Recruiters today decide in 15 seconds if they are going to continue reading your resume.

They have to because today they sometimes get hundreds of resumes for one single posting. They are professionals in their field and they can do this quite easily but ONLY if you give them what they need to pull your resume to their ‘A’ pile.

So what you can do to get your resume noticed. Follow these 6 tips for success:

1. Review the details of the posting very carefully. Identify the ‘key’ words which are the very important hard and soft skills and make note of them.

2. Make sure the top half of your resume has the most important information on it. The information that matches the key words you have selected. The top half of your resume is the most important ‘real estate’ that you have and what recruiters see first….so use it wisely. Here’s how:

3. Highlight your brand – identify how your skills match the key words that you have found from the job ad. Make sure your brand statement is front and centre at the top of your resume so it is easily seen. Your brand can be 3 or 4 specific words that describe your skills or it can be a tag line.

4. Have a specific profile statement that describes the skills and qualifications that you have that match the employer’s needs. Your profile statement should be approximately 3-5 sentences long and packed with the highlights of what you have to offer. Remember in today’s recruitment landscape employers want to know what you have to offer in skills and accomplishments (profile statement) versus what you want from them (objective statement).

5. The Body of your resume needs to demonstrate in accomplishment statements what you have identified in your profile statement. It’s the ‘proof’.

6. Make sure your resume is visually appealing and free from errors. Get a second opinion if needed.

Follow these tips and you will be giving Recruiters what they want to see so they can pull your resume to the ‘A’ pile.