It's not you, it's me
Having recently reviewed several marketing students’ resumes for a potential internship position at my firm this fall, I’ve been wondering how the HR departments at much larger organizations evaluate resumes and applicants beyond the evidence of required and relevant education and work experience. After qualifying applicants based on the criteria and requirements listed in the job posting, how do you distinguish those who will have the right fit with the organization? I wonder why the resume trends using creative formats and media, adding colours and graphics, or simply doing something unique, haven’t really caught on. I would have thought that in the field of marketing, and in light of technology and new media, these styles of resumes would be more prevalent. Are they acceptable from an employer standpoint and are the applicants that use them any more successful?
The trend of video resumes has received some attention recently, which a recent article in the Globe and Mail entitled "Would You Hire These People?", evaluated and also highlighted the websites VoiceJob.com for employees to post video resumes and StandoutJobs.com for employers to post video job postings. The ridicule that one job seeker received when his video resume was leaked to YouTube "Impossible is Nothing" likely discouraged many applicants from trying a new medium for their resume as well as triggered red flags in Human Resources (HR) departments.
Thus, it still seems as though it’s often a judgement call or gut feeling from the job searchers’ perspective on whether such a resume format will be valued. Background research on the company and insight into its values, employee philosophy and key clients or customers ought to offer a potential applicant an idea of what that company will deem appropriate and desirable in a resume format. Although this may not always be reliable, just as it is not always the case that who a company says it is, is not always how you perceive it.
This comes down to the concept of a company’s overall brand - how it translates in the minds of the general public, consumers and external stakeholders and how it filters down into its internal stakeholders, employees and different departments, such HR. If a company’s brand suggests its products and services are fun and innovative, but its culture is conservative and slow to change, then there may be some confusion as to how employees “live the brand” or how the brand is understood internally. A recommendation is for HR and marketing to create recruitment advertising in cooperation to ensure that the brand message is clearly portrayed and that the internal brand is evident in all communications with potential candidates and future employees.
This can be useful for the person(s) selecting applicants, but also for the applicants themselves as they can present their qualifications, skills and experience to the companies that they most want to work for in ways that will get them noticed. Some online formats make resumes appear bland and basic, especially when all of the applicants are attempting to use the ‘key words’ and specified information in order to be picked up in a search, but there are still ways to grab the readers’ attention and standout. It may not be something ‘off-the-wall’ that will fit with the organizations’ brand, but understanding what the brand looks and feels like from an internal perspective could lead to a more streamlined hiring process.
Since the hiring requirements for an internship at Brand Matters often involve fewer candidates, I have found that it’s quite acceptable and helpful to request that a small project be prepared as a second stage of the hiring process. This can incorporate different skills and also offer insight into a candidate’s expectations and understanding of how my firm works.
