Recently ResumeDoctor undertook the immense project of interviewing several hundred recruiters/headhunters to find out what they are saying about resumes. These recruiters stemmed from varied specialties and industries throughout the US and Canada, (Engineering, Information Technology, Sales and Marketing, Executive, Biotech, Healthcare, Administrative, Finance, etc.). ResumeDoctor sought to find out what are the recruiter’s likes and dislikes in a resume they receive and what is going to get a resume read by them. Some of the "Pet Peeves" shared will be obvious, while others might surprise a job seeker.

Candidates have to realize that recruiters receive literally hundreds and hundreds of resumes per week. A resume has to GRAB the reader from the get go. Recruiters told us that if a resume does not convey a match within 10 seconds, they move to the next candidate. An effective summary section will help the recruiter identify if the job seeker is a viable candidate for the position quicker. This summary section can be customized to the position you are applying.

For candidates of a technical nature, it is imperative that a Technical Summary is also compiled. Make sure that these technical skills are clearly laid out and current. When creating this tech summary, be careful not to create a long list of “alphabet soup” no one will ever read or understand.

Unless you are a super model or are applying to a position such as an actor or television personality that might require a “headshot,” there is absolutely no need to include your picture. A candidate should be judged based on their skills, education and work history, not race, sex, age, etc. Providing a picture only opens up problems. Secondly, pictures are next to impossible to download into recruiter and HRIS systems. In addition, sending a picture only increases the file size and download time of your resume. Remember, a candidate only has about 10 seconds to grab the recruiter, don’t waste these precious seconds for a picture to download.

Much the same goes for graphics and endless URL links. Including graphics only causes download time to increase and often makes a resume more difficult to read on a computer screen. Furthermore, because of the fear of computer viruses, many recruiting departments are set up not to accept graphics, pictures, downloadable files, etc. Your resume in that case will just be deleted before it is even opened. In the case of URL links, they just clutter up your resume and no recruiter will ever spend time “clicking” on these links. Give the recruiter the facts. Like what was mentioned in Pet Peeve # 20 last week, no recruiter has the time to play Sherlock Holmes or guessing games to figure out a candidate's background.