The Four Indispensable Elements of Resume That Recruiters Like

Written by a Guest Contributor

Recruiters go through scores of resumes on daily basis to chalk the right candidates for a possible interview. So what makes a resume stand out than the others?

Read on to know what you must write in your resume to get hired by the potential manager.

Looking for a job change? New job begins with a new resume. Give your old resume a facelift, update all your work information there, stuff it with essential and relevant facts in an orderly manner and begin sending it to the recruiters.

Sounds easy? Well it isn’t as smooth as that, every day recruiters reject hundreds of resumes and select only a handful for interviews. What is it that makes a resume shine? What are the recruiters looking for in a resume? What must you write in a resume to get hired by the potential manager?

We get you some tips from the recruiters on resume essentials and we hope these could be the pointers for your success as well.

The Perfect Beginning

Every resume needs an impressive cover letter. A recruiter can’t read every resume in detail, he shortlists it one basis of skill set, experience and salary band and covering letter throws a good insight into all this information. It’s a must to write a cover letter for your resume.

It’s a summary of sorts of your present job, achievements in workplace, educational qualification and a brief mention of your skill set. Don’t write more than two crisp paragraphs, you have a full-fledged resume for the remaining information. Treat the covering letter like a preface to your resume; make sure you write an impressive letter full of relevant facts.

What information goes where?
Put your name, contact numbers, email and present residential address on the top of resume. If you have some credible web properties which can showcase your worth like your Blog, Flickr page, LinkedIn profile or other such web links then you should mention them as well. However refrain from adding links to your social profiles since you may have a very casually maintained social account and it may not show you in a good light.

This should ideally be followed by details about your present job title, job responsibilities and employer as well. Emphasize on throwing light on projects that you handled independently or quote figures of results that you achieved in your present role. If gives a good understanding about your present prospects in your company. Also, mention a brief one line or two about your employers. Just in case the employer isn’t aware about your organization, he can still understand your industry, domain and area of work more clearly.

Avoid adding huge philosophical paragraphs about what you want to achieve further or quoting management gurus. If you are tempted to write about your expectations from future role then just mention one line about the growth and new learning prospects that you expect in a new organization. Otherwise avoid it at all.

The Impressive Body

You should mention a summary of all your previous work stints, right from ever since you stepped into profession in descending manner. Write the employers’ name, along with position held and the time frame as well. That will give a quick understanding as to where all you have worked in what profile and how your career has shaped so far.

After this comes the most crucial part - your educational qualifications. Again mention the name of the degree, the institute/college and graduating year clearly. You may mention your grades and distinctions, provided you have something really outstanding to showoff, like a gold medalist in ophthalmology etc. Otherwise avoid this discussion altogether, most recruiters will take your detailed statistical record at the time of hiring.

A Strong Ending Note

With most information laid out, let the recruiters peep into your personality as well. Mention your hobbies and extracurricular activities here. However, be cautious of mentioning things that you actually do and also don’t mention activities that can land you in a soup. For example, if you work with NGOs on weekends do mention that but there is no need to mention the candle light protest march that you have been part of. That may just give a hint that you have an aggressive personality.

Also recruiters tend to read this information very carefully since they want to assess your personality type; hence one has to be careful here. Many recruiters may ask hobby related questions so don’t lie about your hobby. If you say you like gardening, be sure that you know at least botanical names of some plants.

Now that we have spilled the beans on what you must write in resume to get hired by the potential managers, it’s time to check your resume again keeping these pointers in mind. Ramp up your resume and here’s wishing you all the best for the interview.