Posts Tagged ‘Resume Review’

With every resume submission, you must have a cover letter that accompanies it and presents you as a positive and certified candidate for the job. A cover letter must highlight areas of your resume which promote your professional experience, and must address any questions an employer may have about hiring you for the job. There are five common cover letter mistakes outlined below that you must avoid in order to get through the first round of resume assess and go one step quicker to getting the job that you want.

1. Addressing the cover letter using a generic salutation , or misspelling the name of the personal contact or the company. The address line is the most prominent part of the cover letter; it must be included even if the cover letter is sent via email. Generic greetings are not favored; they make it seem like you have a template for your cover letter and you simply send it to all employers you are interested in working for. Do the investigate and find out who the appropriate contact is for the cover letter. But , make sure that they name and the company name is spelled correctly. If your address line contains errors, your cover letter is liable to never make it to the hiring manager.

2. Telling the company what they can do for your career. Simply stated, employers care about your qualifications and what you can do for the company. Do not spend your time telling the company how working for them can be fantastic for your career. While that could be right , it certainly is not what the employers want to hear. Your the makings employers want to hear how you can benefit their team; they want to know what you can result in to the table that is innovative, and focused on consequences . Make sure that your resume lets your employer know just why you are the best candidate for the job.

3. You re-state your resume. Do not go over the information that is in your resume in your cover letter. Your cover letter is meant to beguile , and provoke the employer to assess your resume in fantastic detail. Re-stating the information in your resume doesn’t address what the employers want to know, which concerns reasons why you are the best candidate for the job. Highlight certain areas of your resume but do so in the context of your career goals and how such qualifications benefit the company.

4. Starting every sentence with “I”. While your cover letter is about you, starting each sentence this way will make your employer believe that your interaction skills are not up to the level of your professional background. Discuss your qualifications, your goals and what you result in to the table in terms of the company, and your professional attributes.

5. Asking the employer to call you at their convenience. The most generic closing statements in cover letters question the employer to contact you at their convenience. If you are truly excited about the chance with the employer, you won’t want to wait for them to call you back whenever they feel like it. What you must do instead is let them know when you want to follow up – and then do follow up. Close your cover letter by let your the makings employer know that you will contact them, as well as the manner in which you will do so. This shows your interest, and your take-charge attitude.

One of the most commonly made mistakes in resume writing that many professionals make is not taking the time to proofread the document previous to sending it to the the makings employer. While writing a resume is a time consuming process, not reviewing your final document with fresh eyes may cause your resume to end up in a recycling bin. To assure that all your hard work are not wasted, make sure that you take the subsequent three steps to assure your resume is in top shape previous to it reaches your the makings employer.

1. Proofread the content for grammar and spelling mistakes. This step is the most critical in the resume assess process. It is often hard to catch composition errors after you send hours writing and re-writing all parts of your resume. There are two ways to catch these errors: question someone else to proof your resume, or give yourself time between writing and reviewing your resume. If you question a friend or a family member for help, make sure that their strengths include spelling and grammar; they must be able to edit your resume for content and consistency in style. Asking others to assess your resume, but , must be done with parameters. For example, let your friend know what you are struggling with, so that they can help you address those concerns. Because personal preferences can come into play when you are discussing resumes, make sure that the changes you make are the kind you are comfortable with in terms of content. Another step in proofreading, which must be thought of as a must, is stepping away from your resume for a day or two, and coming back to it for a final assess . This gives you some space from the content, and will allow you to assess for grammar and spelling errors with fresh eyes.

2. Print our and email your resume so that you know what your the makings employer will receive after you submit your resume. Make sure to print your resume from the file that you are emailing to your employer. Make sure that the margins are set properly and are not cutting off any content. Look for spaces, and adjust the text in case of any large gaps on the document . E-mail your resume to a number of your friends; have them open the file and let you know how it appears on their screen, as well as how it prints out. Addressing any formatting issues previous to your resume reaches the employer is ultimate , so doing a couple of test runs will only help in developing a winning final resume.

3. Compare your resume to the job requirements, and make sure that all requirements are addressed in either your resume or your cover letter. Essentially, assess what the employer is looking for and make sure that your resume addresses all of their needs. When your the makings employer receives your resume, they will look for key terms from their job class in order to match your qualifications to their available spot . If possible, use some of the same terminology on your resume as the employer used on the job class . This will let the employer know that you are in synch with their needs, and make them more interested in you as the ultimate candidate for the job. Question one of your friends to assess the job class and your resume as well, and give you their impression on how well the two match.

Poorly written or formatted resumes let your employer know that you don’t pay any attention to detail. Taking the extra time to do a final assess of your resume is the key to getting employer’s attention and getting the job you always wanted.

Most job applications are now done electronically, and most employers, no matter the job level, request a resume from the candidates. Have you ever wondered why employers would request resumes from all candidates, when it can be extremely time consuming to assess them all? Employers don’t really assess every resume they receive; companies use various software to scan the resumes they receive for key words and content specific to their available positions. Typically, this is the first round of resume assess . Your resume has to make it pass the notebook -generated scan in order to make it into the hands of the hiring manager.

While your resume may be well-written and well-formatted, it may not be scannable. This may be the reason why you are not receiving calls from the makings employers, even if you have fantastic qualifications for the job. To make your resume scannable, follow these tips:

• Special formatting may cause certain letters in words to touch, and blend into one character. This is mainly the case if a word is bolded or italicized. Make sure that you assess your resume and revise any parts where letters are joined together, so that the words can be scanned.

• Font type and font size are very valuable for both your printed and electronic resume. When the resume is scanned, it is valuable that the font is recognizable by the software. Stick to the basic fonts, such as Ariel and Times New Roman, and to the basic font size, such as 10 or 12 points.

• Do not underline words or phrases in your resume. In an electronic format, underlining implies that the text links to another document or a web site. Additionally, do not have any lines in the resume that touch the text, as this will prevent the resume from being scannable.

• All the text in your resume must read from left to aptly in order for your resume to be scannable. No special formatting, such as tables, or columns, must be contained within your electronic resume.

• Do not use special characters that may not be recognized by scanning software. This includes special formatting of bullets, use of ampersands or percent cryptogram , copyright cryptogram , or any other characters that may not be straightforwardly recognizable by scanning software. If you are quantifying information on your resume, make sure to denote out the percentage instead of using “%” as you are indicating increase in sales, for example. Whenever possibly, avoid using cryptogram or special characters in your resume.

• Even if you submit a printed resume, the document may be scanned for key words to match your qualifications with available positions. It is very valuable that your submission is on plain white document , in basic font type and size. If you are submitting multiple pages, make sure that all the pages are numbered, with your name in the top left corner. Do not staple multiple pages. If you do so, only the top page will be scanned.

• The most valuable constituent of a scannable resume is the selection of active keywords, or power words. Do your investigate and make sure that you use the appropriate keywords in your resume that apply toward the spot you are seeking. Having appropriate keywords throughout your resume makes it simpler for the software to find matches when scanning the document. Helpful tip: assess the employer’s job requirements for keywords. What are the vital qualifications for the job? Make sure that your resume contains the same terminology as that on the job class , without preside over copying of the text, of course. When your resume is scanned, the software will pick up these key words and you can be one step quicker to landing your dream job.