HR Resources » Human Resource Advice » Recruitment Strategies » Analyzing Resumes

You've advertised that you are recruiting for a particular position, and now have a significant number of resumes to sort through. The key now is to extract the vital details from these resumes so that you may compile a list of the best available candidates. Here are the critical elements that you should look for.

Key skills & achievements
•    How would their skills benefit you?
•    Have they showed that they can set goals and achieve them?
•    How involved have they been in other studies?
•    Do their key skills correlate with the job?
•    What makes them unique?

Qualifications & education
•    Do they have the educational background needed to complete the job?
•    Have they done other courses to develop their skills?
•    Have they exemplified a professional standard in their studies?

Employment
•    How long have they been with each employer?
•    Have they worked for a variety of different employers? Consider size and                  structure/systems, team size, location and nature of the business
•    What was their position, and who did they report to?
•    What clients have they worked for?
•    Have they put forward any initiatives?
•    Did they receive any promotions?
•    What were their responsibilities?
•    What successes have they achieved?
•    Have they been unemployed for a long duration?
•    Have they traveled or gained relevant non-work related experience?
•    Have they worked from the bottom up? Do they have any grounding or skills that would help them in the position?

Related to analyzing resumes
•    How to effectively screen resumes
•    Job reference checks
•    Pre-employment screening