3 Reasons Recruiters Aren’t Calling You
Waiting for the phone to ring?
You’re perfect for the job. It was written just for you. Ever think that, and assume that recruiters just don’t know what they’re doing? Well, while that may be true, there may be more to the story. It may be your resume.
Here are 3 reasons your phone may not be ringing:
(1) Too Long! If your resume is more than 4 pages, it’s likely unnecessarily long. If there are two or more pages of technologies in which you excel, plus a page or so summary, before you even dive into your work history, your resume is not likely to be seen. Worse yet, resumes like this are often signs of a more junior candidate. A wise client once told us, he uses a secret mathematical equation to discount the validity of a candidate’s experience, based on the number of resume pages. While we suspect he was joking, we do urge candidates to avoid naming every technology and task, and to highlight expertise on their resumes.
(2) Poor Grammar and Misspellings. We rarely look the other way for poor grammar and misspelled words. If you miss a comma, most recruiters are not likely to dismiss you. However, using “there” instead of “their” and confusing “its” and “it’s” are good reasons to move on to the next resume. For highly technical positions, we’ll come back to the resume with misspellings if no others were more qualified. But, that’s a big “if”.
(3) Mismatched Fonts and Formats. This may sound picky, but how you put together your resume highlights several things about you as a potential employee. Your resume shows off your eye for detail. In some cases, it shows how you view consistency, and commitment to a theme. It may send a message about how much or little you care about image and appearance. Mismatched fonts and formats really show us a level of carelessness that is often inconsistent with what our client has asked for in a candidate.
Our advice: Have a friend proofread your resume. Have someone you trust help you edit it down to a manageable size.
