Beyond.com Reveals Majority of HR Pros View Job Seekers as Unqualified

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most hr pros think job seekers are unqualified Beyond, The Career Network, has announced that there may be a significant disconnect during the hiring process. The company’s national survey of job seekers and HR professionals showed that 75 percent of HR respondents said they were having trouble filling open positions because too many of the candidates were unqualified. Meanwhile, the survey found that 55 percent of job seekers felt they were not getting those open positions because they were actually competing with too many qualified candidates.

One reason why HR professionals might not think candidates are qualified is because of their resumes. Nearly three-quarters of HR professionals feel that job applicants do a “bad job” of tailoring their resumes to specific positions. Just 28 percent of candidates said they always customize their resumes for a position, which means the majority of candidates may not be highlighting their most relevant experience.

“Hiring has increased over the past few months as employers become more confident, but job seekers are still struggling with how to prove they are fully qualified to HR professionals,” said Joe Weinlick, vice president of marketing at Beyond.com. “There’s no secret password for getting hired, however job seekers can increase their chances by highlighting hard skills in their resumes and demonstrating soft skills during the interview process. Many job seekers have the right ingredients; now they need to put them in the right order.”

Additional jobs data in the survey showed that:

  • 63 percent of HR professional respondents reported that job applicants do a “good job” of including relevant keywords in their resumes.
  • The majority of job seeker respondents (64 percent) include keywords in their resumes.
  • 69 percentof HR professional respondents said that when searching for candidates the first thing they look for are hard skills.
  • 56 percent of HR professional respondents said that the “most important” abilities in a new hire are soft skills, especially interpersonal relations.

By Joshua Bjerke