HR resumes: the insider secrets to make you stand out

You may know what you’re looking for in jobseekers’ CVs, but how about what potential employers are looking for in your resume?

David Owens, managing director of HR recruitment company HR Partners, has seen a lot of resumes from HR professionals and told HRM there’s a “drop-down menu” of things he looks for.

“If I could change all of the resumes I see into documents that are fluent on these three points right at the beginning of the conversation, we'd get to the gold a lot quicker.”

Here are his top three insider tips for writing resumes that make a splash.

Tell the reader about your current employer
“I like to hear the HR professional tell me about their current organisation and what I'm looking for there are scale and complexity – how big the firm is, what they do, how much money the organisation generates and I want to see or hear how the HR professional describes that,” said Owens.
That includes details such as who the jobseeker reports to, where they fit into the company hierarchy and whether they are executing decisions at a management team level.  

Have a “what’s in it for me?” attitude
Think about who's going to read your resume and what they might be looking for, said Owens.
“Businesses want to know that if they're going to hire a senior HR professional, they will get one who can convert things into metrics that the CEO or CFO can understand – percentage improvements, costs savings, bottom line improvements, performance enhancements – and how these translates into a business that performs better.
“The 'what's in it for me?' test is the use of metrics, the use of proofs and I want to see people apply their resume with a view to impressing the reader. I see a lot of descriptive resumes. I want to see impacting resumes.”

Convert points to facts 
Convert as many of your points into facts as you can, said Owens.
“And if you can link the facts to business performance, you're doing a really good job.”