Skills to include in a recruiter resume or CV

As a recruiter, you’re evaluating candidate resumes every day, and advising those candidates on how to improve those resumes. And so, employers probably expect your CV to be absolutely perfect when you’re applying for a job. 

But, similar to what we recently discussed in our blog about questions to ask the hiring manager in the job interview, it can be a lot easier to advise other people than it is to do something, like create a recruiter resume, for ourselves. Suddenly, talking ourselves up and highlighting our accomplishments feels awkward and impossible.

Having trouble? Fear not. We’re here to help.

When writing a CV/resume for an agency recruiting job, there are certain skills and qualifications you should be sure to include to increase your chances of impressing the hiring manager and landing an interview – and, from there, the position.

You know the basics of resume writing, of course. But, just to get them out of the way:

• Keep it to two pages or less
• Keep formatting simple
• Have a strong summary up top
• Make your contact information clearly visible
• Optimize for the ATS
• Use relevant keywords found in the job description
• Tailor your resume to the specific job
• Highlight your accomplishments rather than your responsibilities, where possible
• Proofread and edit

Now let’s look at some key skills an experienced recruiter should include in a recruiter resume to impress hiring managers.

4 skills you must include on a recruiter resume and how to list them:

Marketing & Communication skills

A recruiter needs to know how to effectively use social media, email, and other platforms, write a compelling job ad, and reach new clients and wide ranges of both active and passive candidates through a variety of means and mediums. This is where your marketing and communication skills come in. What have you done that has brought attention to your current and past firms and clients, how have you managed to reach candidates? Have you planned, marketed, and leveraged events to reach new clients and candidates? List those skills and achievements in your recruiter resume.  For example:

• Grew company LinkedIn followers by 200%.
• Increased inbound talent leads across social media platforms.
• Managed newsletter and email communications, growing subscriber base by 75% over six months.

Networking and Interpersonal skills

As a recruiter, your interpersonal skills and abilities to make new connections and contacts and maintain relationships with stakeholders are gold. These apply to talent sourcing, building relationships, pipelines, account management, closing sales, and so much more. If you’re not focusing on these soft skills, you should be. For example:

• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain excellent relationships with multiple stakeholders.
• Excellent networking abilities with a natural aptitude for finding common ground and closing business.

Talent sourcing skills & successes

Strong headhunting skills are obviously a key to success here and you should be able to demonstrate and discuss how you’re able to source and hire candidates that others might not have access to, through social media, networking, events, and whatever else you have up your sleeve. For example:

• Strong headhunting skills with a history of finding top talent not available on job boards.
• Charged with key client relationships to ensure fulfillment of difficult to fill roles.
• Currently working on 4 interviews to placement ratio.

Tech skills

Don’t forget tech and digital skills. Contemporary approaches to and practices around talent acquisition, attraction, and headhunting are particularly attractive, particularly if they make use of new and modern resources and technologies. For example:

• Advanced user of LinkedIn Recruiter identifying the top 10 % of talent in the market.
• Comfortable and proficient user of various CRMS, including Bullhorn, Bond, & Vincere

If you have other skills, like online video interviewing, software, collaborative tools (Slack), design tools (Canva), list those, as they can be attractive to just about any employer.

Accomplishments

Always demonstrate your skills by listing your quantifiable achievements where possible. Use action words like “recruited,” “improved,” “managed,” or “maximized,” to describe accomplishments rather than just listing your “duties and responsibilities.” This is far more effective than listing your “duties” and “responsibilities.” A hiring manager hiring recruiters already knows what a recruiter’s “duties” and “responsibilities” are. They don’t need you to tell them.

For example:

• Successfully increased the existing client base spenders by 300%.
• Increased the fill rate from 1 in 7 jobs to 1 in 4.
• Gained exclusivity with 10 clients in the last 12 months.
• Increased the average fee from 20k to 30k by renegotiating terms and working on more senior placements during the last 12 months.

At Raymond George, we can advise you on creating a recruiter resume to land the recruiting job of your dreams. We help find the people who find the people who make your business a success. Get in touch today!