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1. location - if the candidate is out of state or out of country, I'll pass.
2. Education or relevant skills
3. Employment history - the length of education If someone jumps every 2 years or less, I start to worry
4. Format, content and grammar of the resume
5. After that, I look for additional education (certificate) or any progression in the employment history
If you are not HR, recruiter or hiring manager or having experience hiring people, please feel free to ask questions but I'd appreciate you keep your opinion to yourself.
Your very first item goes against all the advice to "have you considered moving to find a job" and "have a job lined up before you move" and "you may have to relocate for a job" and "you're not spreading yourself out far enough for a job".
Bravo! You've just confused the crap out of those who are trying anything to get a job!
If a recruiter calls you about a finance job and you do not have a degree in finance should you just assume its Series 6 related and skip the interview??
Your very first item goes against all the advice to "have you considered moving to find a job" and "have a job lined up before you move" and "you may have to relocate for a job" and "you're not spreading yourself out far enough for a job".
Bravo! You've just confused the crap out of those who are trying anything to get a job!
Just tell them upfront that you're willing to relocate at your own expense in the cover letter. It's simple as that. If they really want to hire you, I don't see why they can't live with that.
Why go through the trouble of all the other stuff with PostNet and Google Voice? Then if you tell them their real location, you'll begin sliding down a slippery slope. Eventually, they'll wonder why did you give them a fake number. Finally, they'll just lose all trust in you altogether and pass you up for the next candidate.
The recruiters I work with tell me the biggest mistake that most applicants make is they list the routine tasks they did in their previous job instead of describing their accomplishments, achievements and results. Also, people send resumes that attempt to be catch all for any type of job instead of a targeted marketing document that is related to the specific position opening.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jobless and Broke
Also, people send resumes that attempt to be catch all for any type of job instead of a targeted marketing document that is related to the specific position opening.
Probably the most common reason that I toss a resume. It shows that a person is too lazy to make the resume specific to the job, or is just sending out a bunch of them for anything that comes along. I want to see that the person wants this job. I will disagree with the OP on the out-of-state resume. I will still consider it and offer an interview if they are willing to come at their expense, and may even do a preliminary phone interview if the resume is in the top 5. I have had several that agreed to interviews from out of state but never showed, but it's still worth a try if it looks like the person could be the best.
I generally hire for business development, sales, and marketing types of positions, so I look for different things than someone hiring for an I/T position might. Whether I'll consider an out of area applicant depends on the position. For a marketing coordinator, if they aren't within a 30-40 minute drive they are out of the running immediately. For a sales position I would absolutely consider someone who lived in the territory I'm hiring for, but I'm not hiring a guy from CA to work in NY.
1. If your cover letter doesn't grab my attention, I'm not even looking at your resume.
2. It's got to be readable. If I have to work at reading it due to poor formatting or some weird font, I'm not going to bother.
3. If it's got a typo or poor grammar, it goes into the reject pile. It will also get rejected for having an email address like "xoxoloveybabygirlxoxo@hotmail.com" or "sandimashighschoolfootballrules@hotmail.com".
4. Next I look for experience. It has to be a transferable skill set, it doesn't have to be exact, and I prefer to hire outside of the existing industry labor pool.
5. Next is job stability, I don't want to see "job hoppers." If the hopping was due to reasons beyond the applicants control (layoffs, former employers closing) address it in the cover and I'm OK with it.
6. Next is everything else. I'm happy to substitute experience for education.
Basically you've got five seconds with your cover letter to suck me in and then five seconds with your resume to make me want to continue reading. If you haven't engaged me in that amount of time, it's over. Keep in mind--sales, marketing, business development. Immediate impact or forget it.
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