The Initial Filtering Process
We handle only "soft" résumés, meaning that we have them e-mailed to us. We have a strict set of criteria (based on the job specification) that we filter the résumés against. People who are immediately "rejected" are thanked for applying and informed of our decision right away. We speak to other candidates over the phone to thank them for applying and to assess some of the attributes that are impossible to pick up from a résumé, such as oral communication skills, phone manner, power of description and explanation, and so on. We also ask a small number of (carefully chosen) technical questions. Again, people who are "rejected" at this stage are thanked for applying and informed on the spot. Otherwise, we tell them that we would like to invite them in for interview.