BACK

Don't Get Lost in the Shuffle

AUTHOR:      Gayle Oliver
PUBLISHED:  May 5, 2006

Today as I was squatting by my fax machine shuffling through resumes that had cascaded to the floor out of the fax bin, I once again got frustrated with those job seekers. So many of them didn?t put their name on the second page of their resume that I found myself hunched over fax pages trying to solve a whose who resume puzzle. Amazingly job seekers often overlook the most obvious things and then begin wondering why their job search seems to be going nowhere fast.

Most HR Managers, Recruiters, and Hiring professionals won?t take their precious time to ?figure out? anything that isn?t clear about your resume. That may sound harsh because the job seeker?s time is just as precious. However, with today?s corporate pace leaving most professionals over-burdened with too many responsibilities and competing priorities, anything that makes their life harder sends your resume into the ?not interested? pile. Whether that seems fair or not, the job seekers job is to find employment. The employed person?s job is to keep theirs. When they spend unnecessary time trying to figure out which first page of a resume goes with which second page, they are wasting time doing something that has no value to their employers. Most employees today feel extremely pressured to create value for their employers on a daily basis. Simply put, productivity is essential so they eliminate what isn?t.

If you are going to take your valuable time to send a resume, make sure to include your full name, and possibly your contact number, on each additional page of your resume. Plus, please check your contact information for accuracy. I can?t tell you how many times I have called numbers that were outdated or incorrect. Both email addresses and home addresses need to be checked for correctness too!

I?ll never forget one particular story that iterates the importance of accurate contact information. My client had moved but hadn?t updated her resume with her new address. She didn?t think it was a big deal since she had the correct phone number. She had already been contacted by the employer and asked to interview. The interview process was going extremely well and she was very excited about the prospect of joining this firm. Unfortunately her incorrect address became the greatest detriment to her success. Why? Although she didn?t find out until it was too late, the prospective company had mailed her a plane ticket to her old address. Having been forwarded from her old address, the ticket didn?t arrive until weeks later. She missed out on the next step in the interview process and was unable to get a job she would have loved.

The Moral of the Story: When you are trying to find a job, make it easy for the job to find you!

Copyright 2005 - 2024 Execume, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission of Execume, Inc.

BACK