Resume Writing and Submission

No matter if we are looking for an intern, a part time position, full time, or a commission only sales person we deal with resumes on a daily basis.  Most of these are down right awful.

Some tips for anyone that wants me to read their resume, or items that other would be employers might want to check for as well:

1. Have a cover letter

2. If your cover letter is a form letter then forget it

3. Your cover letter is addressed to “Whom it may concern”.
We are a company of three people.  All of our names are on the web site.  If you didn’t spend 2 minutes to look on our web site and see what my name is then why should I even bother reading your submission?

4. Cover letter is focused on the applicant
While it is great you are telling me about you, I quite frankly don’t care.  I’m trying to run a business and make a profit.  99.9% of people talk about only themselves if they send a coversheet at all.  If you really want to get my attention on a cover sheet focus on talking about me and my business.  Tell me how you are going to help me.  Tell me how you are going to solve my problems and me money.  Convince me that I’m the right choice.

5. Employment Gaps
These always raise questions, however I’m usually pretty open and will at least meet with you to determine why there are gaps.  Many people tend to side on the more cynical side though.  When it comes to drug & alcohol abuse there is no place for that in the workplace and when there is even a hint of problems like that and there are numerous other applicants I can only assume that it doesn’t help your chances.

6. Your resume and/or cover letter should state your objective
I get many resumes that talk about the person’s work history at entry level jobs that are not related to my industry at all.  I would love to talk with you, but when I don’t even know if you are interested in a sales position or a technical position I probably won’t bother to ask you.

7. Answer my concerns
Hiring someone is going to have the single biggest impact on my business.  It is my business and thus I'm going to have many concerns for you.  The applicant that realizes this will tailer their writing to answer the questions I have and make me feel confident that I should choose you.

8. Be truthful
If your resume makes it to me and I like it and I do an initial interview with you and I still like what you have to offer I'm going to start doing fact checking.  I'm going to check everything you say in your resume.  I will call every institution you list you attended.  I will verify all memberships and associations you say you belong to.  If you are a volunteer I'm going to be sure that I can verify that you really did help with the weed pulling and leaf raking or singing to the people at the nursing home.  And while I love hearing that you helped Grannie make it across the street, if she says she doesn't know you when I ask about the event then you are not going to hear from me again.

9. Have good contact information
If you are going to give me your email address it should look nice.  If you give me a email address such as upInFlames@somefreeemailservice.com I'm going to have some concerns about you.  This happens a lot with applicants who are into computer and/or video games.  They will use an address with something like “bigguns” or “masterkiller” or other such made up non-sense.  While I really have no concern about your gaming habits, I would rather not know about them at all.  Especially in this day and age we live in this is a big no no, and not only will I not call you back, but if it came from a local university you can bet I'll be giving a heads up to their career office.