Frustrated by sending out what seems like hundreds of resumes with little success? Let me give you a few tips that will help you stand out among the sea of applicants who apply for jobs every day at our company, Baker Creative.
• When you send your resume include your cover letter in the actual e-mail. I would not attach the file in case the security settings on some computers might reject your attachments.
• Be sure that your cover letter states the reasons why you are the best candidate. I had an applicant craft a beautifully written cover letter. It referenced different things about our company and it’s culture. He took the time to make it professionally personalized for me to read. It told me why his skills were relevant to my company. I loved it so much I read it twice.
•Evaluate the job posting to see if you really have the right skill set for this job. If you were hiring you, would you consider your job experience the right fit? For example, if you only have bartending experience, how would you prove to me you can do a copywriter’s job? Do you have any examples of your work you could send along for me to review?
• Spell check, spell check, spell check. Grammatical and spelling errors stand out, in a bad way, in your materials and can become very distracting. Hey, we are all human. We all make mistakes. Just be careful. If you have a chance, have someone else read it too.
• If the posting says no calls, please do not e-mail asking more about the job posting and not send your resume. If you want to be considered send the resume and then ask. You have to remember HR folks are getting tons of responses. They may not take the time to answer, especially if you do not follow directions.
Remember, you are your own brand. As always, I wanted to provide some tips to help you land the interview. I thought it could be beneficial to offer the perspective from the other side of the desk. If you have any more tips please let me know.
