Resumes, Cover Letters and Your Job Search

Resumes, Cover Letters and Your Job Search The competition is fierce! HR professionals are receiving more resumes and cover letters than ever before. Will your cover letter and resume get noticed if it is1of1,000? With so many resumes being submitted for available positions the goal of all HR professionals or Recruiters is to reduce thatnumbertoa manageable list of viable candidates. A common firststep in this process is to electronically scan your resume for keywords. If you are applying for an executive position andthe company wants a candidate with an engineering degree, they might scan for P.Eng or MBA. Fora sales and marketing position they may scan for PL.Have you included the necessary keywords in your resume tokeep you inthe running? Okay, youve passed the scannerbut is your resume free of spelling mistakes orgramatical errors? Will it exceed the expectations for thisprofessional document, easy to ready, bulleted points, standard font, white paper, consistent page borders, no excess white space? If your resume doesnt look impressive,neither do you. The next step in the few seconds of attention that your resume will be given isto discover your attributes and achievements.If they dont jump out at the reader, no one isgoing to spend the time togo looking for them.Clear, concise,quantifiableandimpressive results will be noticed. Do not waste your time with vague commentssuch as, saved the company money. If your resume has generated enoughinterest at this pointto put you above the crowd,you are one of the few butyou could still miss outon the job interview if you have neglected to include some pertinent information.If you have missed including the datesanywhere in your resume you will generate a negative impression as it will be perceived that you have something to hide.Finally, the most critical information of all is yourcontactdetails.There are still those who are not comfortableputting their phone number on their resume and still manywhohave not realized the significance of an online presence anddo nothave anemail or LinkedIn address. If you are not a phone call away or a google away, you may havecome this far only to be dropped out of the running. Your resume and cover letter are the most critical componentsof your job search! You need them to get in the door and ifyou dont get it right, you could be missing out onthe job opportunity of a lifetime. Dont take the risk,call a professional resume writer.