To Read The Resume or Not To Read The Resume

Recently this little nugget found its way to my inbox:


Job recruitment website The Ladders conducted a formal survey of job recruiters using eye-tracking technology to figure out what matters most on your resume. Over the course of ten weeks, actual job recruiters' eye movements were measured as they looked through resumes and online profiles, creating visual heat maps. This allowed researchers to determine how long recruiters spent studying which aspects of resumes, and just as importantly, what content was largely ignored.
A key finding of the study: Recruiters spend nearly 80% of their time focusing on six different areas of a resume. These most-important aspects are:
• your name
• current title/company
• previous title/company
• current position start and end dates
• previous position start and end dates
• education
On average, recruiters spent six seconds sizing up these aspects to make the initial decision on whether to trash your resume or consider you for the position. The study also found that visual features such as pictures, graphs, and ads (on employment-related sites like LinkedIn) are distracting, eating up precious time and reducing the recruiter's decision-making ability.


Assuming I’ve had an adequate amount of caffeine, I can read six items such as these in six seconds. (Or maybe they meant six seconds per item, I can definitely do that…even without caffeine). However, I choose not to read resumes in this fashion. As a headhunter, which is sort of like a “job recruiter” only better, I have a real quick draw when it comes to shooting resumes. I don’t need to look at these six items or any six items to tell if I’m interested. I specialize in recruiting experienced management and executive level talent for transportation, logistics and supply chain management organizations. If you aren’t an experienced manager or executive in transportation, logistics or supply chain management, I don’t need to know your name, where you went to school or anything else. That may seem rude and insensitive, but that’s just the way it is. I look at your current title/company. 99% of the time, that tells me whether or not I want to read more. If it does not, then I look at your previous title and company. If the light does not come on for me at that point, then we’re done.

Thankfully, most of the resumes I receive are from experienced managers and executives who work in transportation, logistics or supply chain management. And after my quick glance to confirm that fact, I tend to spend a lot more than a few seconds reading a resume. The first thing I focus on is work history and the frequency of job changes. If there have been a lot of job changes, I want to know why. We frequently ask candidates to fill out a questionnaire that addresses issues which are generally not covered on the resume. Job changes and the reasons for those changes are a key part of that questionnaire.

The second thing I look at is “career progression”. Whether within the same organization or as the candidate has changed companies, the key question is: Are they moving up, moving down or just moving sideways? And progression is not just job titles. A VP in a small operation may be the equivalent of an Operations Manager in a much larger operation. Experienced headhunters who specialize in particular industries recognize and appreciate the differences between companies and how those differences translate into job titles.

The third thing I look for are responsibilities and accomplishments. I want to know the size and scope of your responsibilities and the more these are expressed in measurables the better. How much revenue, how many direct reports, what size budget, how many locations, etc etc ? Then more importantly, what did you accomplish, what were the results? Grew revenue, lowered costs, improved service, reduced accidents and increased profitability. Positive results will motivate me to interview you. But, be prepared…I will ask HOW you did it. Don’t make up stuff just to load your resume. Headhunters and hiring authorities will want to get “behind” the numbers. They better be real and they better be yours.

So work history, career progression and responsibilities/accomplishments are the big three for me in determining if I should invest time interviewing a candidate. If someone appears to be a dead-on match for an existing job opening, I will likely talk to them even if their resume is “weak” in one or more of these key areas. But regardless of matches with existing openings, if I get a candidate who has a stable work history, a solid record of career progression, has held positions with significant management and/or executive responsibilities and has achieved meaningful business results in those positions, we are going to have a conversation.

Living On The Edge...Part II

Last June I wrote about Congressman Anthony Weiner’s crash and burn. (http://www.headhunterpov.net/2011/06/living-on-edge.html). Now we have the sad tale of Coach Bobby Petrino. I went back and read “Living On The Edge” and thought about Petrino. Some things never change. Last year I wrote these words:

“The Edge” is where you hear the Sirens’ songs, you think all things are possible and you feel invincible. “The Edge” is where lies become truth, it's always someone else's fault, you deserve to be happy and there are no absolutes. “The Edge” is where you ultimately get permission to launch and the final invitation to fall.”

I think that pretty much sums it up for Petrino. When you’re hot, you’re hot. And Petrino was certainly a “hot” coach. The big man in Arkansas who had resurrected the Razorback football program. Win football games at Arkansas and you get the keys to the state. You may even earn some “get-of-jail-free” cards. It just depends on the crime.

