To Get Hired: Follow Directions & Target the Job You Want

As a veteran of the recruiting industry I look at resumes every day.  Dozens of resumes.  Dozens of cover letters.  Most are very generic and appear to be intended for a mass email audience.  This is a big mistake, whether you are sending the resume to a staffing firm, or directly to an employer.  Recruiters in staffing firms have the same reaction as hiring managers and recruiters in corporations.  Generic cover letters and untargeted resumes often go to the bottom of the pile, added to a database and forgotten, or sent to the deleted items folder.

An article in the Interview Edge Blog entitled How Easy is it For Someone to Hire You? has some great suggestions to follow the requested protocol and target your approach to those who may help you get hired.

"many candidates make it simple for hiring managers to exclude them from consideration.

Worse yet, this often occurs very early in the process.

Don’t let it happen to you. Today we’ll focus on things you can do at the initial stages to improve your prospects.

Follow Instructions
Seems obvious, doesn’t it? Yet you might be surprised how frequently candidates fail to comply with directions.

Consider the application. Complete the entire form accurately and as indicated. If you’re doing this offline and are asked to print, for example, don’t submit something written in cursive. Don’t leave fields blank. If you’re asked to insert your resume in the body of the email, don’t ignore the request and send it as an attachment instead.

Avoid Sloppy Mistakes With Your Resume
• Proof it – more than once – and have someone else proof it, also. Don’t rely on spell check. Spell check won’t catch the fact that you used the word “their” when you really meant “there.”  Spell check won’t catch all consistency errors – like the fact that you switched between present and past tense from one sentence to the next.

• Next, make sure you’re sending your resume to the correct person. If Paul Adams is the hiring manager, but you mistakenly send your information to Sue Richardson, you’re not helping your cause.

• Send it to a person…not “Dear Hiring Manager.”

• If you’re sending a lot of resumes, keep track of what you’re doing. Make sure what’s inside the envelope matches what’s on the outside (i.e. Sue Richardson shouldn’t open the envelope to find a letter addressed to Paul Adams – at another company!). Same thing with email. If the body of the message opens with a cover letter to Sue, you’d better be sure you’re sending it to her email address.

• Make sure you’ve included your contact information – it should be easy for the hiring manager to get in touch with you. That means you need to provide them with multiple options: email, phone, physical address.

In addition, you should always include a cover letter with your resume. Even if you’re submitting your information electronically, add a cover. These few paragraphs are a golden opportunity to get your foot in the door. This is your sales letter – use it to capture the reader’s attention, communicate your unique selling proposition, and convince her to read your resume. "