Reading Resumes

I don’t know exactly what to do with all of the math I learned in school. The basics I use everyday, but the advanced stuff hasn’t done me a whole lot of good. One thing I can be certain of, though, is that math should not be used to evaluate a potential employee. To find the best employee one shouldn’t look only at the education and work history and think that adds up to a great employee. Resumes aren’t math problems whose solutions are absolute. But, far too often, they are treated that way.

To really locate the best candidate in a stack of resumes, you will actually need to access the skills picked up in literature class. You will need to read the resumes with more of an interpretive mind, and less of an algebraic one.

To get it out of the way, yes, education is important in many circumstances. If you’re hiring for an engineering position it does help if that person is educated in that arena. But for many other positions a wide array of degrees and experiences may apply. For instance, in my office that primarily deals in communications, we have a Literature major, Political Science major, Education major, Philosophy major and a person with no higher than a high school diploma.

All of these employees do fantastic jobs. We wouldn’t lose any of them for any reason. But, if we had only required a communications or marketing degree for the position, we wouldn’t have any of them.

What tipped it for us was their total resume, not just the pieces. Reading the resumes carefully, including awards won, volunteer programs served and their cover letter is what led us to these great finds. In fact, it was in every aspect of the resume except education and work history that we found the qualities we were looking for in many of these people. For instance, if a person hasn’t graduated college, and currently works at a mall store, but has self published two books — that’s someone we might want to talk to about a writing job.

The key is to be able to look past society’s expectations for a professional and find one that fits your needs and your company.