A good Resume is a gateway for a
candidate into an organization. In so many instances my inbox would be flooded
with 100’s of resumes for a single position. The easiest way I choose to
shortlist the candidates then were the following:
> Educational
Qualification,
> Relevant
Work Experience and
> Present
& Expected Salary levels
With the above filter, my choice would
reduce to a dozen resumes which will make my life simpler. This is the standard
process I was introduced to and many industry recruiters follow this filter
too. However let me now explain how I got this filter strategy wrong especially
when handling Middle & Senior level position.
Educational Qualification:
To explain with an example, walk into
an IT company, you will notice thousands of Civil Engineers & Electrical
Engineers write programs. Most of them were not trained in Software (or)
Computer code while joining the organization. How do they manage to do it? While
the candidates bring the basic requirements of Analytical skills & logical
understanding, software is industry specific skill where they are trained by
their employers. It doesn’t matter what engineer you are, do you have it in you
to perform the given task. That matters the most.
Lesson 1: The first lesson I learnt was to look beyond their educational
qualification & see if a candidate has it in him/her to perform the job to
expected levels.
Relevant Work Experience:
For Generalist roles like HR,
Accounts, Finance and Sales it is not a crime to consider candidates from other
sectors. Rigidity doesn’t help here. Having candidates with cross sector
experience will bring in the best practices from other industry which can be
tailor-made to suit our organization.
Lesson 2: The Second lesson I learnt is for non-specialized jobs, cast your net
wide for a better catch.
Present & Expected
Salary levels:
Consider this situation.
You are looking to recruit a Chartered
Accountant for the post of DGM with 15 Yrs work Experience in all domains of
Finance. Salary level you have fixed for this position is Rs. 20 Lakhs/Year.
You stumble upon a candidate who is currently drawing Rs. 22 Lakhs/annum. What
do you do?
In first glance, I would not consider
his resume since it doesn’t meet my criteria.
However what if you understand after
the interview, the candidate has the potential to fit in CFO shoe who is due
for retirement in 2 years (or) can handle dual responsibilities of Finance
& Secretarial. His resume is worth considering. Isn’t it? Many
organizations recruit for the current opening without thinking if the candidate
will suit for the future organizational requirements. If one fits for future
requirements, then the premium we pay should not be a point of consideration.
This necessarily may not be a time
tested technique. But this is a gamble that has paid rich dividends in my
organization.
Lesson 3: For Senior positions, don’t just look into current scenario, see if the
candidate will fit into the organization for future requirement.
Fellow recruiters and HR
professionals, next time you go through a resume, remember that the Education,
Experience and Salary levels are just like a cover of a book and as the saying
goes, “Never judge a book by its Cover”
