The Recruiter’s Role

To put it simply, a recruiter is a matchmaker, a screener and a sales person.  As matchmaker, the recruiter’s goal is to find a candidate who is the proper fit for a specific position within a company. As a screener, the recruiter sifts through candidates to identify the best matches. He or she is a sales person in two ways, selling a job to a qualified candidate and selling the candidate to the employer.

While the recruiter may appear to be a neutral middle person, realize that the recruiter is ultimately paid by, and accountable to, the company who hired him or her. This applies to recruiters in corporate HR departments as well as recruiters who work independently. Therefore, he or she will always approach a search according to the employer’s specifications. You must first convince the recruiter why you should be presented to the hiring manager. That convincing begins in the screening process, so it’s important to understand how that process works.

The Screening Process

How does a recruiter go about screening candidates?  The short answer is — very quickly.  If a recruiter or company has posted a position publicly, you can bet that they are receiving hundreds of resumes, which requires a fast initial screening process. With this kind of volume, the goal is to eliminate and narrow to a short list.

A recruiter simply doesn’t have time to read all of the resumes, so he or she scans them.  If you are lucky, your resume may get 10 to 20 seconds of review. More likely, you will have about 5 to 7 seconds to persuade the recruiter to keep your resume in the running.

What does a recruiter look for during this 5 to 20 second resume screening?  The main items that a recruiter is scanning for are:  industry, function, level, recent experience, education and stability. He or she is looking primarily at the last two companies you worked for, how long you worked there, what you did and at what level, and your level of education. Realistically, those with prior experience in their client’s industry, with a similar function and at a similar level, have the best chances of surviving the recruiter’s initial screening, assuming that information is clearly articulated.

What You Can Do

Recall that that the recruiter isn’t the only sales person in this equation. Your resume is your sales pitch. The key is to make it easier for the recruiter to do his or her job with an easy-to-scan resume.

• Start with an attention grabbing headline as part of your summary.  Be specific, but also get to the point. Give the reader information that will align you with the desired position, such as total number of years experience, industries worked in and key skill sets.
• Highlight achievements and results. Chances are very good that the recruiter already has a sense of what someone is your functional area does. Instead, explain how your work benefited the company.  Quantify it in dollars, percents, or other meaningful numbers.
• Less is more.  You don’t need to tell them everything you did, just enough of the relevant highlights to get them interested. Think phrases, not paragraphs. You can save the details for the interview.
• Have a clean format. Your resume should have a clear visual hierarchy and plenty of white space.  Use bold formatting to emphasize key areas.
• Tailor it to the job.  Include only what is pertinent to the position, or at the very least make sure that the appropriate experience, education and skills visually stand out.

If you are applying for many jobs, but not getting calls, it may be helpful to get an objective resume review from a resume writing professional.

Capstone Resume Services’ certified resume writers with recruiting and hiring backgrounds create affordable resumes, cover letters and LinkedIn profiles that get results. Learn more here.

Chances are, when you complete an application or resume form online, you have put your information into an Applicant Tracking System (ATS).  ATS are software and database systems used in most large and midsize organizations (including recruiting firms and government organizations) to manage the great number of resumes and applications they receive.

These systems have automated many processes used in corporate human resources departments. One of the features offered by many ATS systems is the pre-screening or scanning of resumes and the rank ordering of potential candidates. To ensure your resume gets through this first line of screening, it is important that your resume is optimized for ATS. Here we offer tips for creating a scanner compatible resume that will help you scale that first hurdle in your job search–getting your resume in front of a pair of human eyes.

1. Use Smart Keywords

   Review the job posting carefully and ensure that your resume reflects the same or similar language in terms of skills, abilities and accomplishments. Do not lump all of your skills together in one mass paragraph on the resume, but rather make sure that they are incorporated throughout the document.

   Consider using both noun and verb versions of words since the way an employer searches will vary. For example, including both “manager” and “managed” may help your resume come up depending on how the search is executed. When including acronyms, it’s best to include the acronym and also spell out the full name. This way, your resume will be found regardless of which way the employer chooses to search for the information.

2. Keep The Formatting Traditional

   It may sound boring, but the more traditional and plain you make a resume for ATS, the better. Many systems work best with a text or Word document, so avoid PDF files if possible, which may become garbled when converted in certain systems.

   The ATS is looking for specific keywords and characteristics, but a fancy font or template isn’t one of them. Choose a conservative, sans serif font such as Arial, Tahoma, Verdana or Calibri. Never use a script type font. A font size of 10 to 12 is recommended, though a larger font of 14 or 16 is okay for headings and your name.

   Avoid special formatting and characters such as italics, underlining, bullets, parentheses or brackets, though you may use hyphens (-) or asterisks (*).

3. Curb The Creativity

   Once again, the thought of “plain vanilla” might seem a bit dull, but dull is delightful to an ATS system. In addition to keeping the text itself plain and easy to read, you’ll want to keep the design very simple and leave out logos, charts, tables and other visual elements that might only serve to confuse the computer and mess up the formatting of your resume, knocking you out of the rankings and leaving your resume to collect virtual dust.  Best to keep to plain text, leaving out shadows, shading, boxes, columns and other visual elements that the computer will try to read like text.

4. Be Less Concerned About Length

   While the standard for a paper resume is one to two pages, you do not need to be as concerned with the length of your scanner friendly resume. While you don’t want it to go on for many pages, it’s important to include the relevant information for keyword searches and if you run a bit over the standard length to accomplish that, it’s not as big of a deal in this digital format. Often people will change their margins to get information to fit. Better to keep a one inch margin and let the text spill over onto another page. Do remember to include your contact information on each page so you can be identified if the pages become separated.

5. Consider Seeking Professional Resume Help

   If the process of writing multiple resumes for various scenarios feels overwhelming to you, consider employing the services of a resume writing professional who can consult you on the most current resume strategies and formats. Many job seekers who hire a resume writer indicate that the time saved and stress reduced more than makes up for the cost of having it written.

Capstone resume writers with recruiting and hiring backgrounds create affordable resumes, cover letters and LinkedIn profiles that get results. Get started today!