What Do Recruiters Look for in a Resume?

When it comes time to look for a new job, many people are curious what recruiters are look for in a resume. This will help determine the exact way in which you should construct your resume.

As most people know, the resume is the fundamental item used when beginning the job search. It’s not a wise idea to go about writing a resume without thinking about the people who will be reading it.

In most cases, a resume should be written with an audience in mind. If you create one from scratch, or even from a resume template, and you do not consider who will be reading the resume, then you’re starting your job search from a bad point.

This article is going to walk you step by step though the most important aspects of resume writing when it comes to tailoring it to what recruiters look for. Once you’ve finished reading this, you’ll know exactly what is needed.

A prior article I wrote covered what recrutiers look for in general. This one is more tailored to exactly what your resume.

Recruiters Look For Resumes That Fit Their Job

The first thing to realize is that recruiters look for resumes that fit the job. If they are recruiting for a client that needs a Project Manager with experience with Marketing and CTV sales, then they will only look at resumes that reflect this.

What happens when a job requisition comes into the recruiter’s office is that they start sourcing and screening for relevant resumes. If the resumes do not have the exact title listed that the recruiter is searching for, then it’s highly unlikely that the recruiter will ever even see you resume.

The fact is that most resumes are never really reviewed by a human eye. What happens is that they are fed directly into the agency or companies internal ATS system. At this point, the applicant tracking system will parse the resume, code it for certain variables, and then file it away.

When the recruiter begins searching for resumes in their ATS, the process involves searching certain key terms. Now, different ATS systems track and search differently, but most have pre-designed search systems. Of course, a recruiter could always do a Boolean search, but most don’t.

The resume that you submit should clearly list your job titles as close to the desired job. If you’re a Account Executive, you are going to be found by recruiter searching for Account Executives. If you list yourself as a Project Manager, then the majority of recruiters will not find your resume.

This is why it’s incredibly important to be as comprehensive and specific as possible. Recruiters want resumes of people who can do the job, not people who want the job. There is a big difference. Recruiters only make money when they make a placement, and they are not compensated for entertaining people who want to be Project Managers but have no relevant experience and no skill sets provable in that work.

The takeaway: make sure that whatever job you want, you list that as a job title on your resume. Recruiters will likely pass by any resume that doesn’t match what they are looking for.

No Typo’s or Tense Mistakes

This should go without saying, but it’s important to proofread your resume completely. If you have any typos or tense mistakes, then a lot of recruiters will get soured on you. Typos are especially egregious.

Remember, if there are any mistakes on your resume, it won’t be excused by most recruiters. There is really no reason for their to be typos. A resume is a single page, or it should be. You should proofread it and ensure that it’s perfect.

If there are misspelled words, it just shows that you are a sloppy person and honestly most recruiters will take a pass.

Of course, this is only applicable for administrative roles, sales executive roles, account managers, engineers, etc…

If you work in the medical field, then resumes are way less important. In the medical field, licenses are really the only thing that matters. Nurses can get away with serious grammatical errors, but if you’re a professional then it’s not acceptable.

So, the takeaway here is that you should revise, revise, revise and proofread that resume until it’s perfect. If you send out a resume with typos, grammatical errors, or other issues, then you’re basically undermining your own job search chances.

Proper Formatting on A Resume Is Important

This is less of an issue when compared to typos and grammatical mistakes. However, it’s still important to format your resume properly. Recruiter’s hate to see resumes that are not properly formatted.

If the resume is not properly formatted, it also speaks to someone who is not conscientious about their work.

However, formatting can be a huge time sink. This is why I recommend everyone use a pre-existing resume template. You don’t have to hire a fancy resume writer (although it can help if your blocked about what to write).

You can use any number of resume templates. There are free versions in MS Word, as well as downloadable ones, and you could even use Canva or other free resume templates.

It’s incredibly hard to format a resume from scratch using a blank MS Word doc. And you don’t even want to try formatting it using NotePad or some other program. Just skip all of the trouble and simply use a template. As I covered in a prior article, it’s important to send recrutiers your resume in Word.

Be Brief: Recruiters Look Clean Resume

Finally, you should be brief. Recruiters do not want to read a three-page resume. That’s just too much. It’s going to get passed on.

There is no reason for a professional resume to extend more than a single page. This is covered better elsewhere, but in short—keep it short!

You want your resume to focus on the most important aspects of your career history. There is no reason for overkill. In fact, a long resume, with big blocks of text is not as attractive as a well planned out and clean looking resume.

So, keep your resume to one page and try and make the highlights of each job experience the main lines.

Of course, a resume with too little information can also be an issue. If you do not list enough information about your role at the company, and explain what tasks you were responsible for, then it can also be an issue.

Almost all recruiters have faced the issue of a underwritten resume. It’s not as common as the overwritten resume, but it’s bas just the same.

The problem with the underwritten resume is that it does not give enough information to the recruiter. You will often see this problem with people who are unskilled or working in a non-corporate environment. Recruiters who work on labor roles are likely to run into resumes where the person has not listed anything beyond their job titles. This is often because the resumes are written in haste.

When you do see overwritten resumes for people with limited job skills or experience, it’s oftentimes the case where the resumes were written by case managers. These will tend to have a standard look as the non-profit case manager world churns out resumes for back to work people daily and uses similar formatting within each agency.