Be extremely careful about the persons you select to take messages for you.
If your prospective employer calls that number and hears a sloppy, unintelligible voice which answers, "Yeah, who d'ya wanna talk to?" ...your prospective employer has every right to question your judgment or your choice of friends.
When calling a semifinalist for employment with the corporation for which I served as Corporate Director of Human Resources, the candidate's spouse answered.
The answering voice was very unprofessional, not businesslike, and there was excessive noise in the background: television and kids crying.
Prospective employers deserve a better impression of any candidate than this. Be careful. Or you may be rejected for reasons you never considered or which you thought would never count against you!
Here are some samples of the ways you might want to write your phone number:
Considering all of the above advice, write your own name, address and phone number in the spaces below. Write it just as you want it to appear on your resume. Remember, no abbreviations, and include your 9 digit ZIP code too.
Job Objective
Including a Job or Career Objective on your resume is a controversial topic.
If you use an objective, experts will tell you that you must be specific... Say exactly what you do or what you're looking for. True!
But what if you have a first choice career objective and would gladly accept a second choice job, or even a third or fourth choice? If you list your first choice only, you will almost certainly be eliminated from consideration for any other opportunities.
So here's what I recommend: If you know what you want to do, very specifically, write a job or career objective. Stick to it. Hang in there. You'll get what you want eventually.
Don't Be Vague
But if you don't know what you want to do, don't write an objective at all.
You're better off not having one than having a vague, poorly written objective. Don't expect employers to be impressed with generalities; they won't be.
- And neither will employers be able to make your career decisions for you. That's not their job. It's yours.
- A competent, college degreed professional wrote the following job objective at the top of the resume:
- A challenging opportunity with a forward looking organization, in one or more of the following areas marketing, management, distribution, public relations, or personnel
- What's wrong? Too many options. This candidate looks indecisive.
- Another college graduate wrote this:
- A challenging opportunity in management
His objective is simply too broad, too general, and meaningless. It hurts the applicant, rather than helping him.
Most employers want to fill a specific job that requires specific skills. You really can't expect them to figure out the job for which you are qualified.
Your job objective, then, must also be specific. It should let the reader know, immediately, what job you are looking for. It should imply the types of problems you can solve and let them know that "you're the one" or, at the very least, that you deserve further consideration.
