Practical Resume advice from a Recruiter in the trenches
- DON’T assume your company name is enough. Put a one line descriptor of what they do. Something as simple as “Tier 1 Automotive Supplier of Sheet Metal parts” is very helpful.
- SPELL CHECK your resume before you send it out! Do it twice! You’d be amazed!
- Fonts, don’t try to be cute or clever. Just use a standard font and font size and proof the entire resume to ensure that it’s the same font and size (12) throughout the resume. Again, you’d be amazed.
- If your resume has all kinds of clever formatting blocks and fields to make it look super fancy, then have a second version that you send to recruiters. We don’t want all the flash and glam. We must undo all of it before we send to our clients.
- PUT YOUR PHONE NUMBER on the resume. I am seeing MORE resumes with just an email address as the form of contact. Recruiting is a contact sport. Nothing spooks a recruiter or hiring manager faster than someone that does not want to talk by phone.
- Most importantly, if you send us your resume that tells us you are looking for work. So, RETURN PHONE CALLS! (That’s more of a gripe than resume advice: sorry, could not resist).
- In the body of your resume list your accomplishments and successes along with your duties. Show some depth of your experiences. Making sure your resume does not look like a job description used for advertising is critical. Example: “Purchased $300,000 in new automated equipment saving the company X millions of dollars in labor costs and Y in scrap” That tells function and accomplishment along with cost savings which hiring managers love to see.
- Dump PDFs. Write your resume in Microsoft WORD format. If you must use a PDF then have an alternate version in MS Word.
This is just a few ideas to get you on your way to a fantastic resume!
Dennis Cupp
Sr. Recruiter / Managing Partner
The Austin Allen Company
