15 Reasons Why Your Resume Doesn't Get You A Callback

After job seekers post their resumes online or apply to a job, they usually anticipate a week or so delay in getting a telephone callback from a recruiter or hiring manager. While this can stretch into 4-6 weeks for large company, government or academic jobs, the time between application and callback should not be inordinately long. So, what happens when they have not receive any callbacks for 2 months or more?

They typically wonder if they have a bad resume and it needs to be rewritten. If you feel this way, then you should have your resume reviewed by an objective authority or at the very least a friend who can give you some honest and constructive advice. But if your resume has gotten you responses in a prior job search campaign and it reflects most of the requirements listed on the job you applied to, then you should consider the possibility that there are other reasons why you are in the no-callback, no-response dead zone of your job search campaign.

It's been my experience that that are 15 reasons why your resume doesn't get you a callback. A few are directly related to your resume's quality. But most of them are external to the resume. I found out about these external causes of resume non-performance by spending three years tracking job seeker behavior between 2002 to 2005 with about 2,000 job candidates who were having the no callback  problem. Let me briefly go through them.

1. High Job Competition: online recruitment has become so effective at sourcing resumes for early-to-mid career jobs that obtaining 200 applicants for a job is common. High competition is not going away. I have seen as many as 1300 applicants for an Online Marketing Manager. When there are a lot of job candidates, the employer will try to eliminate as many as possible.
                  
2. Low Job Demand: if you see very few job postings in your target location, this is a sign that either the job market is in equilibrium or there is very little demand for a specific job. Low-demand jobs can artificially create high competition due to the number of job applicants that are generated.          

3. Improper Job Ad Selection: when a job seeker does not fully read a job ad's requirements, there is a likelihood that he/she will apply to a job that they are either not qualified for or partially qualified for. When the employer applies its HR filter, these resumes or applications usually are eliminated in the first round.

4. No Resume Database Visibility: a "visible" resume is one that appears in the search findings of a resume database search engine. To be visible requires that the resume is both detailed enough to have keyword correspondence with a recruiter's search terms and it is integrated into the resume database correctly. Sometimes when a resume is uploaded into a resume database, the software does not correctly populate the database fields.

5. No Keywords: this reason is associated with no resume visibility and usually occurs with 1-page resumes that have so little information that it will not possess enough keywords to obtain high ranking in database searches.

6. Misspelled Words: language and grammatical errors are common reasons why a resume is eliminated.

7. No Work Schedule Flexibility: many jobs today work on flex or rotating shifts. If you are only available for an 8 to 5 shift, you may never be contacted if a job has a shift that runs from 11am to 7 pm.

8. Missing the Closing Date for Applications: this reason usually applied to government jobs that are posted for brief periods of time. On the job ad or vacancy announcement, you will see the closing date. If you miss the closing date, your application will be disqualified.

9. Incomplete Applications: job applications today often require more than a resume and cover letter. References, college transcripts, work portfolio and supplementary statements or questionnaires are often part of the entire application package. Without a complete package, your application can be disqualified.

10. Large Gaps in Employment: If you have not worked recently or there are huge gaps between jobs, your resume will have less value than if you have explained all times between jobs. Now, a month or so between jobs is not what I am referring to here. Rather, 1 year or more. You should explain these long gaps.

11. Ineligibility: your ability to work legally in the U.S. is critical to your job application. If you do not have a work permit or require sponsorship, you will not be called back unless the employer makes arrangements.

12. Non-local Job Candidates: this reason is one of the subtle causes of the no callback problem. Prior to online recruitment, qualified, non-local candidates were flown in for interviews and offered sweet relocation packages. But, today, with large resume or social databases, most employers prefer local candidates. They will conduct candidate searches by zip code, which will bypass a non-local candidate.

13. Lead Generation Ad: some job ads are not really job ads. Rather, they are posted to source the job seeker as a potential customer of a product or service.

14. Phoney Job Ad: these job ads may look like a job ad but are not. They are not trying to generate sales leads. Rather, they are intent on damaging you or your identity in a criminal scheme.

15. Not Enough Time: rarely will an employer respond to a resume or job application in less than a week for a legitimate, occupationally specific position. Remember, employers will source resumes using a variety of avenues. They want to get a full range of candidates to find the one who is most suited for their open position. This process takes time.