So what was Petrino thinking? Some would say that he wasn’t thinking or he was thinking with the wrong head. (If I have to explain that to you, just stop reading now.) I believe that it just boils down to a 51 year old guy enjoying a relationship with a young (young enough to be his daughter) woman. It made him happy and he deserves to be happy. A happy coach is a better coach and a better coach wins more games. And when you win enough, you can have your cake and eat it too. People will understand and even if they don’t understand they will forgive you. What choice do they have? He’s Bobby Petrino. He’s special.

And then there is Petrino’s family. Oh yeah, those people. I don’t know what his marriage was like or how things were with his kids. Not my business. But, clearly he was willing to risk it all because this other relationship made him happy. And like we all know…he’s a winner….he deserves to be happy. People will understand. People will forgive. For that matter, they may never even know. He might be invisible as well as bulletproof. “All things are possible” out there on “The Edge”.

But just like Congressman Weiner discovered. A funny thing happens when you get caught with your pants down (literally or otherwise). A congressman or a winning football coach caught with his pants down is not just another guy caught with his pants down. Power and privilege are dangerous escorts. They not only take you farther out on “The Edge”, they take you farther up. And when you fall, the fall is indeed great. And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put you back together again.

Good News

It has been brought to my attention that most of my recent blog postings have tended toward negativity and sarcasm with a heavy dose of dark humor. That’s just my style. I tend to go through life with low expectations and skepticism that any good thing will not last very long. Of course, I have heard that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord. I can only surmise that my love for Him must somehow be lacking. Thus, I am at once both a believer and a doubter, much like the old Danish philosopher/theologian Soren Kierkegaard who wrote, “If I am capable of grasping God objectively, I DO NOT believe, but precisely because I cannot do this I MUST believe.”

He also asked this question: “What if everything in the world were a misunderstanding, what if laughter were really tears?”

So I have learned not to hope long for too much, nor to enjoy a victory beyond tomorrow. That new wears off quicker than old and that “yes” is just as likely to mean “no” or “maybe” once you have read the fine print. Things are never as bad as you think they are…they are usually worse. And at the end of this movie, all of the actors are dead. But the most important thing I’ve learned is that God is God and I am not. I still don’t understand why bad things happen to innocent people and I can’t explain why the world is so screwed up other than it probably has something to do with gravity and a lot to do with human selfishness and plain old-fashioned sin.

But I do know why this is such a special time of the year. It is when we remember that over two thousand years ago God became one of us, was crucified by us, died for us and on the third day arose and is with us. This is Good News and the one great Truth that even doubters and skeptics can believe in.

Another Shot In The Dark

Anybody hear about a 17 year old kid being shot and killed in Sanford, Florida?
Did anybody NOT hear about it? I’ve really heard about enough and I think it’s ridiculous that the left-leaning media and all the “ain’t we got it awful” whiners are using Trayvon Martin’s death to push their gun control and social justice agendas.

However, I may fool some of you with my position on this specific event. Based on what I’ve heard thus far (and I’m sure it’s not the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but I’ll bet it’s pretty close), George Zimmerman was at fault. And, I don’t necessarily think it was a racist deal. My gut tells me that Zimmerman would have pursued the kid regardless of color. And, if a guy in plain clothes jumps out of an unmarked vehicle and starts chasing me, I might have reacted the same way Trayvon Martin reacted. There’s just no way to make Trayvon Martin look like the bad guy here. Zimmerman was told by the police, not to pursue, and he ignored the order. Sounds to me like an over-zealous, wanna-be cop just figuring that this tall person in a hoodie needed to be checked out. When Trayvon didn’t stop and raise his hands (and I don’t blame him for not stopping and raising his hands), it turned into a chase, a fight and a deadly shooting. All senseless and all on George Zimmerman. To all my fellow rednecks out there, I’m sorry but that’s how I see it. And, yes, Zimmerman should have been arrested.

Now for the collateral damage report. Once again the progressives will go after gun owners, their rights to carry guns, various “stand your ground” laws and the inherent racism that infects all us “gun people”. As usual, they will take a situation that could be used as a real, albeit tragic, teaching moment and turn into a political fuse. It’s so sad.

What we should be talking about is educating citizens (that would include appointed neighborhood watchers as well as the rest of us) about what we should and should not do when we see suspicious activity. Don’t try to get in my head and guilt me about what I may consider suspicious activity. Just make sure I respond appropriately when I think I see it. For most of us, it’s not about race. It’s about experience and observation. (For example, I am very much inclined to be suspicious of a tatted up white guy with meth mouth.) I don’t know if I would have been suspicious of Trayvon Martin or any tall guy in a hoodie, regardless of their race. It would depend on the situation. I doubt that I would have called the police even if I had been suspicious. Again, it would depend on the situation. I definitely know that I would not have chased him down and put us both in danger.

