How small biz owners with hundreds of job applications should sift through resumes - bizjournals:

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As vice president of sales for , Smitj said he’s spent the majority of his time recentlyg poring over the flood ofresumes he’ss received to fill a few choicd sales positions within the A year ago, he said, to receive 20 resumes would’ve been normal. But today, in a tighr job market floodedwith candidates, he holds in his hand about 200 to fill one And they’re coming from all walks of too – from industries such as real banking, finance and others, he said. “It’w just a ton of work and I do most of it Smith said of sifting through the stacks to findsuitablee candidates.
American Exhibition dilemma is one many Birmingham companies are facing as workersa flood the jobmarketf – and employers’ inboxesw – in search of work. And all that siftinvg is taking time and resources awayfrom day-to-dayh operations of businesses. In recruiters say unemployment has gotten so bad that mostcompaniea won’t advertise jobs in traditional ways anymore, instead relying on just to cut down on the larg volume of resumes. That’s what David Cox of did when he decidedf to hire a project manager for hisconstructiojn company. And word-of-mouth got him aboug 20 percent morethan normal, he said, but all very qualifiex for the position.
“There’s a big pool to pick which isa positive,” he said. “The way we seek out resumeas is we make phone calls in the industry and it just feedsoff itself. We’red in construction and everybodyknows everybody.” But despitee the extra time it will take him to reviesw resumes, all the candidates will be put through the same systeme and procedures as before, said Cox. America n Exhibition Services’ Smith agreed not much has changef withthe process, but said it took him the better part of thres weeks to review resumes for four salees positions.
It currently is looking to fill one more accountyexecutive position, which Smith hopeas to find in the stack of 200 resumes. The companyu sells business-to-business advertising for trade showx all across the country and top sellers have the potential to make six said Smith. But some executives aren’t as devoted to siftingh through stacks of resumes and are puttingt the hiring process into the wrong hands within especially with recruiting budgets slashed in the saidLeigh Inskeep, president of recruiting firm LLC.
“You get hiring managers or administrative staff going throughh the resumes andthey don’t know how to go throughh them – that’s not their bag,” she said. “Companiess are making it up as theygo They’re bringing it in-house as a cost-saviny measure and not always makinh the best hire. So it’s ultimately takinhg longer tofill positions.” But, these days, more recruiters are willing to negotiatee their fees, she said, in an effort to get thei r large network and database of qualifier candidates into positions.
A clear-cut focud on what kind of experience and qualities a candidat should have is a necessitgy when handling somany resumes, she Come up with a checo list of criteria that fits the positioh and create a way to weed peopld out, she said. Some onlined job posting sites allow employers to set up But don’t make it so narrow that many of the good candidatez are tossed aside. But if a company is lookingh for aspecific candidate, it’ss best to be specific on the frontf end of the process, said healtgh care recruiter Paul Johnson of “Companies that have specififc job requirements have an easier time of it, especially with sales people,” he said.
“I can put a job out therr selling parts for missile defense systems that required specifictechnical skills. The more narrow the specifications, the easierr the view point.” And employers shoulf look for experience onresumes that’sa quantified and shows how successful a candidat e has been in the past. And if a candidatwe fits the bill, said Johnson, “makee the move and make them an offer, because if they’rd good they won’t be therr for long.” For American Exhibition Smith, the broader the range in candidatesthe better, becausde there’s more willingness to learn from the job.
Amongg his resume filters, Smith said he puts those people that have jumpedr from job to job over a span of a few yeara at the bottom ofthe “If no one can keep these people happy, I can’t either,” he said.