Resume & Cover Letter Writing: Seven

To provide general facts about yourself to the employer; the number one reason to have a resume is to provide general information about yourself to the prospective employer. If you don't list your contacts on your resume then how will an employer contact you? This information should be up-to-date. Make sure the phone number you list can be answered anytime during the normal business hours.

To pass the interviewers screening process; your resume should list all your relevant qualifications; this will provide details about your qualifications, education and experience to your prospective employer. These details are likely to influence the decision made by the hiring manager.

To show professionalism; by writing your resume you can prove to the potential employer that you are a professional. How can you write a resume that shows you are a professional person with high standards? By using excellent writing skills and coming with a resume that has been proof read thoroughly and it does not have any grammatical or spelling mistakes. Your resume should be well written, organized and well designed.

To show your writing skills; a well written resume serves as an example of your good writing skills. This is the first thing that a hiring manager will look for; good writing skills.

To have a networking tool to give to prospective employers that you meet with; a resume is like your business card, it your first point of contact with your prospective employer. Every time you go out to hunt for a job always remember to carry a few copies of you resume.

To clarify the direction which you wish to progress your career; this should be listed as part of the objective, if you are in IT, specify whether the career you want is that of a network engineer or that of a web designer. This will help the employer to determine if you are the right person for the job position that is vacant. If the job advertised has listed the job title for the vacant position, try to customize your resume to fit the specific job that has been advertised. This way the employer is likely to see you as a potential match for the vacant job.

The Number One Reason to Have a Resume

The number one reason to have a resume is to win an interview. An effective resume is one that does what it says; it gets you an interview. If your resume is not getting you interviews then drop it now and write a new one.

A good resume is one that convinces the employer that you are qualified and you have all the requirements needed to be successful in the new job position.

A good resume is one that inspires the prospective employer to pick up the phone and call you for a job interview. Download a free resume sample at Job Searching Land website.

1/8/11

Seven Steps for Testing Resume Effectiveness

How do you know if your resume is going to wow employers and provoke a callback or an interview? When you finish working on a resume, it is important to put it through a test run before you send it out to represent you. This list of seven tests will determine whether your resume is ready for prime time or whether it needs a little more work.

1) What's Your Text-to-Blank-Space Ratio? - The ideal ratio is 50-50 - too much text makes your resume feel cluttered, but too little text makes it feel sparse and unqualified. You should divide your resume into quadrants and ensure that each quadrant has approximately a 50-50 ratio. If one quadrant feels too cluttered or too sparse, play with your formatting or add / remove content to make it more readable at a glance.

2) The 20-Second Test - Have a friend or family member read your resume for twenty seconds, then take it back and ask them to describe everything they remember upon reading it. Most employers will only look at each resume for about twenty seconds, so this is a good simulation of what is actually going to happen. If you wanted certain information to stand out but your test subject didn't mention it, the information must not have stood out strongly enough. Conversely, if a minor detail seemed major in your reader's description, you might want to tone down that text in your resume.

3) Results Orientation Test - When an employer looks at a resume, he or she is thinking, "How will this employee support my company's bottom line?" Employers are not interested in whether you're a nice guy or gal, a hard worker, or even an experienced professional - they want proof that you will bring results to the company. By emphasising the tangible results of your previous employment to your previous company, you will cause the dollar signs to light up in employers' minds.

4) Specificity Test - Do you make claims that can't be verified? Specific numbers are always better than vague qualitative analyses. Go through your resume with a fine-toothed comb and cross out anything fluffy or unfounded like, "good interpersonal skills," and "conscientious." Nobody can prove or disprove that, and it means nothing to someone who is about to risk money on their payroll to take a chance on your skills.

5) Branding Test - Someone should be able to know who you are and what you want within five seconds of looking at your resume. This is often accomplished by means of a summary statement in a prominent place about a third of the way down the first page, but other elements such as layout and length can also have a huge role in branding who you are as a person. You want your personal brand to mesh with the company's brand, but in order to do that you have to have a brand in the first place. What's the overall feeling you get when you look at your resume for two seconds? Give it to friends and ask them what they think.

6) Growth Test - We all have a hodgepodge of employment records, but the trick in a resume is making it look as though your employment has shown a consistent pattern of growth and increased responsibility over the course of your career. Oftentimes the actual truth of what you did is less important than the general story of the arc of your career that your resume presents. If it looks as though you've steadily grown, you're more likely to get a job with opportunities for advancement.

7) Grammar and Spelling Test - Obviously, you can't turn in a resume with spelling mistakes. Once you've made all the style changes that you need to make after following the above six tests, you have to finalize the package. Every awkward statement, every misspelled word, and every incomplete sentence will be held against you in comparison with other resumes on the market. Many employers simply don't have time to deal with poor grammar and spelling.

These tests represent the unconscious judgment factors that run through employers' minds as they scan over your resume. By tailoring your resume to pass these tests, you will significantly improve your chances of getting the job.

12/10/10

The Seven Resume Signs You Are Obsolete

What do your resume and cover letters have to do with old computers? Would you buy a used 1994 computer running Windows 3.1 with a 40mg hard drive and not enough RAM to connect to the Internet? Hardly anyone would. Sure you might be able to upgrade the RAM, add a new hard drive, find a replacement mother board, and try installing Windows 7. But after all this work and expense you might as well had bought a new current computer in the first place. Estimates are that there are more than 60 million obsolete computers sitting in storage units in the US alone. Nobody wants obsolete equipment. Employers do not want to hire obsolete employees either.

