Human Resources · free guide

How to tailor your resume for a Recruiter role

A screener on a Recruiter posting gives your resume the same treatment recruiters give candidates, fast, numbers first. Tailoring means leading with fills per year and speed. That match, more than any other line on the page, decides whether this resume gets a second look.

Four moves for this posting
  1. Lead with volume and speed, fills per year against average time-to-fill, matching the pace language the posting uses; those two numbers together tell your entire quota story.
  2. State role types and seniority levels, matching the exact roles the posting names; recruiting for very different levels or functions are plainly different trades.
  3. Show sourcing skill with a ratio, self-sourced hires against applicant hires, matching any sourcing language the posting mentions; recruiters who generate candidates outrank ones who only process them.
  4. Match the industry and role family you have recruited for to the posting's own focus; a mismatch here reads as a longer ramp before you find their specific talent pool.
The fact behind this

The claim that ATS systems auto-reject 75 percent of resumes traces to a 2012 marketing claim, not research. (traced to a 2012 vendor marketing claim)

Before you tailor anything

Start with the version a recruiter opens right now, then make these moves against it.

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