RESUMES: are you willing to ACCEPT or do you REJECT a HOT MESS?

Should a resume with inarticulate or incoherent content, misspellings, grammatical gaffes, poor punctuation, typos or funky format be rejected? Or, no biggie?

I recently posted an article on this topic on LI and the overall consensus was:

I'm an illiterate moron and have no business judging qualifications
Pointless, poorly written, nonsense-riddled article - waste of time to read
Everything and everyone related to HR/Recruiting is the problem not anyone's resume

Posting article link below in case anyone cares to see the actual content and/or comments - that by the way are full of vitriol from POd "professionals"

The #1 Reason for Resume Rejection

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Permalink Reply by Linda Ferrante on May 15, 2014 at 9:59pm

I blame Simon Cowell for individuals thinking they can blast anyone they want simply because they want to. It's a shame he and his poor attitude have made it so mainstream (speaking of the commentors, not your post).

Regarding poorly written resumes, YES, they should not be considered if they are full of garbage. I'm OK with a couple typos (within reason) and EVERY candidate gets a pass on formatting (everyone has their own opinion of what is 'important' on a resume, so formatting isn't important). What IS important to me is the actual description of what they've done, what they are looking for, etc. If they can't communicate it in writing, how are they going to be on the job (assuming the job requires them to be able to write).

If a recruiter rejects a resume due to ONE typo, or the formatting, or the font, then they shouldn't be in this business. We, as recruiters, must be able to look past the facade of the resume to see who the person is behind it. THAT makes the difference, not what's on the resume. You do need a well presented resume, however, to get the attention of the recruiter.....sort of a double edged sword, isn't it?!

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Permalink Reply by Keith Halperin on May 16, 2014 at 11:46am

@ Kelly: Whoa! How'd you get so many responses? They were talking about all sorts of things over there.

Well done!

-kh

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Permalink Reply by Steve Levy on May 19, 2014 at 10:24am

Ms. Blokdijk...

One: and I'm being authentic here - your last name draws people in. Deal with it...

Two: the employment situation has created an atmosphere of tension and hate such that whenever people see a real recruiter in public, they jump ugly with them, regardless of how much sense the recruiter actually makes.

Three: there are generations of perfect and qualified people out there - whose parents still have the "Honor Student" bumper stickers from elementary and middle school on their cars - who believe that they truly are great. You telling them that they're not is like unleashing pyroclastic flow from a dormant volcano.

But damn Kelly, Keith's right - that's a boatload of responses. Well done girl!

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Permalink Reply by Chadd Balbi on May 21, 2014 at 10:35am

I worked for a company whose CEO would send out emails on a monthly basis riddled with spelling errors. It was bad. And we all joked that he is so high up on the food chain that who was going to correct him? Point is, his spelling errors didn't keep him from running a successful global, billion dollar company.

In my opinion the art of hiring is becoming ridiculous. It's as if every company wants the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates and in their mind they need to be flawless throughout the hiring process. Sure if the Java Developer you are hiring doesn't know the first thing about Java than there are some red flags there. But if the talent and skills are there, I think it is ok to look past some spelling errors.