These tips for preparing your resume will help make the resume effective:
- Always type your resume; never submit a handwritten resume or one that has been typeset. Just as a handwritten resume looks unprofessional, as type set resume looks to professional-almost as though job-hunting were your full-time careers.
- Use only 8V2 by 11-inch bond paper. The weight should be at least 20-pound offset, and the color should be either white or ivory. Don't use stationery with embossing or artwork. The simpler the better. You want to direct the reader's attention to the content, not the paper. That means distractions.
- For maximum readability, use a new ribbon on your typewriter or printer when you make the final copy of your resume.
- Check and recheck your resume for typographical and grammatical errors. You want nothing to count against you.
- Put your name in the upper-right-hand corner of the cover page and the second sheet. On page 1, include your address and your phone number beneath your name. You want your name to remain visible when the prospective employer reads your resume or clips a routing slip tit when it goes off to theirs for review.
- When formatting your resume, leave plenty of room for borders. This white space helps to frame your resume and make it more attractive.
- Use a telegraphic style in wording your experience. For example, don't write: "I conducted a highly successful meeting for the managers of my department." Edit this down tread: "Conducted highly successful meeting for department managers." In fact, if you can replace "highly successful" with specifics of what you did, you should do so.
- Never include a photo with your resume unless your face is integral to the position you seek, as in modeling or acting.
- Notice that the suggested statement on references makes no mention of individuals' names. Never list your references by name in your resume. Treat your references like gold and give the names only to people where serious about offering you a job. Otherwise, you run the risk of having all recipients of your resume call your references and wear out the references' patience and your welcome.
- Never attempt to be cute or devious in your resume. Just stick to the facts, presented in the best possible light. Neither under value nor oversell your achievements. If you have done your advance preparation thoroughly, you will have no difficulty assembling a resume that will move the right employer to call you in for an interview.
- Mail your resume flat rather than fold it. An unfolded resume is neater, and it makes a better first impression on the potential employer.
There are some advantages to conveying the idea that you do not have a resume at all. A sound alternative is to prepare an official biography that you can have printed on your current organization's stationery.
Such a document communicates status and conveys a greater air of stability than a resume can. Further, you would not want a potential employer to perceive your resume as a permanent document, whereas a biography can and perhaps should be perceived that way. You can have a biography typeset and printed, which will give you a neater, more professional piece for your prospects. As noted earlier, there are good reasons not to print your resume.
Letter Forwarding Your Resume
Sending your resume by mail is generally not a good idea. It gives away the store by telling the potential employer too much on the one hand and too little on the other. Your shining hour can come across as only a bunch of words. Since resumes are used primarily to exclude rather than include, the potential employer may rule you out without ever knowing the most important part of you: your personality.
However, you may find yourself in a situation in which it would be inadvisable to decline to send a resume. An example is when a potential employer in another state asks you to send a resume after having had a productive phone conversation with you.
- Address. Also include the date you typed the letter.
- Heading. Recipient's name, title, department, organization, street, city, state, and zip code.
- Salutation. Generally use Dear Mr. or Ms. So-and-so, followed by a colon. Use only the last name, unless you are on a first-name basis.
- Attention. In this paragraph you try to say enough to entice the reader to continue with your letter. You don't want to call attention to your resume yet, or the recipient may set your letter aside.
- Interest. Here you try to relate your background to the potential employer's staffing needs.
- Desire. Your goal here is to stimulate the reader to look at your resume and then invite you in for an interview.
- Action. Here you suggest what you want the reader to do: Look at the resume and schedule an interview.
- Closing. Use? 'Sincerely".
- Your signature. Type your full name below it.
- Enclosure. Type in the word “Resume."
Avoid the cover letter-resume approach if you can. You should learn how to write a letter that will open door to the hidden job market referred to in many books.
