Corporate Recruitment: What Resumes Won’t Reveal

As corporate recruitment practices go, resumes are pretty much the primary contact between the company and a potential candidate. From the candidate’s point-of-view, the resume is the main tool that they use search for jobs and introduce themselves to would-be interviewers, if it comes to that stage. The candidate, on the other hand, would easily find a lot of information on the company. There’s the website and the corporate blog, there are industry news reports, and a plethora of data out there on the WWW.

Corporate Recruitment: The Limitations of a Resume

After all, if the old adage about just how long first impressions last is true, the amount work that goes into making and refining a resume is hardly surprising. However, this opportunity for repeated refinement is what makes the resume an unreliable tool for assessing a candidate, something that the managers in charge of corporate recruitment understand well. It presents an incomplete, and all too often, overtly embellished picture of the person in question.

Yes, it does bring the folks in corporate recruitment up to date with the salient points of an applicant’s education and work details. They may make for a useful reference point with which to begin an interview, but recruiters know better than to form any concrete impressions at this stage.

Personality Traits Judged During  the Corporate Recruitment Process

Corporate recruitment programs are designed to spot suitable talents among the candidates for a given profile, not mere people who’ll ‘do a job’. Thus, scanning beyond just the resume, and reading between the lines are some of the skills that are a must for those working in corporate recruitment.

An unsuitable hire is more than just a mistake; it is a liability. Getting it right the first time is what the corporate recruitment people get paid for. That said, there are some important traits that a resume cannot shed light upon. This is, of course, under the assumption that the resume in question is impeccably written and does not betray any signs of exaggeration, resume bloating or false claims.

What the Candidate’s Resume Won’t Tell You

Here some facets of an applicant’s personality and work experience that do not shine through on paper:

1. People skills: A resume may list all the awards, achievements and recognitions that a person has to his/ her credit, but you won’t be able to judge whether they’re team players who can be productive within the bigger picture or if they’re lone-wolf types who’d rather go it alone than suffer the company of others to perform the tasks at hand.
2. Ability to Handle Pressure: How would a person do when forced to think on the move, and solve problems that have no precedents and hence there are no scripted ways of tackling them.
3. Integrity & Moral Fiber: These qualities cannot be judged by reading a paper description of a person, no matter how well written.
4. Work Ethic: No resume would tell you if the person who otherwise reads like a recruiter’s dream-come-true on paper is actually a habitual gossip who spends the majority of the productive hours goofing off and distracting others.
5. Charisma: It may come across as unimportant or secondary, but a candidate’s people skills and ability to think on their feet depend on this to a large extent. This is another hard to gauge quality that a skillful writer may nevertheless manage to convey through a well-written cover note.
6. Leadership Ability: Corporate recruitment specialists are looking to hire people who are not just good worker but also exhibit positive leadership traits, as any organization wants to recruit tomorrow’s leaders. This is something a candidate has to try and convey in the interview.

So while corporate recruitment involves looking at the  person beyond the piece of paper that tries to adequately (and often unsuccessfully) define that person, prospective hires would do well to try and put their best foot forward with the resume itself. Stress on strengths and achievements that you would like to elaborate upon in the eventuality of being called for an interview. Above all, try not to make it an impersonal account. It is a description of you, after all; make sure the flavor goes through.

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