterviewgurus.com/theblog. I am not a huge fan of perfecting the resume and frankly feel cover letters are worthless.

Agreed that your resume needs to be a sales document. In my recent book, "The 10 Key Interviewing Techniques" I dedicate a chapter to the resume and the importance or lack of importance it truly provides.

Thanks for the post, it is 80% there. The other 20% needs to be how to sell oneself. Check out www.theinterviewgurus.com for more info

Thanks,

Darrin of OH 11:54AM November 20, 2009

keep dioxide roughly period

elrichobby of IA 1:51AM September 02, 2009