Resume Profiles

As a recruiter who reviews hundreds of resumes monthly, (yes hundreds), I am struck by the fact that so many job applicants still persist in decreasing their chances of getting hired by neglecting the most important part of a resume.

Under the basic contact information, there is a major opportunity for any job seeker to define themself and their career for the readers of their resume. Yet, so many applicants ignore this opportunity.

Whether you choose to put a paragraph or two together or to simply use bullets and a list, this is the place to give the facts about your experience and your skills.

Instead, what I read in resume after resume is a selection of the following adjectives: “dedicated, loyal, team player, works well independently or in a team, compassionate, friendly, organized, self-starter”.
You get my drift.

Unfortunately, none of these adjectives tells me anything about experience or skills. Instead, the message I get is that the person is unable to understand how to present their background to a prospective employer. Right away, I have a query about their communication skills.

As a recruiter, here is what I am looking for: how many years of experience in their chosen career field do they have? What are their competencies in areas essential to jobs that I am recruiting for, such as specific types of software? Do they have management experience? I am not looking for a full career history. I should be able to read that in the Employment History to follow. I am looking to see if there is a basic match between my clients’ requirements and the candidate. Is it worth my reading the rest of the resume?

Contrast a list of the above adjectives previously mentioned with a simple synopsis like this:

“I am a seasoned medical administrator with ten years of experience in surgical practices with management experience, OR scheduling and am familiar with at least two electronic medical records programmes”.

In a matter of seconds, I know that I want to continue reading this resume, at the very least.

Those adjectives that you think constitute a profile are expressions that we recruiters like to hear from references.

As a job seeker, do yourself a favour and don’t miss out on the opportunity to hook the recruiter’s interest early.

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