How To Write A Recruiter Resume (With Examples And Template)

Updated 19 August 2023

Before beginning your career in recruitment, it is your turn to impress recruiters with a powerful resume. Whether you are looking for an entry-level role in recruiting or have years of experience in the field, a professional resume can help in increasing your chances of securing your dream job. A well-written resume creates the best first impression on your future employers and paves the way for career growth. In this article, we discuss how to write a recruiter resume, what to include in it, along with tips and examples of how to frame each section.

How to write a recruiter resume

Here you can find the steps to write a recruiter resume and understand the essentials to include and draft your own accordingly:

1. Choose the resume format and layout

The most popular resume format is the chronological resume. List your work experience and education in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent one. The other two popular formats include functional and combination. You can choose any of these formats depending on your experience and the role. Once you identify the format, the next step is to fix the resume layout. Here are a few tips to help you:

Use section headers to organise the resume into different sub-sections.
Use the correct font size and style to make your resume professional. The standard font size for section headings is 14-16 and 11-12 for the body.
You can save the resume as a PDF file to ensure a uniform layout across devices of all sizes.
Ensure that the resume length is a maximum of two-three pages.
Use uniform margins and white space to give your resume a clean and professional look.

2. Start with your name and contact details

Once you have fixed the format and layout, you can fill the sub-sections. Ideally, the name and contact information are the resume's first section. Include the following information:

first and last name
email and contact number
location (city and state)

Here is an example:

Rahul Jha
example@email.com| +91 98765 43210
Pune, Maharashtra

3. Include a professional summary or objective

The summary is a short paragraph of two to three sentences listing the highlights of your career. You can include your latest role, total years of experience, professional achievements and relevant skills in the summary. If this is your first role as a recruiter, you can include an objective instead of a summary. The objective highlights your professional vision and accentuates skills relevant to the job.

Here are a few examples of summaries and objectives to help you:

Recruitment specialist with more than five years of experience in talent acquisition. Skilled in sourcing, resume screening, interviewing and
candidate assessment. Special interest in recruiting women candidates for senior managerial roles.
Skilled recruiter with attention to detail and over ten years of experience in conducting interviews, writing job descriptions, assessing
candidates for IT and non-IT roles.
Friendly and professional recruiter with more than six years of hiring expertise. Skilled at headhunting and have successfully placed over 50 candidates in 2021.
Senior recruiter with over eight years of experience hiring C-suite professionals for startups and government organisations. Skilled in
full-cycle recruiting, social media recruiting and organising job fairs.
Highly motivated human resources graduate with excellent interpersonal skills. Seeking to use my existing HR knowledge and communication skills to bring the best talent on board and to begin my career as an entry-level recruiter.
Dedicated entry-level recruiter with six months of experience interning for an assistant recruiter at a leading IT firm. Have experience
in scheduling interviews, screening emails, writing job descriptions and assessing candidate profiles.

4. Highlight your work experience

The work experience section is a crucial part of the recruiter's resume. It helps the hiring managers to evaluate your professional skills and assess if you have the right experience for the role. You can include the following information in this section:

the professional title you held at your previous role
company name, location and a short description of your last employer
dates employed in the mm/yyyy format
achievements and responsibilities

Start with your latest or current position and work backwards. If you are currently working in a role, you can include "present" or "current" instead of the ending date. List the achievements and critical responsibilities under each role in bullets. Include quantifiable achievements with numbers and data and use action words to create a positive and powerful impact.

Here are a few examples:

Senior Recruiter
ABC Company, Bangalore
04/2019 - Current
Led high-volume recruitment efforts to place 300+ permanent employees and 100+ contract positions
Provided professional guidance and support to recruited candidates to help them get started with their role
Increased candidate pipeline by 35% using various recruitment tools and platforms

Recruitment Specialist XYZ Company, Mumbai August 2017 - September 2019
Researched and identified passive candidates for possible placement opportunities
Partnered with clients to understand their needs and helped them recruit qualified candidates with the best fit
Implemented a new recruitment system, thereby increasing employee retention rates by 15%

HR Recruiting Intern
ABC Company, Kolkata
May 2016 - June 2017
Assisted senior recruiters in screening and assessing candidates
Communicated and scheduled interviews with selected candidates
Boosted candidate applications by 60% by advertising vacancies on popular social media networks

5. Include your educational qualifications

While listing your education, you can start with the latest and highest degree and then follow it with other academic qualifications. Include your degree, branch of study, university's name, location and years attended. You can also include any awards, certifications and other achievements during your college years. Here is an example:

MBA in Human Resources
XYZ University, Mumbai
2009 - 2011
Graduated magna cum laude

6. List your skills

Listing your technical and soft skills can help differentiate your resume from your competition. Make a list of skills related to your industry. You can also check the job description and identify skills relevant to the job. If you possess these skills, you can include them as a bulleted list on your resume. Here are some examples of in-demand technical and soft skills that you can include on your resume:

Soft skills: communication skills, emotional intelligence, problem-solving, critical thinking, collaboration, active listening skills, negotiation skills and decision-making skills
Hard skills: CV screening, cold-calling, social media outreach, scheduling interviews, job description writing, email automation,
interviewing, data-driven recruitment and database management

7. Include additional sections

These additional sections help differentiate your resume from others, giving recruiters a clear idea of your skills and personality. Some of the optional sections that you can add to your resume include:

publications in scientific journals, magazines, interviews
conferences attended in your industry
awards, accolades or other professional achievements
courses and certifications completed in your relevant field

8. Finally, attach a cover letter to your application

A cover letter helps you provide additional information that you have not included on your resume. Here are a few tips to help you write an attention-grabbing cover letter:

Start the cover letter by addressing the recruiter.
Include an engaging introduction listing your critical skills and qualifications.
Use the body of the cover letter to describe your experience. Give more detailed information than what you have included on your resume.
Highlight achievements to quantify the skills and capabilities mentioned on your resume.
End the cover letter with a call to action.

Related: How To Write A Cover Letter

Tips to write impressive recruiter's resumes

Leave a 1" border around the resume to improve legibility and avoid overcrowding.
Include information that adds value or increases your chances of employment. You can remove any section that you feel is irrelevant to the role.
If you are a recent graduate, you can remove the work experience section and provide a detailed education section highlighting your qualifications and academic skills.
Include the languages you know to improve your chances of employment, as some employers prefer candidates with knowledge of the local language.
Always make sure to review, edit and proofread your resume for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and typos before sending it.

Sample template for a recruiter resume

[first and last name]
[mobile number] | [email address] | [city, state]

Professional summary or objective
[A few sentences highlighting your professional experience, skills and qualifications and how they fit the position you are applying for and the company's goals and needs.]

Work experience
[job title]
[company name], [city, state]
[employment dates]
[Include a few bullet points describing the job responsibility and your duties. Repeat this for all positions you have held in the past.]

Education
[degree and major]
[university name], [city, state]
[year of study]
[You can also include relevant coursework, awards and achievements, if any. Repeat this for all the degrees you hold.]

Skills
[Include five to six job-relevant skills as bullets.]

Additional sections
[You can include previous publications, conferences attended, certifications, awards and accolades as separate sections with bullets under
each heading.]

Declaration
I declare the above information is accurate and true to the best of my knowledge.
[Date]
[Signature]

How To Write A Recruiter Resume (With Examples And Template)