We are awash in resumes. It is readily apparent when speaking with recruiters and hiring managers that we are swimming in a deep, deep sea of resumes, the vast majority of which are simply unqualified. This is not just a sign of our times though given the current economic environment and (still) rising unemployment. Simply put, we have as an industry become enablers of the serial resume submitter; a dark, lonesome soul that believes applying to thousands of jobs a week regardless of his or her applicable skills is a sound job search strategy. Yes, that is correct, we gave birth to this creation through our email links to submit resumes, online job boards single click submit buttons, resume submission web forms, and applicant tracking tools. We made it easy, too easy.

I had seen many suggestions to ridding ourselves of such a menace, such as penalizing the job boards, asking applicants to pay a fee to submit resumes, writing unqualified job applicants nasty grams, using more intelligent resume scanning tools, etc. However, the core of the problem is our undying attachment to resumes and job descriptions. Let’s face reality and recognize that such artifacts have been abject failures in providing the depth needed to identify the right candidates. Most job descriptions are poorly written without regard to the current needs of the position and resumes are loaded to overabundance with key words to pass through resume scanning tools. Given this as a starting point, is it any wonder we ever find the right person?

Stay tuned tomorrow for Part II of our story where we slay this beast…