How to make sure an IT recruiter spots your IT resume?
When an IT recruiter does a search for a resume using an online job site like Dice, Monster, CareerBuilder, etc or their companies resume database; they search for qualified IT professionals using keywords.
Generally, the IT recruiter will first do a search based on a specific skill set that their client is looking for, such as ASP.net, CCNA, etc. Let me example:
A client needs 3 software developers who know ASP.net, VB.net, SQL Server, IIS, C#. My client really needs someone who knows ASP.net and SQL Server.
Using this example, I;m going to show you how to guarantee an IT recruiter will I’m going put in the keywords of ASP.net and SQL Server. Now, why is this bloody important? This is important because if you resume was written highlighting your skills using ASP.net and SQL Server, your resume will appear at the top of my search list
Key Point: If your IT resume is keyword rich for a specific skill set, 9 times out of 10, it will land at the top of an IT recruiters search results when they are looking to fill that open position.
Whatever you do, DON’T WRITE KEYWORD THROUGHOUT YOUR RESUME JUST TO MAKE IT KEYWORD RICH.
The easiest way to make your IT resume keyword rich is to use specific IT skill sets throughout your resume. For instance, I would put SQL Server and ASP.net in my summary and throughout my experience sections of my resume to make it keyword rich.
I will let you in on another little secret, generally IT recruiters pay attention to when the last time your IT resume was updated. So, it is best to go online and change something on your IT resume every couple of days. This way the IT recruiter will think that is was recently updated.
Key Point: If you change the word “the” to “a” just once a week on your online resume, an IT recruiter will think that it was updated recently because you made a change. It doesn’t have to be a big change to your online resume, any change will make your online IT resume look like it was updated recently.
Make any change to your online IT resume to make it appear as if it was recently updated to stay at the top of IT recruiter’s search results.
Follow these tips and you will be on your way to attracting IT recruiters to your IT resume like bees to honey.
To your IT career success,
Ivan Hurt
Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Ex-IT Hiring Manager
