Difficulties of Shortlisting and the Effects of Poor Grammar
Before I joined the Fresh HR Insights team I had always been on the employee side of the recruitment process and often wondered how they found the right person for the job? Did they just throw a pile of resumes in the air and hire the first candidate that landed face up on their desk? It was quite an eye opener to see the other side of the process and I quickly learned the difficultly that recruiters face.
Friday afternoon I posted the job advertisement only to walk back into the office on the Monday morning to 100 or more applications waiting to be reviewed and shortlisted. With the unemployment rate within the Gold Coast being 5.4% I shouldn’t have been surprised.
The objectives of shortlisting is to define the candidates that best fit the job description criteria provided and remove those candidates who do not.
After looking at 100 resumes it became quite clear to me how many individuals do not present themselves in a clear enough manner which best represents themselves, their abilities and their past employment. When having so many resumes to look through you need to make yourself stand out above the other 100 or more applications that also applied.
One critical element which stood out in many resumes was the lack of grammatical skills; this instantly provides the reader with a few assumptions. For example the reader may assume that you weren’t motivated or interested enough in the job to spend more time proofreading your application before submitting. According to a survey conducted by Jobvite 67% of recruiters have a negative reaction towards the use of poor grammar or spelling, this shows the importance of ensuring that you present an application, resume or cover letter with appropriate language and formatting.
Article provided to you by: Emily Fleming ‚ ¨ My Fresh Steps ‚ ¨ Resume Writing and Interview Coaching Service