The progressives will argue that if Zimmerman had not been carrying a gun, he probably would not have pursued Martin and he sure as heck would not have shot him. But their argument is hollow. There are simply way too many instances where a citizen with a gun has saved himself or someone else from death or serious injury. And no one knows the degree to which the threat of an armed homeowner, keeps the bad guys from kicking down the door. But because we are missing the real point of the Trayvon Martin tragedy; over-zealous wanna-be cops and well-intentioned, sometimes well-armed citizens will continue to step over the line and do something really stupid and often deadly.

That Is Just So Fargo

“There's more to life than a little money, you know. Don'tcha know that? And here ya are, and it's a beautiful day. Well. I just don't understand it.”.- Marge Gunderson, from the movie Fargo.


Fargo, the award-winning movie by the Coen brothers, is one of my all-time favorites. Of course the characters and their accents are exaggerated, but if you’ve spent much time in that part of the world, you can recognize and appreciate the exaggerations. The movies and television do the same thing with Texans and Southerners and people from “Noo Joisee”. It’s all part of story telling plus it saves a lot of time and wasted dialogue.

Recently, a NLOL (nice little old lady) from Grand Forks, North Dakota (just go north out of Fargo on I-29, can’t miss it) made headlines. Her name is Marilyn Hagerty. Marilyn writes the Eatbeat column for the Grand Forks Herald. She is about the same age as the other, more famous Marilyn would have been if she were still alive. Marilyn Hagerty is 85, could pass for 70 and my guess is that she too was a hot little number back in the day.

Ms. Hagerty recently did a review of the new Olive Garden restaurant in Grand Forks. It was a very positive review and I can only imagine that the waiting time for a table there has increased considerably. Grand Forks has a population of just over 50,000 and the Greater Grand Forks area population is around 100,000. Most of the nation only hears about Grand Forks when the Red River floods. (That would be the “other Red River”, not the one I live near which is more famous and flows in the right direction.) Grand Forks is actually quite nice. The economy is diverse and the unemployment rate is low (less than 3% based on the latest BLS report). Life is good in Grand Forks and an Olive Garden restaurant was long overdue.

However, as so often happens in this age of instant information, Ms. Hagerty’s review of the new Olive Garden went viral. It seems that people in the big cities, especially those on the east and west coasts (aka blue states) got a real hoot out of Ms. Hagerty’s review.
It was just so…well, it was just so Fargo. Couldn’t you just see Marge Gunderson, “with child” and in uniform sitting there chowing down with her duck-carving chubby hubby Norm? And when the review mentions “two, long warm breadsticks” what sharp wit among us could let that pass by with a phallic reference? And who could possibly hold back laughter when Ms. Hagerty wrote “All in all, it is the largest and most beautiful restaurant now operating in Grand Forks. It attracts visitors from out of town as well as people who live here.” How embarrassing. Clearly, the Grand Forks Chamber of Commerce needs to shut this lady down.

Interestingly, her review got so much attention on the internet that Ms. Hagerty ended up on national television. She was initially interviewed on a couple of the early morning news/talk shows and later got on during primetime and late night. She is a delightful lady and didn’t seem to be upset that so many people were making fun of her Olive Garden review. She admitted that when she was told that she had “gone viral”, at first she had no clue what that meant. Watching and listening to the interviewers speak with Ms. Hagerty, I could sense that they were a bit uncomfortable. Instinctively, they seem to know there is something fundamentally out of whack with our culture when a nice, little article, by a NLOL, about a new restaurant opening in and nice, little city in the nation’s heartland becomes a joke.

My guess is that early on, as the “virus” was spreading, it wasn’t widely known that the article had been written by this sweet little 85 year old lady. Then we meet this sweet little 85 year old lady and suddenly everyone is trying to figure out how to “make nice” and put a “heart-warming” human interest spin on the whole thing without sounding as down-home and corny as the article they were making fun of in the first place.

