Employers questions - vetting candidates

Charles asks: When you are facing a pile of resumes and limited time there is always a temptation to move too fast through the pile. What do you do to ensure that a golden nugget does not slip through your hands? If there is one or two things that someone could do to improve the chances of their resume being read, what would they be? On the other hand, what one or two things will ensure that a resume is not read?

In answer: One word - relevance! Too many applicant responses suggests a badly written advert. If applicants don't hit the (three/five) key criteria in the advert in the first half page, put them in one of three piles: possible, interesting, thank you. If there is something there but they still haven't answered the relevance question in the first page, its a "thank you." But my answer shouldn't be a surprise - a well written resume/CV should address the needs of the advert in the same half page length.

Send the thank you pile a thank you letter - if they don't match the stated criteria, then they are not suitable candidates. Follow up the possible column with a telephone call, and add the interesting column if there are not enough good candidates coming through the process - it is possible if the advert was poorly written, that a large pile of CV's/resumes mean few good and suitable applicants.