HOW’S THAT RESUME LOOKING THESE DAYS?

Pop Quiz : The purpose of your resume is to:

a. Tell a long detailed story about your career experiences.
b. Have recruiters proofread and edit your resume before submitting your profile to the hiring manager.
c. Help recruiters identify your personal interests and hobbies.
d. Help recruiters get that inner glow when they know they have found a hot candidate.

It goes without saying that in this job market your resume needs to jump out from the stack. It’s not unusual for a recruiter to get hundreds of resumes in response to even the most mundane of jobs.

We’re assuming you know how to properly format your resume, make sure your information is accurate (job titles, employment dates etc). However, you also need to be brief and straight to the point about your work experience by bulleting your points or describing your position in two to three sentences. In addition, remember to use the spell check and grammar check. In your resume, we as recruiters also want you to display your professional and/or technical career life, not your personal life because we fill positions based on the “essential job requirements” of the job description.

So, here’s the big secret: companies want to know what you can do for them (in today’s job market, yes, it is all about THEM). The best thing you can do on your resume is SHOUT out your accomplishments, not just list your job duties. What did you do that was above and beyond that made your boss glow? (Oh, you saved $17K a year on printing costs – we love you for that!) What did you do that was excellent? (You brought in a new client that increased company revenue by 20% - you got that promotion, right?)

So do some heavy thinking, get those facts and figures ready (it’s really important to prove how great you are), prominently display them on your resume, and make the recruiters of the world sit up and feel proud knowing that we’ve got the right candidate!

(The answer above is “d” – but you knew that)

Guest Blogger:
Allison
Management - Talent Aquisition