There are resume red flags that signal an employer that a candidate is obsolete. Some of these signs are easy to detect and others are a bit obscure or can be read between the lines. If you have not kept up with general technology, advances in your field, or appear career stagnant you can be marked obsolete. You do not have to be old to be obsolete in today's job market. Even if you are a new grad entering the work force by omitting certain information or using the wrong words you can appear outdated. If an employer detects any of these red flags, you might be rejected:

You are Career Stagnant: Because technology is such a major factor that affects most jobs and is constantly advancing you can become career stagnant. You can appear career stagnant if you have been on the same job more than five years and do not show any technology or computer education or training during that time period or mention your current technology skills.

Your Renewable Skills have not Been Updated: There are durable skills and renewable skills. Requirements for some skills remain current or durable while others need regular updating or to be renewed. Foreign language skills, communication skills, and team work skills, all have knowledge bases that remain effective and are classified as durable skills. Many career specific skills such as being a Doctor, IT Manager, Computer Technician, or Auto Mechanic require regular updating of specific skill information and practice. If your resume includes renewable skills and your education in those areas is more than five years old you need to demonstrate they are current to avoid appearing obsolete.

There are also obsolete or near obsolete skills such as a typewriter manufacturing engineer. While the skill itself might be obsolete there are often skills associated with a profession that are transferable. A typewriter manufacturing engineer might have math, problem solving, and communication skills that are durable and could all be applied to a new and current career.

Your Phone Numbers: The phone numbers you use and how you label them on your resume can tell an employer a lot about you. If you use the word 'cell' in front of your phone number you need to delete the word. This is certainly not the worst offense but this action can exhibit you are behind the times. Few people have landlines and those who do should probably not date themselves by labeling their phone numbers as such. One phone number should be enough. If you feel the need to include a back up number, do so without labeling each one. The latest cell phone is a smart phone nowadays. Even if your phone is not an appendage like most people of this century, a phone number can follow and ring on any phone wherever you are.

While fax numbers were all the rage a few decades ago back when people under age 25 knew who Madonna was, unless you are faxing a resume to an employer, including a fax number on your resume screams obsolescence and is of no use to most employers.

Your Email Address: If you do not include an email address on your resumes and cover letters, even if you are sending hard copies, you might as well plan on staying home. The lack of an email address demonstrates an archaic or lazy candidate, and neither will get an interview.

There has been so much written about having a professional sounding email address, if you have a goofy or unprofessional one then you appear in the dark or illiterate. Get a professional sounding email address. If your email account is with AOL, you might also appear archaic.

You Have Been Unemployed: If you have been out of work for more than three years for any reason you could be behind the times. Depending on your field you might need to show you are current with some updated training.

You Have Been Working Outside Your Career: Just like being unemployed, if you have been away from your career for a period of time working in another field or at a temporary job you might need to do some catching up. The amount of time absent from your career before you appear obsolete depends on what field you are in. Being away from some information technology fields for more than a year or so can be detrimental while missing from carpentry work for several years might not be a big deal.

Your Lingo is Outdated: Nothing can mark you as outmoded faster than the vocabulary you use. With the advent of web social conversation and texting, words are coined daily for events, people, things, feelings, technology and so on. Some are used in general conversation, as business buzzwords, or the words are industry specific. Many of these terms are here today and gone tomorrow. Using outdated words on your resume will make you look obsolete. Technology related words such as: information superhighway, worldwide web, paperless office, long distance and personal digital assistant (PDA) can all make you appear outmoded.

General buzz terms such as upward mobility, value proposition, revenue stream, good to go, synergy, and many more can also date your resume and make you look obsolete. Remove these words from your resume. See more obsolete resume words and what to do in cover letters. Copyright 2010 by Phil Baker. Freely distribute this article but please leave article, author name, copyright info, and links intact.

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Phil Baker - EzineArticles Expert Author

12/6/10

Seven Cover Letter Don'ts

While the resume is a critical marketing tool for the job seeker, for some hiring managers the cover letter can be an equal or even more important tool for assessing a candidate's competencies. The cover letter gives the job seeker an opportunity to connect with the reader and even show a bit more of their personality and passion for their work. Yet some job seekers view the cover letter as an afterthought and don't pay enough attention to the role the letter can play in showcasing their value. Below are seven common cover letter mistakes.

Make the cover letter all about you. Employers don't want to see a data dump of everything you have ever done. They want to see a letter with a laser focus on the skills and achievements that are relevant to their business and address their pain points. Be specific and write with the employer's frame of reference in mind.Write more than one page. In today's fast-paced world, no one has time to read long cover letters. Get to the point quickly and use brief paragraphs or bulleted lists of competencies and achievements to demonstrate a succinct and compelling value proposition.Write less than a paragraph. Writing a cover letter that simply states "my resume is attached for your review" adds no value to your candidacy. Use the cover letter as an opportunity to connect with your reader. Generally you should be able to get your point across in three or four brief paragraphs.Forget to sign your name. Overlooking this detail may leave the hiring manager wondering what other details you don't pay attention to.Neglect to reference the position you are applying for. Some hiring managers are recruiting for multiple positions simultaneously. Refer to the position you are applying for early on in the letter to avoid confusion.Fail to proofread the letter. Again, paying attention to the details is important. Use spell check, proof read, and ask someone else to review the letter to catch any errors.Send your cover letter/resume with a generic subject line. Recruiters may be receiving hundreds of resumes for the same position. Stand out from the crowd by using an eye-catching subject line when you send an e-mail with your resume/cover letter attachments such as "Award-Winning Sales Manager" or "Top Producing Customer Service Representative."

AOL Jobs has brought together some of the industry's top experts on job searching, resume and cover letter writing, interviewing, networking, workplace issues, career management, employment news and trends and so much more. We have come together with one common goal -- to provide you the information you need, when you need it, to help you land (and keep) that job.

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Article Submitted On: November 17, 2010