Numbers. I’ve read thousands of resumes over the past few months, screened dozens of applicants, and experienced a wide variety of weirdness and fakes both in resumes and on screen calls. Please note that I’m talking about raw “application box resumes”. Referrals and other semi-vetted sources don’t get this level of scrutiny.

I gave two examples of secondary sources, but what I really mean here is that the numbers and noise is so, so high now (not to mention staffing firm fronts and foreign actors) that I usually need more signal than just a solid-looking resume before even investing 30’ in a screening call.