3 tips to get past the HR application screen

This is my first blog on WSO. I’ve been following WSO for quite some time but up to this stage, I haven’t quite mustered up the courage to write a blog on WSO but that’s all about to change.

I’m a finance major in my final year. I’ve had more work experience than most of my counterparts at college. I’ve completed internships at a BB IB within the Investment Banking Division, retail banking and another large multinational. Like most people, there have been positive and negative aspects of each organisation and job role that I have taken up. These experiences have all contributed to developing me as an individual.

One thing that has always fascinated me over the years has been the varying levels of influence that HR has during the entire recruitment process.

To illustrate the contrast, at the large multinational where I did an internship, HR conducted the initial application screen and conducted a first-round competency-based interview. This is in stark contrast to my experience at the BB IB where HR only did an initial application screen. However, it was analysts that ultimately decided who to invite for first-round interviews.

The reason behind the difference in influence has always fascinated me. Is it because IBs don’t hire as many people and cultural fit with those junior in the organisation is a top priority? Is it because the average multinational hire more full-timers out of university and hence, they prefer to go through HR rather than using up the time of a graduate who will not be working as many hours as an IB analyst and has other priorities to manage?

Given that a HR professional and a first or second-year analyst typically have different ways of approaching problems through different areas of study, it is not surprising that the candidate offered a first-round interview may very well depend on who ends up reviewing your resume.

So whilst HR may or may not read your resume, the question that springs to mind is what it is that one can do to get past the HR application screen. Here are a few tips that have worked for me. I know that this list is not exhaustive so please feel free to reply with more tips.

1. Clearly articulate your involvement in student government/community organisations

HR in my experience love grades but if you don’t have a basic level of involvement in extracurricular activities, it makes it very hard to stand out from the crowd. Whilst not everyone can be President of XYZ Association or Founder/CEO of ABC club, there are plenty of other volunteering roles where you can sometimes show a level of achievement beyond that of the President of the finance club at university. Many organisations are crying out for volunteers and whilst most of these positions are unpaid, they can also provide great networking opportunities.

2. Focus on academic excellence

Academic excellence is something that recruiters place a high degree of emphasis on. It is great to have strong extracurricular activities but it makes your situation a lot harder with a very low average. Many people that I have spoken to who performed poorly in an undergraduate degree made sure to perform strongly in postgraduate studies. This has often positioned them well to take up positions that high achieving undergraduates may struggle to obtain.

3. Motivation for the role

This is something, which is probably more important to HR than a first or second-year analyst. HR love to see research and this the progression as to why it is that you actually seek a job with Merrill Lynch as opposed to J.P. Morgan or Morgan Stanley. Maybe it was a Merrill Lynch employee that spent some mentoring you or that used to play soccer with you in college. Many firms that used to have a resume drop service a couple of years ago now have an online application system to facilitate HR in its quest to assess this factor.