A new report from Kovasys IT Recruitment answers a question that many IT candidates are asking: "Why are the
technology recruiters ignoring my resume?" We have sat down with
Alex Kovalenko, a technical recruiting manager at
Kovasys Inc. with operations in Toronto, Montreal,
New York and San Francisco, to discuss. "If a tech recruiter can not tell within ten seconds that you are worth a call then your resume will go straight into a recycle bin. Keep in mind that at our firm recruiters can review up to 50 resumes every day and can not spend hours reviewing resumes," said Alex Kovalenko with Kovasys Inc.
Mr. Kovalenko says that there are seven reasons why IT recruiters could potentially reject your resume and are as follows:
1. Firstly, when a recruiter looks over a resume – he or she wants to find experience in the field. If a candidate is a PHP Developer with no object oriented development experience and the job is for an object oriented Java Developer - the recruiter is not going to call. Companies are paying recruiters to find an apple to fill an apple job. Companies are not paying recruiters to help candidates transfer their skills from one field to another. If a company is going to pay a recruiter a significant retainer fee, they expect a perfect match.
2. What is candidate's level or title? If the recruiter is searching for a team lead developerand a candidate's title is a senior developer, that candidate should not expect an interview with the recruiter. Again, the recruiter is hired to find a team lead developer, not to squeeze a senior developer into a team lead position. On the other hand, if the client wants a senior developer and a candidate is a team lead - that candidate is over-qualified and even if he or she thinks they can do a senior developer's job the client will not. The first team lead job that comes along might interest that candidate more, causing the recruiter and the company to suspect that you are going to pursue the better opportunity; neither party is willing to risk that.
3. The next area the recruiter is going to look at is the most recent experience. If the client wants a Linux Systems Administrator for a hosting company and a candidate has the experience, but it was over five years ago, recruiter will reject the resume. Any good recruiter can find a candidate with that current familiarity. If candidate was a good Linux Administrator five years ago and have not worked in that area since, their skills might be nowhere near contemporary due to new technologies like virtualization, vmware, etc.
4. Location, location, location. If a client is in New York and a candidate is in Miami - that candidate will most likely not get an interview. Relocating candidates is just too problematic if there is a viable candidate in the client's location. In addition, most companies are not interested in paying for relocation in a bad economy. Moreover, there is usually the additional challenge of a spouse who must also relocate and find a job.
5. The next aspect the recruiter will look at is whether the industry experience matches the client's. Again this is not an economy that allows for deciding whether skills will transfer from one industry to another. If candidate is in medical software development and the job is in financial development - the recruiter will not be calling. Skills might transfer and candidate might become a financial software developer, but it is not up to the recruiter to do that.
6. Education is the next big thing to consider and this one can be an automatic killer. Most recruiters are looking for a Masters in Computer Science or Engineering because they are hired to find the best candidates. No company will be paying a recruiter for a non-degreed or Bachelor of Arts candidate.
7. If candidate does not hold any position for an extensive period of time, job seeker should not expect an interview with a recruiter. a If candidate had six jobs in the last four years there better be a very good reason for it.
And last but not least says Alex Kovalenko: "List your accomplishments and what technologies you have worked with the two - three companies you have worked for. Make sure your resume is two pages long (even if you have worked for over 10 years) and is in traditional and chronological format."
