Without good people, StormFree would not be in business. We pride ourselves on our team. Finding the right person for a role can take us a while, but we know what we’re looking for in terms of expertise and interpersonal skills, and are willing to wait until we discover the individual that brings them. We also want the individual to feel aligned with the company's culture and long-term goals.
Most people generally agree that applying for a role is time-consuming and often stressful, so we have a few suggestions to help you stand out from the stack of resumes and increase the likelihood of receiving a request for an interview.
Cover letters work. We receive maybe one cover letter per 40 resumes and they are always read. It makes a pleasant change to receive a well-written letter that shows personality, creativity, and above all, speaks to the skills needed for the role. We have interviewed and offered contracts because the cover letter caught our eye. Some didn’t have all the required skills we wanted, but we reached out because the letter was engaging, well-constructed, explained how they intended to bring value to the company, and the reason they were a good fit for our company and the role. The key of course is showing your personality, having at least two out of the three skills that we’re looking for, and including an explanation of how quickly the missing skills could be learned.
We use skills questionnaire tools when posting positions on recruiting websites and review the responses before looking at a resume. When we ask for three years of experience with a specific skill, it means we need someone who has a solid understanding of, and ability in, that skill. We encourage you to apply if you have used a skill extensively over a shorter period; detail the depth of knowledge on the resume. We suggest that when you have no experience in more than two of the required skills, it makes more sense not to apply as the likelihood of being selected for an interview is slim.
In today’s world, it’s important to protect personal information. At the same time, we need to be able to contact you. Providing a first and last name, email address that matches your name, city location, and phone number are absolutely necessary. But there is no need to share street addresses, dates of birth, or family information such as marital status or number of children on a resume. It is our practice to verify your ID and use a third-party company to conduct a criminal record check following interviews and prior to engagement with StormFree.
As previously mentioned, we receive a lot of resumes and the more concise and easy to read a resume is, the more it will stand out. When creating a resume, consider the following:
PDF format is highly recommended when submitting a resume as it presents clearly on a wide range of computers and is generally accepted as safer to open than document files due to embedded macro functionality risks.
Try using a layout that makes the words pop out from the screen; this generally means using white space and a straightforward resume approach. A busy resume with lots of columns and different font sizes is tougher to read. Remember to ensure correct grammar and check for spelling errors; spellcheck may not catch them all.
As a technology-based company, the first thing we look for is the tools used. So, we recommend placing this information in a prominent location on your resume making the skills required for the job posting easy to find. Using key words that match requirement criteria is also important and may help when filtering through resumes.
In this section, we prefer to see job title, company names, location, and the month/year start and finish dates beside each role, with bullets underneath relating to the work performed and results achieved. Consider including a 'Technology' section at the end of each position, as often the technology used at each role will differ slightly. This helps to give context as to how the technology was used.
Provide information on the years your education occurred, dates of any certifications, and confirm that the certification is still valid.
We recommend that reference names and contact information are never included on a resume for a number of reasons:
We are excited about the growth of our company and about adding skilled team members to work alongside us. If you are interested in working at StormFree, we'd be happy to see your resume with a cover letter, of course. Please have a look at our current openings or apply any time.
