What’s the best way to find the “needle in the haystack” when we get hundreds of resumes for every job posting?
The ideal solution is actually not to be in this position in the first place.
Instead of managing a flood of applicants, you should always be ‘on the lookout’ for key talent that will help your company become more successful. You can cast wide net into the sea to be reactive to needs…or you cast a strategic net to be more focused on wooing the right people to your organization on an on-going basis. (The best solution is likely a combination of both.)
That’s the greatest advantage of partnering with a recruitment firm, actually. Because we’re always networking and meeting people, we can identify some of the best talent that may not be actively looking, in addition to the talent that is more openly communicating their employment needs. 
It’s important that we truly partner with our clients; so we’re not just recruiting, but we understand your business and goals. When you share your strategy for the next one to five years, it provides us with the right insights to identify the best talent to help meet your goals and objectives. As we’re continually talking with people in the marketplace, we can find that “needle” and bring them to you.
If a job posting is required, though, here are a few things I would recommend.
- Know what you’re looking for – not just from a skills and experience standpoint, but also from a chemistry, character and culture standpoint.
- Be just as aware of what you don’t want, so you can quickly sift through resumes.
- Recognize that the “best” candidate may not come to you via an online job posting.
- Engaging your network is a key factor in finding the best talent.
- Use an assessment tool as part of the process, once you’ve identifies the top candidates.
- Ensure – through several discussions -that a position with your company would, indeed, be a win-win situation for both the company as well as the individual.
View more thoughts on executive search, recruiting and talent acquisition from T.J. Bugg
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The biggest mistake that job seekers make with their resume is that they list their duties and responsibilities for the positions they’ve held throughout their career. Instead, you should be detailing your accomplishments. It doesn’t matter what you did, as much as it matters that you achieved results doing it.
