Less than five minutes — that is how much time a resume is reviewed before it is decided whether a job candidate proceeds to the next step in the hiring process, according to a new Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Resumes, Cover Letters and Interviews Survey released April 28. Additionally, almost all respondents (93 percent) said inaccuracies in resumes either sometimes (73 percent) or always (20 percent) negatively impacted their decision to extend a job interview.
“Regarding interview process and etiquette, the research shows that smaller organizations expect more of the personal touches from candidates, such as sending thank you notes and cover letters,”said Evren Esen, director of SHRM’s Survey Programs. ”arger companies were more likely to have panel or structured interviews than smaller organizations.”
When those surveyed were asked what gave candidates a positive edge over the competition, top answers included chronologically organized resumes (66 percent), resumes in bulleted format (43 percent) and resumes tailored to a specific industry (43 percent).
Seventy-seven percent of HR professionals also said job candidates should explain in a job interview that they were fired or laid off from a position. Fifty-seven percent of participants indicated that job candidates should neither emphasize nor hide gaps in employment
Additional findings include:
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Resumes: The majority of HR professionals (76 percent) said that job candidates should either include 8 to 10 years (38 percent) or all years (38 percent) of relevant job history; two-thirds (66 percent) of organizations prefer chronological resumes, which list education and experience in reverse order; and the majority of respondents (68 percent) prefer to receive resumes through their organization’s website, followed by email (14 percent).
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Cover letters: Employers with fewer than 500 employees (33 percent) are more likely to ask for a cover letter than organizations (17 percent) with more than 500 employees; and the most important aspects of a cover letter are how the job candidate’s work experience meets the job requirements (51 percent), how the job candidate’s skills meet the job requirements (48 percent), and why the candidate wants to work at the organization (45 percent).
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Interviews and etiquette: Sending a thank you note after an interview is more important to smaller (less than 100 employees) and private-sector businesses than larger (more than 100 employees) and government organizations; panel and structured interviews are more common among government organizations, while semi-structured and screening interviews are more common among private-sector businesses; and the most common advice from HR: Address gaps in employment, bring a resume to the interview, arrive 15 minutes early, and address any employment that ended in firing.
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SHRM surveyed 411 randomly selected organization members throughout the United States.
Source: Society for Human Resource Management; www.shrm.org.
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