Reading Between the Lines

A resume is often the first introduction to a potential employee?s education, work experience, and career objectives. Basic information, to be sure, but can you learn a great deal about a person from this? A surprising amount, actually. Enough for you to decide on next steps, and there is an efficient way to do so.You should first scan the resume for keywords you would expect successful candidates to have. For instance, if I want to hire somebody for a clinical or regulatory position, I look for ?NDA approval? or ?IND submissions? as keywords. If I am looking for a scientist to run my high-throughput screening lab, I look for those words. If the keyword is not there, I move on to another resume. Resume-reading machines can help with this first step but I don?t use them, because resume writing is not standardized and the machines tend to miss relevant information. In some companies, the human resources department will take care of this step.Next, I take in the resume as a whole. How are the data presented and what is the overall format? Fancy styling such as large or showy fonts make a resume hard to read (because the information is spread over too many pages) and may tip you off to somebody who does not present relevant data in a concise format, who tends to value form over substance, or who may have an inflated sense of self-importance.The next information I look for are the last three places of employment. How are they presented? I look for the logic connecting the last three positions: Does the career progression make sense or are there strange jumps? Why, for example, would someone go from scientist to vice president to associate director? The first is a big jump up and the second an apparent step down. I also consider whether the current objective on the resume makes sense in light of the person?s recent employment history. For instance, if the person?s objective is ?obtaining an executive position? but the resume lists no managerial experience, I ask myself how realistic the objective is.I look at the educational history next. How long has each educational step taken, such as a postdoc position? And what about succeeding positions: Did the person progress if she stayed at the same company? Did she stay long enough in each assignment to achieve something meaningful? In most positions, a two- to four-year stay is ideal; making significant achievements in a shorter time, such as six to nine months, would be difficult. If circumstances have lead to shorter job stays (for instance, a company had a major layoff shortly after hiring a person), it should be mentioned in the resume.Always look for red flags showing inconsistencies. Examples include discrepancy in time sequence: Are there months or years missing? If you find something, flag it and follow-up with the person. Also, look for irregularities between education claimed and positions held. For instance, why would someone work as an associate scientist after earning a PhD and working for four years as a postdoc? Or why did he not list the years of graduating: Did he spend seven years as an undergrad? Did it take eight years to get a PhD?Look for resumes that answer rather than raise questions. Such applicants are clear in how they understand and communicate their experiences. These are important indicators for success in subsequent jobs.At this point, you should have a fairly good idea of what each person has done and how he or she might fit a given position. For those who do not pass muster, you should send an E-mail that you can modify as needed to thank the person for the resume: ?I have reviewed your background and came to the conclusion that you are not a good fit for the open position.? If you plan to keep resumes on file, state so; otherwise just thank them for their interest.If you want to continue the screening process, it is time to consider either a screening interview by phone or an in-person interview. You should also begin a basic reference check of academic degrees and the candidate?s last three positions.Ruedi Sandmeier is managing director of the healthcare/life sciences executive search firm BioQuest in San Francisco.rsandmeier@the-scientist.com

Reading Between the Lines

How to judge people by their resumes

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