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Contact Information on Your Resume

Jul 13 2014

One problem that drives recruiters and hiring managers crazy is how to reach a potential hire when the contact information on his or her resume is wrong or difficult to read. Follow these basic rules about contact information so that you never miss a request for an interview:

Make sure your name and contact information is visible on every page of the resume. Small or fancy fonts, light print, or poor contrast between the print and page color will all make your name and contact information difficult to read.
Make sure your phone number is complete (with area code); double check the number because it is easy to transpose a figure that you know by heart.
Give your exact mailing address, including zip code. Although these days most companies will respond by email or phone, why take chances?
If your home phone is regularly answered by a 5 year old, purchase a cell phone for the duration of your job hunt so that you are the only one who answers it.
Give your answering machine a professional message. Save the jazz sonata, inside joke, and gruff “you know what to do at the beep” for after you have a new job.
Set up a professional email address that includes your name. If you have to insert a period (john.mell) or underline (john_mell), make sure the period or underline is clearly visible on your resume. Try to avoid adding a number 0 or 1 to your email address, as these numbers can be confused with o or l (JOHNMELL0123).

At Robin’s Resumes®, paying attention to these details is second nature to us. Let us help you make sure that hiring managers and recruiters know how to reach you—and are eager to do so. Next week we will discuss the “10 Must Haves in a Great Work History.”

Resumes That Bridge the Work History Gap

Mar 16 2014

Gaps in your work history may occur for many reasons: inability to find a job immediately after a layoff, the decision to become a stay-at-home parent, health issues, and so on.

After a gap, writing your resume may be harder than you expected. Here are a few hints to help:

Make sure you set up a professional email address, using your name. You can keep your “happyhomebody” address for friends and relatives but not for your resume. It is recommended you choose a gmail or outlook.com email address if you are looking for an account. Yahoo! rejects many emails from providers and has been compromised for scamming. Hotmail and AOL also reject emails, and many potential employers consider folks who use these email addresses to be “old-fashioned.”
Clean up your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media accounts, since hiring managers and recruiters do look online for information about candidates. Do not depend on them being less accessible in searches, since they may know a friend of a friend–and will be able to get access to you. On every post ask yourself if you would be happy if your boss, parents, grandparents, or children saw the post. If not, delete it.
Give yourself credit for jobs you undertook as a volunteer or as a favor to a friend. That website you created for free still required website development skills a company would value.
Scan job postings and advertisements to see how your skills might fit a variety of job titles. Do not become wedded to one title or even one industry; your skills and achievements may apply to a wider range of jobs than you think.
Build up your referral network. Become active on LinkedIn, in professional organizations and in service-oriented groups in your community.

There are many techniques for preventing recruiters and hiring managers from focusing on a work history gap and for ensuring that they recognize the value you can bring to a company. Contact Robin’s Resumes®, and we will help ease the process of writing your resume.

Emails That Support Your Resume

Mar 02 2014

If you are sending your resume by email, you need to treat the email as carefully as your resume and certainly as carefully as a printed cover letter. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Be professional and business formal in your language. The email that accompanies your resume is not the right place for texting abbreviations or for emoticons.
Your email should include an identification of the job you are applying for, preferably both in the email’s subject line and in the content. Read the ad or job posting carefully for any instructions (such as a job identification number).
Be sure your email includes your full contact information (name, phone number, and address). The company you are applying to may not email a reply; they may prefer to phone.
Like cover letters, cover emails are an excellent place to put in information that might not belong in your resume, such as “open to relocation” or a statement about why you chose that particular company.
Do not send the same email to several companies at once. Send each company its own email.
Remember to include your resume in the exact form (Word, .pdf, text) that the company specifies. Some companies accept attachments but others want you to embed your resume in the email itself. If you are not sure of the format a company requires, send the company a Word 2003 file attached to the email and also embed the resume in the email itself.
Save the email and then delay 10 or 15 minutes before hitting send. Walk away from the computer and take your mind off the email. When you return, read the email again to make sure it is clear, professional, accurate, and as brief as possible. Check for spelling or grammatical errors. Then send.

At Robin’s Resumes®, we believe cover letters and cover emails deserve the same attention as your resume.

What Belongs in a Cover Letter or Email?

Oct 16 2011

A cover letter or email is an essential part of a resume.

The cover letter echoes some of the most important achievements from your resume, chosen to highlight your fit for the particular job you are applying for. Sometimes an important experience, skill or accomplishment needs more emphasis or explanation than you have room for in your resume. The cover letter is a perfect place to expand on what’s already in your resume. Cover letters and resumes do become separated, so don’t rely on the cover letter alone to tell a recruiter or hiring manager that you have essential skills they want.

Certain pieces of information belong only in a cover letter, not in a resume. For example, the cover letter is the place for information about your availability for all shifts or your flexibility regarding travel or relocation.

Make sure your contact information is identical on your cover letter and resume. If you are considering a job in another state, you may want to rent a postal box in that state to give yourself a local address. Your contact information includes:

A phone number that is answered professionally—if your children always answer your home phone, purchase a pay-as-you-go cell phone that you can use for the length of your search.
A professional email address based on your full name (robertsmith@yahoo.com). Opening a new free email address at yahoo or gmail is easy and few employers will bother to contact a candidate at “skibum@yahoo.com.”

Double and triple check the address you are mailing to: on the cover letter, you don’t want to misspell the name of the recipient or their company or division.

Finally, the cover letter or email is a great place for a statement of what you hope to contribute to the company, whether increased sales, greater team work, improved communications or whatever your expertise qualifies you for.

Having trouble fitting all that in three or four short paragraphs? Email me today and I’ll give you a cover letter and resume that show off your value.