Trying to get noticed by a recruiter? Consider these tips to help you.

1. Simplify Your Resume and Cover Letter
   Recruiters or their research assistants may view over 100 resumes in a day, so be brief. A concise summary of your qualifications, skills, accomplishments, career and education history is best. The same holds true for your cover letter be brief. The cover letter is also where you want to mention your salary and relocation requirements.
    
2. The Email Subject Line
   Frequently the email subject line contains codes relating to the position you are applying for and maybe even the job board your resume came from. Don't remove these!!! Many recruiters and employers use applicant-tracking systems and these codes determine how your resume will be routed. If there are no codes pre-formatted in the email subject line, look for them in the body of the job description text, or use the title of the position and maybe even the location.
    
3. Don't name your resume attachment "resume"
   Recruiters get 100's of resumes a day so if you name your resume attachment "resume.doc" or "myresume" the recruiter' s computer will automatically assign your resume in numerical sequence to the already 1000's of resumes in the computer. So your resume will now become "resume58742.doc" or something similar. Name your file with your first and last name and the word resume. Your file name should look like this: "john doe resume.doc". That way the recruiter can find you in the system quicker and you won't become "just a number."
    
4. The number #1 way to get noticed
   Is to send the recruiter a virus with your attachment. You'll get noticed all right, but your resume will never get read, and you definitely won't get the job you are applying for. Use updated anti-virus software on your computer, before you go out spreading your resume all over the world.
    
5. Don't use too much fancy formatting
   Since so many recruiters use applicant tracking systems (ATS) or scanners for the resumes they receive, fancy lettering, bolding, font sizes, and bullets frequently get reformatted as symbols, question marks, squares, or into misspellings. Keep your resume font in an Arial or times new roman, use 10 or 12 as the font size, and use limited or simple bullet points. You can even use asterisks or dash instead of bullets, as all programs read these.
    
6. Spell-check, spell-check, spell-check
   Even with all the spell-checking systems in your computer, resumes still come across daily with severe misspellings. If the recruiter's name is listed in the ad, make sure you spell it correctly. Don't let Dear Bob, turn into Dear Boob, or Dear Sue, become Dear Suer.