The Resume “Blink Test”

We don’t use Monster, Dice or CareerBuilder to find our next employee. Instead we are big fans of Craigslist and highly focused community sites. For instance, when we are looking for CSS Expert we’ll target CSS Beauty.

Any job posting usually nets 20 resumes a day for at least 1 week after the posting. Experience ranges widely across any of the resumes we receive. We’ve seen everything from individuals who think they are a God’s gift to us; to people who have amazing web skills but send resumes loaded with typos and broken links.

We don’t read every line in a resume. We don’t have time for that, instead we believe in the “Blink Test“. We are looking at each resume for “it”, whatever “it” is. This means that each resume is scanned and decided on in less then 20 seconds. If we find a resume which takes longer then 20 seconds to evaluate we move it to the “maybe” pile and it’s passed onto the office for evaluation. If the majority of the office is intrigued then we move the resume to the “strong” pile where we proceed to the interview process.

So what is “it”?
There is consistency to our approach. I believe there is a set of 4 characteristics that the “maybe” and “strong” piles have in common.

• Simplicity: We look at the candidate’s ability to communicate their skills in the most concise way possible. This extends into code and design, not just written communication.
• Honesty: Yes, everyone believes they are hardworking, dedicated and organized. However, let us call references to figure that out for ourselves.
• Show Us: We are not looking a monster list of applications used, but instead we are looking for examples of how the tools were used to solve problems.
• Writing Skills: It’s tough to hide the inability to write. If the resume is fraught with poor grammar, typos and sentence structure then it will lead to ineffective email communication or poor internal documentation. (This one personally is my biggest challenge.)

So, if you know anyone who has these characteristics and is looking for an job, send them our way.