Is Your Résumé
Doing Its Job?

• Never start your résumé with a job or career OBJECTIVE. The objective is what you want, and employers don't care what you want, only what you can do for them. Instead, include a SUMMARY that shows what you can offer an employer.
• Limit your résumé to two pages. Only in very rare instances should a résumé be longer, a senior executive or academic "CV," for example. A one- or two-page résumé shows that you can be succinct and efficient. A longer résumé is more likely to be rejected with little more than a glance.
• Don't keep changing your résumé. Tailor your cover letter and résumé SUMMARY for different jobs.

• Find a mutual acquaintance and use that person's name -- with permission -- as a hook ("Mary Davis suggested that I write to you because..."). Nothing helps you get your foot in the door better than a referral from an "insider."
• Mention the job you're applying for in the first paragraph of your cover letter or put "Re: {job name}" at the top or both. Otherwise, the reader doesn't know what you're after and may set your résumé aside.
• Find out who will be getting your résumé and use that person's name on the envelope and in your cover letter. Better, find out who the hiring manager is and send your résumé there rather than to human resources.
• Keep a copy of your cover letter and track your progress.

• Keep a clean copy of your résumé on bright white paper and photocopy onto good bond paper as needed (if you don't have access to a laser printer.)
• Use the same bond paper for your résumé, cover letter and envelope (see below).
• Mail your résumé and cover letter flat in a large envelope. Do not staple together.
• If possible, deliver your résumé by hand. If you can manage to talk to the hiring manager beforehand, who then asks you to send a résumé, even better. You can then drop by the office, dressed to the nines, and drop off an impeccable résumé to the hiring manager's "gate keeper" with a polite, "Ms Undermyer asked me to drop this off." Short, sweet, and impressive.

• Call discreetly a week after submitting your résumé only to see if they received it.
• If you've had an interview, write a thank-you letter and mail it the same day. Be sincere but don't flatter. Add any information that the interviewer wanted but you weren't able to provide during the interview, and keep it short and simple.
• Act like you want the job even if it's your personal "job from hell" (but don't look desperate).