I had a really positive phone interview with a principal from a small tech company today. We clicked as much as was possible over the phone, sharing similar opinions on things like brochureware and the uselessness of Flash for a majority of small businesses.
I got the interview because I submitted my resume through Monster, and he waded through over two hundred submissions to get to mine. Only about 30 were not tossed out immediately, and he’s going to narrow it down further over the next week. It depends on how things go with the other candidates, but it looks like I’m in the pool invited for an in-person interview next week.
I asked him about the types of resumes he immediately threw out, and this is what he reported:
- A resume written entirely in Italian
- Any resumes from India or other places outside the US (and there were a lot)
- Resumes with no relevant experience
- Engineers with no design experience
- A 35 page resume complete with a table of contents
I was completely blown away by the idea of a 35 page resume. Not a curriculum vitae – a resume. Makes me wonder if that person was ever invited for an interview anywhere. Remember guys, tell ‘em what they need to know, not your life story.