Hiring Based on Behavior vs a Resume

“Tim, can you shoot me over some resumes?”

This is a question I field frequently from hiring managers and HR teams in my role as a recruiter. They’re looking to me to save them time, so I do the initial recruiting to find the best possible candidates. How do I present my top choices? With a resume.

But while a resume is an important way to launch a job connection, most hiring managers don’t actually make their decision based on resume. And that’s good, because a resume isn’t always a great indicator of a person’s potential value to a company.

Instead, look to behaviors. What makes your current employees so valuable? Seek more of the same.

How to they think on their feet? How do they problem-solve? How do they navigate conflict in a work setting? How are they under pressure?

Knowing that someone has the credentials and skills to perform the job at hand is a starting point, and for that reason, the resume is important. But as you conduct the interview process, it should really fade into the background, to be replaced by your observations of the candidate as well as your discussions with your recruiter.