Practical Resume advice from a Recruiter in the trenches

Practical Resume advice from a Recruiter in the trenches

1. 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.
2. SPELL CHECK your resume before you send it out! Do it twice! You’d be amazed!
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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).
7. 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.
8. 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