Resume Hacks To Get Noticed By Recruiters

A resume is an integral part of a job search for any candidate. It is the first step when a candidate ventures out in the journey of finding a new job which certainly looks like a herculean task until he/she gets one. It is the first documented representation of a job seeker’s candidature and should be crafted with full sincerity to create a positive impression on a recruiter/hiring manager. A good resume also depicts the professional quotient of a candidate which ultimately trickles down to his/her work as well and grabs the attention of recruiters who are in search of a potential candidate.

 It would always be wise to not go wrong in the first step itself as an unprofessional resume at times may cause a candidate to loose a good opportunity. Sometimes, profiles are rejected by recruiters on the sole reason for a bad resume which may be in the form of different fonts, messed up structure, unequal spacing, grammatical errors, unwanted info etc. As mentioned, your resume is also an assessment of your professionalism and ability to capture the best points to fetch you a job. It is your advertisement document to market yourself to the recruiters. Only when you get noticed by the recruiter is when you will be taken ahead in the recruitment process – pre-screening, interviews etc. It is only when the recruiter is impressed enough that he/she would pick up his/her phone to conduct a pre-screening of your candidature if you have the relevant skillset. 

Here are some of the hacks which may help you to get noticed by recruiters. 

·        A Good Profile Summary: Prepare a good summary of your candidature in 4- 5 bullet points including years of experience (in industry or function), skills, qualifications, achievements, and results to give an immediate view of your potential and let it be the start of your resume. Highlight important keywords you want to drive a recruiter’s attention to. If required, take cues on how to make a good summary from the sample resume available online with your domain expertise and customize yours. 

·        Keywords/Key skills: It is important to have keywords /key skills pertaining to your function clearly mentioned in your resume. Recruiters initiate their automated search in job portals by using a combination of keywords (in Advanced or Boolean Search using AND OR NOT “’ operators) as per the job description to target relevant profiles in the database. For e.g. If you are FP&A professional, your resume should clearly highlight keywords like financial planning, analysis, budgeting, forecasting etc. pertaining to your expertise as these are the most common keywords for FP&A which will go as input from recruiters searching for FP&A talent as well for an automated search. The chances that your profile gets reflected in the first few pages of the search will go high. It is the first few pages of search which gets the recruiter’s maximum attention to view a profile in detail or not. 

·        Length of a resume: It should be ideally 2 pages irrespective of seniority level. One page resume can also be considered if you are able to reflect all required info in a given space. A lengthy resume is boring which recruiters are reluctant to go through as they hardly spend a few seconds to glance through each resume. They should be immediately able to spot the skills they are looking for instead of digging deep and hunting for the same. You just can’t put the whole story there. Leave explanatory things for yourself during the interview.

·          Achievements/Highlights: Clearly put out the significant achievements in each organization which added value to the business. Quote examples of challenging projects, implementations, process improvements, cost saved, meeting sales targets etc. If possible try to quantify and justify your contribution through numbers.

 ·        Redundant information: Each space in your resume is valuable and shouldn’t be wasted with unnecessary content. Headings like Career Objective, Strengths etc.are obsolete now (unless you are a fresher to whom this may add some value in a resume or you are in a creative field) and therefore should ideally not be included. The recruiter may not be interested in that as long as you have the required skill set and qualification. You may talk about those in your detailed interviews if asked. Use as much space as possible to highlight your achievements (if possible try to quantify as much as you can) in your tenure with each organization.

 ·        Updated contact information: It is important to mention your updated mobile number and email id in your resume so that recruiter can reach out to you easily. You can also put the link to your LinkedIn profile.

 ·        Proper structure: An unorganized resume with errors may certainly face rejections at times as it also reflects on the clarity of thoughts of a candidate. It should be a smooth flow moving from one head to the other starting from Professional Summary to Personal details in the end. Work experience should be mentioned in reverse chronological order. Visual resumes/Infographic resumes are also trending these days, in case you want to go for some more Icons or Smart Art (apart from plain text) but please use it subtly as it should not overshadow the desired info and should be ATS friendly.

 ·        Important Headings of a resume (not to be missed): Header with Name, Phone no & Email id. Professional/Profile Summary, Work Experience (KRAs & Achievements), Education, Certifications if any, Personal Details (DOB, Address etc.).

 ·         Grammar, Spellings, Font and Alignment of Text: Please check and recheck the alignment of text, spellings and grammatical errors in the content of a resume. You may choose any format but ensure resume should look consistent throughout in terms of font type and size, margin alignment, the spacing between the headings, highlighted words etc. You can look at Font size of 11 or 12 in Times  Roman/Arial/Calibri/Georgia. Please make sure that the document is legible. You can do a grammar check online.

 ·        Customized Resume for ATS: It would be a good idea to customize the content of your resume as per the job description of the role while applying in ATS of a company that requires uploading resume on ATS for your application to be considered. This may improve your ranking in ATS and to get noticed by the recruiter. Do ensure you carry that expertise though.

  The above-mentioned hacks may help in presenting an effective resume in front of the recruiters and most importantly to Get Noticed by Recruiters!! A more strategic approach in the job search at every step may certainly add value and bring you closer to your desired job.

Cheers!!

Nidhi