Even the most qualified candidates with the strongest qualifications sometimes get bypassed by recruiters when they are looking to fill an open position. Why is this? Dont recruiters want to interview and hire and the best of the best?
The answer to this question is, of course, yes! Recruiters are reviewing the resumes of submitted candidates to determine which individuals appear, on paper, to be a potential match for the position. But considering that a recruiter may get dozens, if not hundreds, of resumes for a single job opening, there is little time to carefully dig through each individual resume to see if a candidate has the special something the employer is seeking.
As disappointing as this fact is for many job seekers, most recruiters will decide the fate of your resume in less than 15 seconds. If a recruiter cannot match your qualifications to that of the open position in that time frame, your resume is headed to the File for Future Reference stack, otherwise known as the Black Hole of Resumes. This means that you need to sell yourself very quickly and capture the recruiters attention from the start.
So what do you need to do to stand out...