Most people spend a very long time crafting the perfect resume because they believe it will open up the door to their dream job. You have to know what happens when a recruiter is working on behalf of a company, but before you can do that you must understand what their job entails. They need to provide a company with the best candidates and their performance is based on the company being able to employ the perfect person for the job.
This means they need to go through a huge number of resumes and they don't have time to sit around reading each one thoroughly. You'll be lucky if they spend 20 seconds scanning yours, so think about that the next time you have your resume out in front of you. It's not their job to take chances, so if your recruiter isn't up to scratch they'll throw it away. Let's look at some of the things they want to see when they're rushing through the pile in front of them.
Recent experience
When applying for a job it's easier to step into a new one where you'll be doing the same kind of thing. If you currently have a job selling electrical equipment to overseas companies it's easy to do the same thing for another company, but if you've not done it for 20 years it's completely different. Obviously you don't have to step into the exact same role, but if you don't have relevant experience it means you'll need a lot of training.
Educational background
The educational system is getting a lot of bad press in some quarters at the moment, but that doesn't take away the fact your resume will probably get thrown away if you don't have a college degree. In some cases you will even need a master's degree if you want to get to the next stage in the interview process. Recruiters are looking for the best and whether you like it or not a degree is one qualifier they use.
Relevant industry
Applying for a job in a completely different industry is going to be difficult when you're dealing with a recruiter because they're trying to pick the perfect person who can slip straight into a company. If your current industry is similar it's a little more realistic, but if they're at two different ends of the spectrum you can forget it. The client will probably tell the recruiter they're not willing to take someone from a completely different industry, so their hands are tied.
Obvious extras
There are some things you're probably aware of because they are so obvious, but we'll mention them anyway so you don't mess up. If someone can't read your resume because of spelling and grammatical errors it's easy to throw it into the reject pile. If you leave someone guessing they won't take the time to work out what you failed to mention. Instead of rambling on you also need to get straight to the point so the recruiter can read everything they need to see.
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The author of this post, Kevin David, works at Resume Service, home to the finest CV writers in Perth. He keeps himself busy during the weekends by taking up restoration work for his home.
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