What Recruiters Look At During The 6 Seconds They Spend On Your Resume

[hollysmom]

1. I am always shocked at what passes for resumes.

I used to be self employed as a contractor. I had a format I followed and had a 10 page base resume that I edited down to one or two pages customized to a particular job, and that started before computers when I had to type each one, ha ha .
Anyway, lots of white space, and intro of one paragraph stressing what you want them to see. Short sentences, easy reading, followed by a work history without dates ( I was not employed for stretches of time when the market was bad). If you are older OR younger, you don't want to stress years of experience that might give them a reason to not see you.

I know it is hard to believe since I am not a great writer, but I rewrote people's resumes and they suddenly got interviews. One was an HR person who should have known better. It's a gift. No, that is a joke, it is just that I probably applied for more jobs than most people in a life time because I would have some assignments that would last a few days before I had to look for more work. I also worked for a very nice person who spent a lot of time helping me develop the format I used for the rest of my career.