If You're Looking For An Employee...

Initial Consideration of Applications

You went through the job defining process, you posted the job opening and now you have a mountain of resumes to consider. Do not expect to be able to get through them with only one glance.

Granted, there will be some that immediately stand out as exceptionally good (or bad), but there will be a middle group that may require several reviews by several people in your company before you decide whether to interview the candidates or not.

Establishing Criteria

When you wrote the job description, you (hopefully) made a list of criteria in order of importance for the position. What were the must-haves? What were the deal breakers? What was essential vs. desirable? Were there other attributes -- in terms of personality or physical skills -- that you're looking for? Now is the time to use that list as a guide to reviewing resumes.

Some examples of review criteria include:

Education: What level of education are you looking for? Would you consider a high-school graduate or is it essential to have an undergraduate or graduate degree?

Previous Employment: Are you looking for specific work skills acquired through employment vs. training in college or technical certificate programs? There was a time when being at a job for only two years was considered the kiss of death on a resume; these days, some employers wonder why the applicant hasn't moved on to another company.

There are a lot of factors that contribute to this, including evidence of a clear career path at the one company. (If you decide to interview the candidate, try not to say, "Why did you stay at one place so long?" There are ways to get that information without making an already nervous applicant feel like she's failed before she's even started!)

Hardware and Software Proficiencies: Assuming that basic computer skills are essential, are there specific software packages that new employees need to know or are you willing to invest in additional training if the candidate has outstanding skills in other areas?

Consulting with Colleagues

Before you reject "borderline" candidates sometimes it's helpful (or necessary) to ask colleagues to review resumes, applications and portfolios. Not only can their opinions help you decide to interview a seemingly unsuitable candidate but colleagues may know something about the candidate or skill set that you'll find helpful. They may also know about other opportunities in the company for which the candidate should be considered.

What should you do about resumes submitted by co-workers on behalf of a friend or relative? If your company has a policy about not hiring relatives, it's easy to point to that section in the employment handbook.

If not, you may be in the awkward situation of having to tell a colleague that the candidate isn't really qualified for the job -- or worse, you have to interview the relative anyhow (it's easier sometimes to conduct a formal interview than tell the Executive VP that her recently graduated son probably isn't ready to step into a Senior Producer position just yet).

In those circumstances, extend the courtesy of doing a full and fair interview, and give positive and constructive feedback. The colleague and the candidate may be unhappy now but in the end you're doing both of them a favor. (Of course, if you have no choice but to hire the relative, that's an entirely different matter...)

Checking Details

There are several ways to verify information in a resume. Whether you're working with a recruiter or not, your human resources department should handle those checks for you.

While it's polite to let a candidate know that you're checking information, the general assumption should be that if the candidate submits a resume, he knows there is a chance you will be calling schools, previous employers and references. References that don't check out are a pretty good red flag that you probably shouldn't bother to interview the employee.

If a candidate indicates that references will be furnished upon request, don't automatically assume that there aren't any. Sometimes confidentiality is crucial and your call to references will alert someone (like a vindictive current employer) that the candidate is job hunting. You can ask for the references prior to the interview or ask the candidate to bring a list in person.

Sometimes a resume comes across your desk that just doesn't "feel" right -- maybe there's too much high-level experience for a recent graduate or you know people who worked on a game in the candidate's credits list but you don't remember hearing the candidate's name mentioned in any discussions, or listed in the credits.

Without engaging in a major search & destroy mission, do a little checking -- or get your HR department or the recruiter -- to verify the details. It might be as simple as pulling the box off your shelf and reading the credits in the back of the manual. A person who claims to have worked on a game may in fact have done something as simple as an online review or an interview for the college newspaper.

While that shows an interest in the game and maybe the industry, it's not employment. As noted earlier, some degree of embellishment is bound to occur, but over time you've probably developed an instinct about these things, so it never hurts to do a little checking.