There
is a watershed that you cross in your career when you
hire someone for the first time. It is at this juncture
that you really start to understand what is going on
in the recruitment process. Up until that point, most
people post or e-mail their CV / application form and
have no clear idea what happens to it. Here's the inside
gen ....
Recruiters
use a process called Screening to identify possible
good hires. Some companies use computers with OCR scanning
to start this process, but most still rely on the human
hand and eye .....
When
your application lands on the desk of the Managing Director
of a small company, the Human Resources Manager in a
large company, or a recruitment consultant in a placement
agency, he or she is going to do the following:
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Whizz
through your Curriculum Vitae and cover
letter to see if you remotely fit the requirements
of the position. This is called the First Pass
and it is at this point that upwards of 50%
of all applications end up in the bin. Fifty. |
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Some
companies now use computers to complete
the first pass - your application is scanned in
and the computer looks for key words. So
an untargeted or poorly presented application
(which doesn't scan well) may never be read by
a human being ... |
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Assuming
your target company still relies on human beings,
a competent hirer can get a taste for your experience,
qualifications and abilities in 10-30 seconds.
Remember - this is not an in-depth perusal
of your CV, some poor unfortunate just has to
plough through a large pile of documents and is
quickly checking your fit against the pre-determined
Minimum Entry Requirements. |
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If
you make it in any way difficult for him/her,
(s)he will not look kindly upon you. Chances are,
(s)he will not be looking at you at all - (s)he
will have binned you and moved on to the next
application in the pile. |
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If
you survive the first pass, you are on the Possible
pile. This is the (still quite large)
bunch of CVs or applications which roughly fit
the profile that the recruiter put in his/her
advertisement. |
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Then
the fun really starts
.... |
