Resume Extravaganza

I now have a newly acquired appreciation for HR personnel. After completing this assignment, I realize that choosing potential candidates through resume scanning is much more difficult than I had imagined. I feel this is more of an art than a science. I think if I were more accustomed to scanning resumes daily, I would take less time. However, I spent most of my eight minutes trying to find relevant information on particular resumes. If I came across a resume that was somewhat difficult to read, I skipped it and went on to the next.

The resumes that I selected for an interview at a hypothetical company are 5, 6, 11, 12, and 13. I picked these five resumes because both there work experience and extra-curricular activities related to the position they were trying to obtain. It was difficult for me to decide what resumes to choose because I did not have time to read all of them as thoroughly as I would have liked to. The five resumes I chose stood out to me because they had a clean layout that was easy to understand. If I came across a resume that was confusing or not appealing to my eye I did not read it.

Definitely the fastest time has ever passed. I don't know how employers or human resources can look at a resume that fast and actually take it seriously. Now I understand the power of a connection much more because with that extra help, your resume might gain a few more minutes of look-over. I chose resume 2, 9, 10, 11, 12 which all happened to be in sequential order and the ones I noticed the most.

I have chosen resumes #1, #4, #5, #8, and #16. As I read the resumes, I tried to keep in mind that there where 16 resumes to read. With this said, the objective statement was a very important factor in which resumes I picked. I feel that the resumes I selected all have a strong objective. When I read the objective statement I immediately went to find related experience to the position they were applying. The above resumes all seemed to have ample experience for the position to which they applied.

First of all, thirty seconds has never passed so quickly before. It is nearly impossible to make a content decision with such short time. Hiring is an important decision to make and it seems as if more attention should be devoted to doing so. I understand it is different though when there is a stack of resumes on your desk that you have to scrutinize. The first place I looked was the objective statement; however, I didn’t read the entire thing because most objective statements are filled with big words that make the applicant sound smart and professional.

I really enjoyed this “Resume Extravaganza" activity, because it made me well aware of what Human Resources deal with on a daily basis. I found myself skipping resumes that looked too sloppy and uncategorized. By looking over each resume, I was comparing them to each other instead of reviewing each on its content. My instinct was to choose resumes that were visually appealing. Five people I would call for an interview at a hypothetical company, based solely on first impressions, I chose the following resumes: 3, 8, 10, 12, and 14.

After skimming through all of the resumes for a short eight minutes, the ones that caught my attention were, 3,6,10,11, and 16. These five resumes would be the ones that I would call back in for interviews for several different reasons. I noticed that I seem to pick the resumes that had a bold layout and the set up of the resume was very easy to read. I liked the ones that had the big bold headers and the objective statement wasn't too long. Since we only had about thirty seconds to look over each resume, the first part that I looked at was the objective statement.

The resumes I picked were numbers 1, 3, 12, 14, and 15. The first comment I have to make is that I had no idea how few 8 minutes really was to look at 16 resumes. In so few minutes I can honestly say I don’t know if I picked the best candidates for the job. Some of the resumes I did not even read. Two minutes is not a sufficient amount of time to thoroughly read a resume and know exactly what a person is about, but it is enough to get an idea. The resumes I ended up selected had two things in common. The first was a clean east to read layout.

The resumes I picked were 6, 8, 10, 12, and 16. The aspects of the resumes that stood out were that they were easy to read and the format was clean cut. I first skimmed through the resumes to see which ones caught my attention and then I went back over and picked those five to read closer. This will help my own resume by allowing me to see through an HR person’s eyes and really get to understand why they choose certain resumes. The resumes I chose were just the ones that really stood out to my initial skim.

When I evaluated all of the resumes, I glanced at the resume’s layout first and didn’t pay much attention to the content, but rather just how it looked. If the layout didn’t emphasize sections of the resume I wouldn’t read into the person’s experiences as much as I did to others. When I came across a resume that was visually pleasing to me, I then directed my attention first to their previous work experiences, then activities, and finally their GPA and major. I feel that involvement and hands on experiences can teach you more than what is found in books.