We’re hiring for a few positions (cfmx admin, vb.net desktop, and a pm). I’m quite frankly amazed at the applications we’re getting. Here’s a brief synopsis…
- If at first you don’t succeed…
- We’re getting a lot of repeat resumes. Some are right after another like we get one at 9:08 and then we get another one at 9:23. On several occasions we’ve gotten repeat applications for the same job coming from different sources (Monster and Craig’s List) but more often the case they’re multiple Monster applications. I’m not sure whether or not to throw someone out just for applying twice. It’s been a while since I looked for a job, but I always remember keeping careful track of where I applied. Maybe that’s not the case any more.
- E-mail does not make a resume
- This is my biggest pet peave, but I can’t really bring myself to fault the applicants. Monster apparently has a feature where people store their resume and do a single-click apply and they send the resume as plain text in an e-mail. The result is a jumbled mess of skills, experience, and education all mixed in and almost completely illegible. I wish Monster didn’t have this feature or at least that we could set up our Monster account to disallow these types of applications. What ever happened to customizing resumes and sending personal cover letters?
- Novel as a resume
- What’s with the long page resumes? When I went to resume workshops in college (which admittedly was a few years ago, but not that long ago) we were told to keep resumes to 2 pages and maybe 3 if absolutely necessary. How long does everyone else take to read a resume? Do you really read a 5, 7, or 10 page resume? I tend to scan the objective, skills, and last two jobs, and if relevant skills don’t pop-out at me, I move on. I’ve been told that’s pretty typical but I’d love to hear other employer’s opinions.
- Desktop vs. Web
- This is just an interesting twist. A few years ago it was hard to find people with a lot of web experience. Now it appears the opposite is true. There’s a lot of applicants with web experience but very few have recent desktop experience (we’re hiring for a .NET WinForms position).
So enough with the rants… if anyone still wants to apply (and no, I wouldn’t be your boss so you don’t have to listen to me complain all the time) feel free to e-mail me. And no special prizes for the 20 page jumbled plain text mess sent a dozen times.
