Do corporations REALLY look at resumes?

Question

I send some off, and hear NOTHING....
Was it even opened????

Answer 1

Yes, they very much look at resumes. If you aren't getting called, it is because your resume needs to be tailored for the positions you are applying for, or beefed up. It depends on who is competing against you for the same positions and how qualified they are.
I would recommend getting someone with some hiring experience to look over your resume and provide some constructive criticism.

Answer 2

Yes, they generally do, but a lot of times they have a huge stack of resumes and yours may get buried at the bottom of the pile. Put yourself in their shoes; if you had 2 jobs to fill and 250 resumes, would you sit there and read through every single one?

All you can do is keep putting your resume out there. It's a numbers game. If enough employers receive your resume, sooner or later someone will call you for an interview. It can be frustrating, sometimes you'll hear nothing for weeks or even months on end. You just have to be patient and bear with it.

Also keep your eyes and ears open for other opportunities, i.e. personal friends or acquaintances who know someone looking to hire an employee. Some of the best job opportunities pop up exactly this way.

Answer 3

Many companies receive, and have to sift through, dozens of resumes (hundreds, possibly thousands, if you're talking about large corporations). Chances are, the company representative -- usually in the HR department -- skimmed over your resume, looking at the following: Experience, type of degree, GPA, and university from which you received your degree. After reviewing your qualifications, the employer determines if there is a match for the position.

Since you haven't been contacted for an interview, you might want to work on your resume and cover letter. There are many websites which offer tools and templates for this. Good luck!

Answer 4

Yes, most corporations Human Resources Departments look at submitted Resumes. However, a lot of people lie on their resume so they don't give them much weight. A CEO of a major corporation was fired last year because he lied on his resume.

Typically the HR Staffer goes through the stack or resumes, looking at the tittle. They toss those that don't interest them and then scan those that do. They give the product of the second selection to their boss who will then read them and decide who to interview.

Try Monster.com, the Resume Center: http://resume.monster.com/
They will give you some advice on what a good resume needs.
Job Well: http://www.jobweb.com/resources/Library/Interviews__Resumes/Seven_Tips_for__271_1.htm
Has some resume tips. Make sure you spell check them. Poor spelling and grammar almost always gets your resume tossed in the trash can. Have some other professional you know read your final resume, they might have some good advice, or they will notice some mistakes that you might have missed.

Answer 5

I used to work in the human resources department for a company, processing resumes.

We tried to at least skim over every resume recieved. We sorted them into piles, depending on the positions for which we were currently hiring.

Once we got them into the piles, we skimmed over them again. But we're human. We probably did do a little "face valuing." We looked quickly at job references, how legible the handwriting was on the attached application, residence distance from our company - these things that jumped out at us.

My tips for you, based on what made me put resumes to the side and look at the next one:

*Make sure your resume is one page only (I would set the ones down that were long and wordy).

*Make the mission statement short and catchy - and no bs like "I want to be valuable to your company." Blah blah, they're not buying it.

*Use a normal font - nothing off the wall.

*QUADRUPLE-CHECK for grammar errors!!!! I can't stress that enough. If I saw misspelled words, typos, or grammar errors, I laughed and moved on. This is a biggy!

*Only put your most pertinent (to the position for which you are applying) past employers on the resume. Save the meaningless ones for your application.

*Find a great resume layout. For me, an eye-catching (meaning something simple and not cluttered) resume did the trick many times.


You may think some of this sounds unfair - like employers should only look at the qualifications. That is our goal, but we're human so certain things will draw us to or away from an applicant very quickly. It really is all about the resume - and not purely about the content, either!

Answer 6

Chances are they get hundreds, especially if the corpotation is big or well-known. Why would they want to look through all of that in the hope that they might find some winner at the bottom when they can just choose the person closest to the top?

Answer 7

yes they look at your credentials, but most certainly at your experience. It takes time. try to find out about the company. put together a cover letter with some company facts in it. this may get their attention. or get professional resume writing help.

Answer 8

If your Cover letter doesn't capture them there is a large chance they won't even waste time with your resume....Do you have a functional resume? if not get one.....google a template....

Answer 9

probably. it depends on what the position was and how many other people applied. competition's pretty stiff these days and sometimes only major points are examined. where you went to university. what your gpa and major were. sometimes extracurricular activities are considered...all to generally assess how well you'd fit with the organization, and if you're up to the job.

Answer 10

call them and follow up, be very polite when doing so.