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Some hiring managers and HR staff, who have not been doing much hiring in the past few years, may have to learn how to read resumes all over again. Let’s take a look at some key items that raised red flags ten years ago that are not necessarily a problem today. TEN YEARS AGO: Candidates who jumped around from job to job were considered unreliable or flaky. TODAY: In this “new” economy there have been a lot of companies laying off, closing, merging, moving, or redirecting their corporate path. None of this may be the fault of the candidate and many of these corporate decisions may have occurred after they came on board. If they have the attributes I am looking for, I will call them in for an interview. TEN YEARS AGO: Candidates who took classes after they have earned their degree were more academia than worker types. TODAY: Candidates who are taking classes on their own (in their industry) especially during times of unemployment show initiative and growth potential. Companies are in a continuing process of change so employees who can quickly learn new subjects are sought after. Candidates who are taking college classes after they have finished their degree just to improve themselves show they want to improve themselves. TEN YEARS AGO: Candidates were evaluated on the skills that they had in the last few years and organizations did not care about transferrable skills TODAY: Hiring Managers are now always looking for transferable skills because corporations have rapid product direction changes. When your staff has good transferrable skills, you may not need to find as many new people. TEN YEARS AGO: Objectives were very fanciful and insubstantial such as: “I am seeking a position where I can grow with the company and we can both be better for it.” TODAY: Objectives today must be very detailed and to the point. The reason is because all resumes are typically online and the hiring manager/recruiter does not have time to go through a lot of resumes. Objective today should be as follows: “Seeking position as IT manager for small to medium company. Willing to relocate and able to travel up to 35%” TEN YEARS AGO: If a candidate moved from an individual contributor to a management position then back to an individual contributor they were considered a failure. TODAY: Now If I see a resume that shows someone making that type of move we look a little deeper into it. In many situations (especially in the high tech industry) people may not be ready for management, find out they really don’t like it or would rather stay as an individual contributor. Jim Stedt is a partner at The Business SoftSkills Company (GetSoftSkillsNow.Com) located in Santa Ana, California. They provide job readiness and workforce success videos for education, business, prisons and individual use. Training is available online, on DVD, or through an affiliate program. These products are the most complete and concise soft skills training packages now available for the price of an average college textbook.
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Resume reading, resume evaluating,
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