We all know just how important first impressions can be when there is something that we really want.
As a recruiter, you make judgments based on first impressions constantly.  The difference is that the first meeting often takes place in the form of the recruiter and your resume.  Your resume is your first voice, your first impression, the first glimpse at who you are.  Unfortunately, this means that you don’t have the luxury of impressing with a beautiful smile or a shiny new suit or with any other tactics you may have under your sleeve. At this point, you’re just a name on a piece of paper. So how do you capture the recruiter’s attention and spark his/her interest in you?

Think of it like a first date.  You don’t know the other person that you’re about to meet and once you do meet you probably determine pretty quickly whether this is going to be a good or a bad date.  Now imagine making those quick decisions if you were meeting like fifty or one hundred people a day.  Each of these people would really have to be on top of their game to stand out from the crowd.  Luckily or maybe not so lucky…most people don’t meet that many people each day but this would not be unusual for a recruiter.

On a fist date your goal is to learn a bit about the person you’re meeting, why he/she is interested in dating you and do they have any of the qualities that you find desireable.  Well a recruiter is looking for much of the same information.  From your resume, the recruiter’s goal is to learn a bit about your background, what type of position you’re interested in obtaining and do you have the qualifications necessary to move forward to the interview phase.  These decisions are usually made very quickly when you’re flipping through resumes.  Therefore, your resume needs to clearly express what it is you want in terms of a position.  It should then back this up by listing your experience that qualifies you for the position. Don’t hide this experience amongst a laundry list of unrelated experience.  Recruiters really don’t want to read through a resume and attempt to figure out what you want.  That takes too much time and reviewing resumes can be a very long and monotonous task.  Your career goals may seem obvious to you because it’s your resume, your experience but the recruiter doesn’t know you from Adam.  Of course never forget that there are plenty of other candidates available, qualified and that have clearly expressed their interests and experience on a very well put together resume.

So just like you take your time to get ready for that first date…take the same kind of care to put together a resume that makes you stand out in the recruiter’s eyes.