So what’s my point? Just this: when you get away from the 5-star, $$$$ restaurants where for a lot of money someone will tell you what you are eating (because otherwise you would have no clue) and how it was prepared (so you will be convinced you could never cook such a meal) and somehow you still go home hungry because smaller portions make better “presentations”; you end up eating with real people in real places like Grand Forks, North Dakota, U.S.A

Anger Management

I had a “fit” the other day. That’s what we call them in Texas; when a person gets really pissed off. I didn’t just have “a fit”. I had a “cussin’ fit”. A “cussin’ fit” is about three-quarters of the way up the “fit” severity rating scale for me. Men and women have different “fit” severity levels down here. For example you won’t find “hissy” or “bitch” fit ratings on the men’s scale. (Point of clarification: that would be the straight men’s scale.) A “cussin’ fit” is worse than a ‘foot-stompin’ or ‘door-slammin’ fit. Not quite as bad as a “burn-rubber-throwin’-gravel-shoot-‘em-the-finger-drive-away” fit. And not nearly as bad as a “fist-through-the-wall, throwin’ whatever you are big enough to throw” fit. No need to go into the reason for my cussin’ fit. Suffice it to say that I was really irritated. As I grow older, thankfully, it takes longer for something to bother me. But rub me in the wrong place long enough, then rub it again at the wrong time and I go off. Once that first f-bomb comes out of my mouth, the rest of the cuss words just start flying.

My cussin’ fits have a sort of symphonic quality to them. There is the opening, the allegro. In my case, one might call it an allegro agitato and it often begins with a question such as “what the f--- ?” Then there is the second movement, the adagio, where I slow it down and try to restrain my self while muttering long-drawn out calls of the good Lord’s name including a middle initial on occasion. Then there is the third movement. Now the curse words fill the air…verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs…come one come all…be creative. The same root curse word can be used over and over as long as one keeps interchanging the use of ‘ing’, ‘er’ and ‘ed’ at the end of the word. Usually I end the third movement abruptly and there is a long silence. Then the fourth and final movement begins quietly with an expression of disappointment and desperation, building ever more loudly and rapidly to the main theme, closing with a crescendo of expletives comparable to a Fourth of July fireworks display.

The duration of this symphony usually depends on what the other person has to say. Back in my youth I rarely got past the first movement without moving on to punching or throwing something or someone. As I’ve gotten older and wiser, I tend to patiently wait for my audience to shut up and return to their seats. Then I pick it right back up without missing a beat. I can be world-class cusser with great rhythm and timing when I put my mind to it.

But after the fit, I feel like s—t. I know that my explosion has hurt the other person and it’s hurt me. Whatever I have ever said or done in the past to express my faith and core beliefs has just been wiped out. I am now “that guy”…the big hypocrite who preaches doing the right thing and taking the “high road”. But, in the heat of the moment, I say all the wrong things and to hell with the high road. It’s not about being angry. It’s about how one manages that anger. And even now, this late in life, I still struggle with it. More often than not, I win. But, this week I lost and that just makes me sad.

I've Got $4 a Gallon, Do I Hear 5 ?

“Y'all thought ol' Spindletop and Burkburnett was all the oil there was, didn't ya? Well, I'm here to tell you that it ain't, boy! It's here, and there ain't a dang thing you gonna do about it!”
-Jett Rink


Back in January of 2011, I wrote about the risks our economy faces when energy prices increase dramatically. In late December, I made my predictions for 2012. (OK, so I was wrong about the Packers, but New England did get to the SB and lost. So I get partial credit). One of my predictions was this:

“Big trouble in the Middle East. Things will come to a head this year and the results will drive up oil prices and cripple the global economy in the second half of the year.”

I also made this prediction:

“The U.S. economy overcomes the impact (of these predictions), limps along and fairs better than many of our global competitors.”

The first one about rising oil prices seems to be coming true and ahead of schedule. This is really bad news for our economy. If gas prices go up a $1 per gallon it effectively takes $125,000,000,000 (that would be billions) annually out of our consumer economy. Apply a 2 or 3 multiple to the benefit of those dollars being spent on consumer goods and services (not only here but in those countries that make so much of the stuff we buy) and the impact is truly devastating. While I still think the second prediction is accurate: the U.S. economy will out-perform most of our global competitors; the rising cost of energy will very likely knock the legs out of the recovery.

Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do to avoid the negative consequences this time around. We’ve piddled and fiddled around on expanding our pipeline and refining capacity. So even though we’ve increased domestic production, it’s not going to help us much in the short run. Plus we live in a global market where demand for oil is increasing. If the rest of the world is willing to pay $5 or $10 for a gallon of gasoline, we won’t be getting it for $3.

In the long-run we’ll figure out ways to live more fuel efficiently. We don’t have much of a choice. Ten years from now I predict that over half of our commercial vehicles will run on natural gas. 80 percent of the cars on the road will be getting 40+ mpg. Global oil production as well as domestic production will far exceed most current projections. We will still live in a world that runs on fossil fuel. But in the short run, we are in for some serious pain at the pump. And at a time when the government cannot afford to “cover” the increased cost of transportation; we’ll just have to live with it. Whoever ends up in the White House for the next fours years (and I did predict that it would be President Obama), is going to have a very bumpy ride.