Comments on: Bonus Resume Tips

By: Get A Job

Get A Job — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:01:57 +0000

Sometimes you just have to play the game. Going above and beyond in your job search tactics is what is going to get you noticed. Soemtimes that is just the way it goes. Now, it does seem that some sectors, and/or companies have different ideas of what is acceptable.

Regardless, I appreciate the thoughts and commentary.

By: Yolanda

Yolanda — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:54:41 +0000

Thanks for all the helpful tips!

By: James

James — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:19:21 +0000

The hoop jumping in corporate job seeking is ridiculous. When I hire someone, I look at their work. Have good samples and I don’t care if your resume is in txt format. I don’t care what your email looks like, as long as its direct and literate. If you are truly good then you don’t have time for fiddling with your resume anyway.

Jerks in HR who set you up to lose, are doing so because they are losers themselves.

By: Derek Park

Derek Park — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 15:36:24 +0000

This is just general advice. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t follow one of these tips, or one of someone else’s. Unless you violate a big rule (pink paper with unicorn stickers, or numerous typos), you’re unlikely to be eliminated out-of-hand.

If you don’t bother to call, we’re not going to drop you from the pile of resumes. If you were definitely in the top picks, you’ll stay there. Most tips are for those borderline cases, where we’re not sure whether we are interested or not. If we’re not sure, you need to give us a reason to interview you, because otherwise we’ll probably decide that you’re just not worth the time.

By: Allan Blackford

Allan Blackford — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 14:35:03 +0000

This is what kills me. Who do you believe? One person says call, another says never call. One person says reply to email, another says not to reply. Who the heck are we to believe. One wrong follow up call or email can take someone to the top or to the trash. I think there is too much ego involved in this process. I found this site when trying to decide if I should follow up on an emailed resume. Now it seems that it is a gamble, damned if I do, damned if I don’t.

By: Derek Park

Derek Park — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 22:31:19 +0000

Calling in and talking to HR probably won’t help (maybe if it’s a very small company). HR is just interested in whittling down the pile of resumes. However, if you can get to the hiring manager, I think calling is a definite plus. It gets your name in the manager’s head which, unlike the heads in HR, is more interested in hiring the best than just whittling down the pile.

If someone asks for no attachments, or a specific format, then give them what they want. A nice-looking plaintext resume can be quite a feat, though, so I’d avoid it unless I couldn’t.

By: Karen Setnor

Karen Setnor — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 22:10:08 +0000

I stopped calling in after half the job listings I looked at said “Do not call”, “Please no calls”, “NO CALLS!”, and “Calling in will get your resume discarded.” When I got the jobs, it became clear there were 100-200 applicants, and getting calls from any portion of them would have taken a ton of the already-overwhelmed HR lady’s time.

The “no resume in the body of the email” has me scratching my head, too, since a lot of people specifically ask for it (”No attachments!”). I usually did both, and in-email text version and a pretty PDF attached “for printing”. When I went into interviews, guess which one was always printed out? (Not the pretty one.)

Of course, you should always follow instructions. My experience in applying for highly popular (several hundred applicant) jobs indicates that companies *love* to filter out applicants by laying out specific instructions (email this address with a PDF resume with this as the email subject line followed by your last name and then first) so they can toss everyone who doesn’t follow those guidelines to the letter.

By: Derek Park

Derek Park — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 22:06:47 +0000

Bradley, your advice sounds good to me. Definitely, the job hunting effort needs to be tailored to the location.

As for the hand-delivered resume you mentioned, that’s a perfect example of above-and-beyond. I wouldn’t normally recommend a pink ribbon, but when you do something like that, and it’s well-received, it definitely makes a good impression.

By: Bradley

Bradley — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 20:24:06 +0000

Almost all of the information you have here is excellent, save perhaps that some of it needs a little tempering based on where its going. For instance although a call might be well appreciated in some businesses where the front line contact number is a qualified receptionist who can direct you to the office of the hiring manager. In other instances it’s not a great idea, if I call a 5-Diamond hotel and ask for their hiring manager or front office manager, there’s a good chance that a poor front desk clerk will drag their manager away from something important to deal with what sounds to them like an important call, but which is only a courtesy.

My favorite over time has been an employee who hand delivered a resume to us at the desk while I was speaking with the FOM. It was on very presentable paper, and its top left corner had a 1″ star punched into it, through which she’d fed a pink silk ribbon and tied it carefully in a bow. To the both of us it communicated not only that she was artistic, but that there was still a sense of passion and light-heartedness about her. We insisted that the general manager push her up in the stack.

You might also want to add a comment about being careful when you drop off resumes in person. And by careful, I mean careful to impress the person you -hand- it to. Even if they’re only a desk clerk, having the good word of a front desk rep can mean the difference between a resume stuffed into a cubby hole or mail slot… and a resume carefully laid atop the manager’s keyboard and a comment the next day about how professional they looked when they dropped it off!

(This, of course, is more tailored towards small to medium businesses, where you’re dealing with a close enough group of staff that interaction is possible.)

By: Derek Park

Derek Park — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 15:01:59 +0000

SL, responding to the we-got-your-resume email is definitely the least important of these. If we were actually getting everyone responding to them, then we wouldn’t like it. However, virtually no one does respond to them, which is why it makes those who do stand out. It’s not at all vital to respond to those, though, but it can be a nice touch.