Is Your Resume Recruiter Friendly?

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.

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Deborah Walker, Resume Coach, and former recruiter knows
all the resume "red flags" that keep candidates from
effectively attracting recruiters. Deborah's insider
prospective helps her clients craft resumes that not only
attract recruiter attention, but earn them interviews.
Visit Deb at http://www.AlphaAdvantage.com