My paralegal, who was my employee for five years, has left, and so I had to hire another paralegal. I see a lot of people here who are looking for jobs, so I thought people here might appreciate the thought process from the employer's side. I justify this as political because a horrible job report just came out. :-)
I put an ad in our local paper, the Boulder Camera, and received over 30 resumes. Here's what got me to contact people for more info:
(1) they read the whole ad. Some cover letters did not match up with the ad, so I figured they didn't want this job. In fact, I'll go further and say any sign that the person wanted this job and not just a job was a good thing.
(2) the person looked like they would stay. Over the nine years I've been doing this, I have had two (2) employees. There aren't any guarantees, but I wanted someone who looked like they were planning on staying awhile.
(3) a few people who didn't make the first cut went to the effort of finding our website from my email address or looking up my phone number and calling or mentioning our firm. These people I wanted to talk to. My paralegal needs to be able to call clients and tell them they need to get their paperwork executed and returned even though they're busy. She needs to be able to find a regulation and figure out what paperwork is required. I can see how this might be annoying for some employers, but for me it was a good sign.
(4) the earlier resumes to arrive definitely got more attention than the later ones.
Now, how I decided who to offer the job too.
(1) the person was strightforward and genuine. One applicant could not come up with one single failure in her life (one of my questions). I understand we're all on our best behavior in interview, but that's too guarded for me.
(2) again, I wanted someone who seemed to want the job. One person spoke longingly of her time at home with her kids. I felt like she should do that instead of dragging herself away to work for me
(3) the obvious stuff - seemed intelligent, seemed like we'd get along, etc.