Originally authored by Mary Warriner at Mary Warriner
START WITH THE RESUME BASICS
If you don’t get these right, you’re in trouble from first glance. You want to utilize a clean format, include your name and professional email address and “spellcheck, spellcheck, spellcheck.” Says Kelly Navarro, Senior Technical Recruiter.
I don’t recommend one type of resume over another, it really depends on your experiences, the job you’re applying to and your preference. No matter what format you choose, be sure that everything is spelled correctly, is grammatically correct and telephone numbers are accurate and in working order.
NO NOVELS, PLEASE!
Recruiters are busy people. Not only do they review hundreds of resumes each day but they also interview candidates, meet with hiring managers, attend meetings, present candidates to hiring managers and have a lot of miscellaneous administrative work to do.
If you want a Recruiter’s attention, Corporate Recruiter Heather Jamieson suggests, “keep your resume short and precise.” Recruiters don’t need to read irrelevant information about a job you had twelve years ago.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS VS RESPONSIBILITIES
Most people list the activities they perform or have performed in their jobs. This tells the recruiter nothing about how you performed, if you were successful in the role and if you’re likely to do well in a new position.
To stand out, “highlight career achievements.” Karen Amador, IT and Digital Marketing Recruiter advise. “Did you start a new department? Increase sales by a certain percentage? Tap into a new market? Without coming off as a personal boast, briefly list these kinds of things to both catches a recruiter´s eye and also give them a few talking points to bring up in the interview.”
Hopefully, you’ll get called for an interview and you can go into more detail at that point.
GET TO THE POINT EARLY
To stand out, Sr Talent Acquisition Specialist Gabi Carachilo, PHR suggests “highlighting the most relevant skillsets/experiences in the top [one-third] of your resume.” Highlighting the experiences that directly relate to the job you’re applying to is important to Recruiters.
Talent Acquisition Manager, Claire Petrie, MBA, PHR further explains, “For some that may mean putting education section first, for some it might be skills, for some it might mean experience. If you’re applying to a marketing role and you put your only marketing experience on the bottom of the 2nd page, you are lessening your chances of getting a call. Don’t make people hunt for the important info that makes you relevant.”
READ THE QUALIFICATIONS
Customize each resume for the position you’re applying to. As indicated in the last tip, you want to showcase how your experiences relate to the position. A lot of thought and discussion goes into creating a job description. The required education, experience and skills have been hashed out by the Manager and the HR department. So please, “don’t apply to jobs you are not meeting the qualifications for.” Says Heather Jamieson, Corporate Recruiter.
Applying for a job that will stretch your experiences is one thing. For example, if you’ve been a Manager for 7 years and you apply for a similar position with a Director title; that would be a stretch role. However, if you’ve never supervised or managed staff, don’t apply for a job that requires 3-5 years of supervisory experience. Your resume will quickly move to the bottom of the proverbial pile. If you do this regularly, the recruiter may remember you as someone NOT to consider.
Hopefully, these quick tips from Recruiters will assist you in your job search and make you stand out for all the right reasons!
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