What Employers Look for in Resumes?

The research service polled 76 representatives of employers to find out what they pay attention to in the resume of candidates in the first place. The question was: please evaluate the importance of the various resume parameters that you pay attention to when evaluating applicants. Here are some survey results on what employers look for in resumes.

Survey-based results:

We asked employers to rate several key parameters from 1 to 5, where 1 is completely insignificant, 5 is very significant, and 0 is difficult to answer. It was necessary to give a high rating to the parameters that employers pay attention to in the first place (regardless of the vacant position), and less importance to less significant parameters, as well as those that are highly dependent on a specific position. Here are the average scores for the proposed options:

• Experience in the required position, specialty – 4.2;
• Expected salary level – 3.9;
• Personal qualities – 3.9;
• The level of basic education is 3.8;
• Desired work schedule, type of employment – 3.8;
• Total work experience, all previous jobs – 3.7;
• The age of the candidate is 3.5;
• Recommendations from previous jobs — 3.0;
• Additional education – 2.8;
• Knowledge of English – 2.1;
• Knowledge of a second foreign language (any) – 1.3.

We also asked employers to write down what other resume parameters they evaluate, in addition to those that were not indicated in the previous question. Here are the responses we received:

• Period of work at three previous places of work;
• Photography, resume structure, general literacy;
• The proximity of residence to work;
• A detailed description of responsibilities, functions at previous jobs, availability of examples of completed projects, achievements & successful innovations;
• Achievements in projects on which the person worked;
• How long has the candidate been looking for a job?
• Responsibilities and functions at previous jobs.

Reasons for not accepting a job:

In parallel, we conducted a survey among 11,000 job seekers about their experience in finding a job, and, among other things, asked about the reasons why they were denied a job. Of the respondents, 10% answered that they had not encountered refusals from the employer, 31% answered that they did not know the reason for the refusal, and among those who knew the reason, the most popular answers were:

• Insufficient, irrelevant qualifications, experience or knowledge – 19%;
• Other candidates turned out to be something better than me – 19%;
• The employer suspended hiring for a vacancy – 17%;
• Insufficient work experience in the profile – 15%;
• There is no necessary education, qualification or diploma – 12%;
• Due to age or health problems – 12%;
• I had high salary expectations – 10%;
• I live too far from my place of work – 7%;
• They cannot provide a work schedule that is convenient for me – 6%;
• There are no personal qualities that would allow you to join the team – 3%.

Also read : How to create a perfect resume?

As we can see, neither for employers nor for applicants, the age factor has become the most significant factor in choosing a suitable candidate and rejecting unsuitable ones. However, if we consider the same answers of applicants depending on the age groups to which they belong, it is noticeable that the older the age of the respondents, the more often they named age as the reason for refusal.