By Kim Little
An outstanding resume is the first, and most essential component of a
successful job search. However, your resume needs a guide in order to do its job,
and that guide is YOU! Responding to a few job ads a week is not going to land you that
dream job. You have to be patient, diligent, tenacious and organized in order to maximize
your search. Imagine -
When you are hunting for a job, you have to remain committed and focused. Studies show
it takes the average person about 7 or 8 months to land a "real" job –
we’re not talking about an interim position to help pay the bills. In addition, you
have to remember that you’re not the only one searching for a job and that recruiters
or hiring managers are currently receiving up to 300 resumes PER job opening!
Add those resumes to the over 24 million resumes "sitting" in
Monster's
database and to those received by
Fortune 500 companies - typically 2,000 per DAY, and you are talking
some serious competition. More and more people are utilizing resume
writing professionals, so chances are, that "homemade" resume isn't
going to cut it.
Bearing that in mind, you should first be absolutely certain that your resume is going
to outsell the competition. It needs to professionally and impressively represent your
career background, qualifications and achievements in about 30 seconds or less. Eighty
percent of employers look for accomplishments first before even reading about
responsibilities. If you provide a boring list of duties without demonstrating HOW those
activities contributed to results, your resume is doomed from the start. Once you’re
sure that your resume is a winner and will reach the top of the "to call" heap,
you have to prepare your cover letters.
An influential cover letter will NOT start with "Dear Sir or Madam," because
being the savvy professional you are, you will have done your research and located an
actual name and verified the spelling. Your cover letter should sell the benefits
of your credentials and let the employer know how you will solve their problems,
save them money and/or improve productivity. Your cover letter should also contain the
important, but often forgotten crucial question asking for the interview.
Before mailing out your 50+ resumes a week, which is not an unreasonable amount in an
aggressive search, you will have to document each company/name that you’re targeting
so that you can follow up appropriately. After one week, call EACH and EVERY employer to
whom you’ve sent your resume, and ask for the interview again. Be persistent
– that’s not to say call every day, but once every three days is fine (that is,
of course, unless you’ve been plainly told that there is no interest). Employers are
busy people, and despite their need to fill a particular position, it’s not easy
reading through a slew of resumes and letters from people all claiming to be "the
one."
Your advantage in following these simple steps is clear – employers rarely hear
from most of the people who’ve submitted resumes, and it’s the few who call
afterward that are granted the interview. Follow-up displays confidence,
professionalism and determination to succeed; combine those qualities with the
above steps, and you’ll be on your way to interviewing paradise!
