This post is focused around the concept of how hiring managers review a resume for a minute or less and come to conclusions that are based on false assumptions. It is from these false assumptions that their decision regarding who to interview is based.
One false assumption that influences decisions every day relates to how long someone has worked for their current employer.
About six months ago we were working with one of our best clients. We sent two resumes to him for one position; Candidate A and Candidate B. Of course, before presenting both resumes to the client, we had significant conversations with both candidates. From our conversations with each candidate, the people from our firm felt Candidate B was the better of the two.
The problem with Candidate B was that his resume gave the appearance that he was job hopping. He has a new position every 2 years for each of his last 3 positions. But what you can’t tell from a resume is why this person kept making a change after 2 years. If you evaluate strictly from the resume, you would only have your assumptions to rely on.
Now the resume of Candidate A, because of the length of stay in each position, gave the impression of more stability. Candidate A had three jobs in their career, while being at the most recent position for the last six years.
When we were talking with the hiring manager, he originally said he was going to pass on Candidate B because of the shorter tenure at each company. He mentioned that he really liked candidate A because of the length of time she spent at each of her employers. The hiring manager said he felt it showed a sense of loyalty to her organization.
But what we told the hiring manager next surprised him. We said that even though Candidate A had been at her position for six years, we know that she had interviewed for other positions as early as during her second year of employment. We told him that we also knew that she had interviewed several other times over the past couple of years but that she just had not found something ideal.
It was at this point that the hiring manager clearly realized that his assumptions about length of employment and loyalty were unjust.
Again, the point of this post is to say there are a lot of misconceptions about what certain things mean on a resume.
Are there any other you are aware of?
