Learning to hire can be exhiliarating, frustrating, and downright befuddling. It's difficult to get past "resume noise" to get to the hidden gems of a terrific employee. Here's some suggestions (my opinion only, of course but if you want to work for me, my opinion is the one that counts) on how to turn it down a notch and get me to notice you.
1. Please put your cover letter and resume together in one document. I don't want to open two. It may sound like I'm lazy but you want a job with me, right? So you want to make it as easy as possible for me to see you're information.
2. Ever heard of .pdf? It's not a complicated program and I'd like to know that you know how to use it.
3. Proofread. Don't just spellcheck. Print out your cover letter and resume, take out a pencil, spell out every word as you read it. Ask your friends to read it and solicit their objective opinion. Don't get mad. Everyone wants the best for you.
4. Choose your fonts wisely. Use readable, serif fonts wherever possible. And whatever you do, do not use Comic Sans. If you do, the message is that you're very, very young.
5. Don't make me search for information. I want to clearly see where you worked, what your position was, and how long you were there.
6. Don't put your "month started/ended" in the dates you worked for someone. Are you really living your working life month to month? Because I don't want to do this again in a month if I don't need to. Or two. Or six.
7. It's ok if you take out that job you were only at for three months. You're not being dishonest, everyone works somewhere that isn't a good "fit". It's hard to get the feel for somewhere in an interview or two. Remove it. And if you achieved some unbelievable skillset in those three months that don't show up in any other job, show me somewhere else in your resume.
8. Five pages. Really? If you need that much space to tell me about you, you're really wasting my time.
9. Be consistent. If you state something in your objectives, skills, profile, strengths, accomplishments, etc. you need to show me where you developed those objectives, skills, profiles, strengths, and accomplishments. If I can't relate what you FEEL you're good at to what you actually DID, what's the point even mentioning it?
10. Show me how you match what we're looking for. You have the ad I posted. You can figure out what I need. Show me you're what I need!
11. Do your research. Look at our website. See if our company feels like a cultural match for you. Tell me why you'd like to work for us. Here's a great example - if you're from the city our head office is located in and you'd like to relocate to the branch office we're hiring for, why don't you tell me how great it is that our head office is in your city. It's a little thing that doesn't mean you'll get the job but it tells me you cared enough to discover who we are before applying for the position.
12. Don't send a generic cover letter. You know, the same one that is focused on a different industry but you forgot to read it before you sent it to me. If you want a job, you have to show me you want it.
Any additions/disagreements?
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