People applying for entry level positions in any industry can span an interesting gamut. You’ve got the young up-and-comers, eager to get their career started and move up to those higher paying jobs. You’ve got the end-of-career time-fillers looking for something to do to keep retirement from being purposeless. You’ve also got the delightful set that comprises the wastes-of-space, the lazy bums, and the outright jerks. Regrettably, those folks tend to take up the majority of the pie chart.
The thing that makes it interesting is figuring out which is which. I make a game of it, myself, and, judging based on my abysmal success rate, have learned that a resume is an absolute garbage method of teasing out personal characteristics. Now, to be fair, it is usually still easier to place a potential candidate when someone submits a resume with their application. I will then qualify the “still easier” by stating a quarter of the time someone does submit a resume with their application, they've applied in the past with a different resume that either doesn’t match prior submissions or has some amount of conflicting information.
I guess it's hard keeping your work history straight when you're pulling it out of your backside at the flip of a coin (?).
Anyway, the bar does get higher when someone is applying for a high-level position (i.e., not school cafeteria attendant or entry-level assembly): We expect him or her to submit a resume with his/her application, and you can be sure the resume gets a bit more scrutiny than what may be discussed over the water cooler for giggles. It's a high-level position, so we'll only be reviewing high-caliber candidates with the wherewithal to generate a quality, written resume. If a legitimately qualified candidate forgot to submit the resume and actually has one, they'll call to follow up, and we can get the resume at that time.
If they call and don't have a resume ready, I'm not interested.
If they don't call and also didn’t submit a resume, auto-reject.
And so we get to the anecdote portion of the post: I recently spoke to a candidate who applied for a quality control inspector position that lists, in the job description, a requirement of at least five years of experience in quality control, specifically for medical devices, including a variety of different processes/documenting procedures with which the candidate needed to be familiar in order to be considered for the position. Our conversation?
Me: You applied for a quality control inspector position, but there was no medical device inspection experience listed. Do you have an updated resume to send in for review?
Guy: No.
Me: Well, the hiring manager does require an updated resume detailing your experience be sent over for his review.
Guy: So, y'all gon' judge me based on my resume?
Me: Yes. The position requires specific experience as listed in the job description. If your resume does not indicate that you have said experience or, frankly, anything relatable to that experience, then you will not be considered for the position as you are lacking the basic requirements of the job.
Guy: Fucking disrespectful judgin' me on my resume.
Me: Now am I not only judging you on your resume and lack of relevant work history, your attitude would indicate you are not someone I'm willing to hire. Have a good day.
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