‘Recruiters spend 6 seconds evaluating individual online resumes/CVs’
That’s it. Six. The self-reporting by recruiters indicated 4-5 minutes, but using eye tracking techniques, the reality turned out to be different: 6 seconds.
I sometimes think that we don’t realise the magnitude of our own limitations in attention span, how fast judgement are past, and the implications of the Instant World.
The same study suggested that visual photoshop/cosmetic/photo arrangements did not help. In fact they were considered a sort of distraction, whilst a good logic, hierarchical and simple layout always seem to win.
If ‘recruiting’ (or at least screening) has anything to do with evaluating possibilities based upon facts expressed somewhere (piece of paper, online piece, digital presence in different digital real estates) a robot may do a better job, certainly an algorithm.
I am bringing ‘recruiting’ as a proxy topic for scanning noise and signal, making judgements and decisions.
People need to know what they exposed themselves to. If using a online jobs platform, you are in the hands of an algorithm and keywords. If you don’t like this, don’t use it. If you want humans to deal with this, make sure you find the best, that is, the ones that don’t go to other people’s algorithms but make personal judgements.
If you have a complex, great idea to sell and you are invited to sell it in an elevator ride, refuse it. If you want to be in a Dragons Den, you know what the rules will be and the dose of articulation, presentation and impact required. If you don’t have these, don’t go.
If you write about complex topics, twitter is not your medium. If you speak about serous management or leadership topics, don’t do after dinner speeches (I never do).
It’s incredible how we become blind to the rules of the game(s), pretending that they will be bent just for us: our online resume/CV will be fully digested; a series of twitters will explain your complex ideas about economic inequality; if you could just get together with the CEO in the elevator, you would sell that idea; if you are invited to pitch, only substance will win; if you are given a ten minute slot to speak you can pack a whole sixty minute keynote, etc.
You are fooling yourself.
All those chances are well below a bad evening in a Monte Carlo roulette. The rules will not be bent for you. It’s better to decide that your ideas need to find ways to be sold, than to blindly use the available but unsuitable channels. Know your chances, consult with a statistician, decide what avenues you will not follow. What not to do is more important than the alternative.
Credit to David Siegel for prompting the recruiter study in theladders.com
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