How You Can Stand Out From The Crowd- A Recruiter's Perspective

With the almost overwhelming number of job-seekers entering the market every day, how do you rise above the rabble and increase your visibility to recruiters and HR professionals?

I work in what is a small, specialised sector of recruiting. In fact I work in a small, specialised sector of a small specialised sector in my field. Yet I can put up an advert for a position which requires, you guessed it, a very specialised skillset and within 24 hours I will have received hundreds upon hundreds of replies. In order to understand how to be visible to me (the recruiter) in this veritable melee of people, you need to understand how I review these replies to find the candidates I’m looking for.

 Now it stands to reason that some of my applicants are qualified, but the vast majority of them?  *Ahem* not so much.  The first thing I’ll look at is the title of your CV as it is saved. Preference is given to word and PDF format CVs (JPEG CVs are the bane of my admin assistants life, and she’s the one person I don’t want to upset!). If you’ve submitted a CV with the job title I’ve advertised for in its filename, I WILL look at it.

If you’re emailing me directly, 9 times out of 10 I won’t open emails where I’m the 100th person in copy in a long list of other recruiters. Ditto for obviously generic responses where you can’t even be bothered to address me by name (or even worse, call me Mrs. Romans). This might seem stuffy and uptight, but experience teaches recruiters that if someone cannot show the same methodical work ethic they need for the position we've advertised for in their job search, they’re probably not going to bring it to the job, either.

Experience teaches recruiters that if someone cannot show the same methodical work ethic they need for the position we've advertised for in their job search, they’re probably not going to bring it to the job, either.

Speculative applications are an iffy subject. On the one hand I welcome them from qualified candidates of any level who take the time to acknowledge that they’re not applying to an advertisement per se, but providing me with their CV nonetheless. On the other hand, if you have absolutely nothing to do with my area of recruitment, and simply send me an email with a subject line (“AM LOOK JOB, PLS CV”) and an attachment, I’m not going to read it.

Now, to the CVs themselves. 3 things:

• Don’t reinvent the wheel. Keep your formatting clear, concise and modest. Colours help accentuate key areas, but please don’t flood me with pictures, logos and infographics. (A professional profile picture is acceptable)
• SPELLCHECK! Please? It takes 5 minutes to spellcheck a document. Do it.
• Make a bespoke CV for the position you’re applying for. Or at least approximate several CVs to various roles. If there is a job description, try and align your CV to the requirements outlined by the recruiter.

Remember to stay positive out there. As I’ve said before in my previous articles: if you’re the right person for the job I will find you. But you can always make it easier for me!