What Are Recruiters Looking For?

In a recent interview with recruiters, we asked what organizations are looking for in the candidates they hire. The result was invaluable: an instructive, enlightening, and sometimes surprising set of responses. He posed these questions:

Question: What are you looking for in a resume?

Answers:

• "In a resume, I look for representation and no spelling mistakes. There's just no excuse for any spelling mistakes."
• "I like a resume that has a lot of space and is not too crowded. I'd much prefer something that's achievement-oriented. I want to see that the individual can write. If I see something like: 'I worked for OfficeMax and helped boost sales by 20%', that tells me something about the person."
• "A resume that is clean and has no grammatical errors."

Question: What are you looking for in someone when you are looking to hire them?

Answers:

• "I want to know what the person knows about us and our company. Why are they interested in working for us?"
• "I want to know about their experience so that I can see how they might fit into our organization."
• "They have to have personality. I want to see if they make eye contact with me and any other people in the room. I watch to see how they can handle their nerves."
• "The person must be able to think on the spot. Regardless of what they learned in school, a lot of knowledge comes about from being on the job. If I give them an example with some facts, I want to see how well they are able to analyze the problem and come up with a solution."
• "A lot of our work requires someone to be in contact with the client, so I look to see if this person has good people skills. I want to see how well they get along with other people."
• "I want to know what they are good at, and what their weaknesses are. I had a young man who said he worked at a camp for handicapped children, and I thought that was absolutely great!"
• "They have to like working with numbers in this accounting firm, I want to know that they are comfortable with that."
• "Having an internship experience is a plus, but any experience in the field is important."
• "I really want to get to know the person, I want to know what are they like. I look for an opening in the resume, where I can ask them to elaborate on a certain topic."