Is Your Resume Recruiter Friendly?
If you are in the middle of
a job search, recruiters can be either your friend—or your foe. They have the power to keep you out of the
hiring process or to introduce you to corporate hiring decision makers. The quality of your resume plays a key role
in determining how recruiters will treat you in the job market. It pays to make sure your resume is recruiter
friendly.
There are three elements to
a recruiter-friendly resume:
·
Focus
·
Core
competencies or transferable skills
·
Accomplishments
If your resume lacks any of
these crucial elements, then you are probably not capturing the attention you
deserve, and you are missing out on important interview opportunities.
1. Focus
Since recruiters’ time is at
a premium, they must know your career focus within seconds of opening your
resume. If your career focus isn’t
clearly stated, you can’t assume the reader will take the time to search
through your resume for clues. Most
recruiters consider “Career Objective” statements worthless if they contain no
real information about the specific position you are looking for and the
industry expertise you offer. The best
objective statements are concise and to the point.
2. Core competencies or transferable skills
Once a recruiter understands
your focus, he/she will want to know if you have the required core competencies
or transferable skills to accomplish the job.
A thorough research of employer job descriptions will help you identify
the core competencies your resume must feature.
You’ll capture and hold
recruiter attention by including only those core competencies relating
specifically to your focus. Be careful
not to muddy up your personal marketing message by including extraneous skills. If you remember the all-important rule of
relevancy, you’ll go a long way toward keeping the reader’s attention on your
key skills.
3. Accomplishments
Once your resume has made it
through the initial screening for focus and skills, the recruiter will want to
know how you stack up against other candidates.
Remember, with record-high resume response to job openings, recruiters
need good, solid reasons to recommend you for consideration over the mountain
of other candidates. Clear, concisely
stated accomplishments are the best way to distinguish yourself from your
competition.
Whether the recruiter works
for one corporation or represents many corporate clients as a third-party
recruiting consultant, he or she must be able to give valid reasons for
promoting you as a viable candidate. You
can make their job infinitely easier by including the information they need—and
bring your resume to the top of the candidate pile. When your resume sells itself, you gain
advantage points, and make the recruiter look good as well.
For optimum impact, write
accomplishments that illustrate the strength of your core competencies,
transferable skills and focus. An
accomplishment is only valuable to your resume if it promotes the skills your
target employers are looking for.
Remember the rule of relevancy as you craft each of your accomplishment
statements.
In today’s extremely competitive job market, employers rely heavily on recruiters to screen out all but the top few applicants. With a recruiter-friendly resume you’ll beat out your competition as the employer’s first choice to interview.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Deborah
Walker, CCMC
Resume
Writer ~ Career Coach
To
see resume samples and read more job-search tips visit www.AlphaAdvantage.com
Email:
Deb@AlphaAdvantage.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~