With apologies to Maroon 5, let's try different take on that hit song and most importantly, it's title. I've written a lot about getting hired and little about what it's like to be the one doing the hire.
I hired a few people when at NPR mostly as temp, fill-in employees while I produced one of the shows. Most of my employees were for the position of Executive Producer for "Intern Edition," the online only radio and multimedia content site created entirely by NPR's interns. I did this for about 10 years, three times a year and for the summer term, we specifically sifted through nearly 1,000 resumes each year. That's a lot of paper cuts. And, I'm consulting on a project now and part of that project's hiring committee too.
Often I'm asked, "What do you look for?" when searching outside of what's written in the job description. There are state and federally mandated requirements for public advertising of open jobs. For example, if the job is with a large institution there are rules on what can be said and what cannot be written down. Once those rules are followed, there are still intangibles which take an applicant from one of maybe 150-200 resumes to that in-person interview.
This posting was extremely interesting and nailed my thinking when I was hiring interns. I like the term "jagged resume." These are people who (minus typos and grammatical mistakes) do qualify for the job, but their aspirations and work histories are not listed as some form of birthright. They've dipped, bobbed, weaved, swerved and probably even chilled during their ascent. I know many of my former interns who had resumes like that-- the jagged ones.
From the other side of the table, here is some advice:
- Please thoroughly read the job description and only apply for the job that actually fits your work experiences.
- Do not expect to land a management job if you have never managed people.
- Know thyself well. Are you convinced you can do the job or do you hope you can do the job? We can tell by your cover letter.
- Do not apply for two (or more) positions within the same company using the same resume. The hiring committee is skilled. We'll catch you.
- Ask yourself, "What are they really asking of this future employee?" Tailor your cover letter with that question in mind.
- Pitch ideas. Don't say, "I think you people need to do blah blah blah.." Instead say, "I thought of a couple of ideas and I hope you don't mind if I share them with you." And then, keep them brief, to the point, and don't get overly emotional.
- Highlight and push only relevant work experiences. Ex: If you are applying to work with young people, talk a lot about your previous work with young people.
And finally, if you have a jagged resume, talk openly about what you learned about yourself while zigging and zagging. We who look upon hiring as a bit more art than science will appreciate it.
*Chantal de la Rionda edits this blog.
