Submitting a Quality Resume
The dearth of quality resumes has become a pretty common theme amongst bloggers in positions of hiring authority. And every post seems to be driven by how amazingly poorly written most resumes and cover letters actually are. Robert Scoble is the latest to weigh in with some quality advice and I’m going to throw my own out as well (since we’re hiring at DreamBank for a PHP developer):
- Google for advice on how to submit a resume before submitting resumes. Start with Scoble, look for Rands, and so-forth. Some extremely smart, influential people are trying to tell tyou how to game the system they control – pay attention to them.
- Submit in the manner the job description states, not via your path of least resistance. For instance I want resumes as PDFs. Not Powerpoint, not raw email, and never, ever a Word doc. I state that in every job description I write and maybe 50% of people follow through with it.
- Don’t apply for jobs you’re not qualified for. I wrote my own software to keep track of and score every resume I receive and it works well. You don’t want to apply for a position you’re not a fit for and then again for one you are – I’ll remember you.
- Most importantly – honestly! – is to proof-read your resume. If you’re reading this blog then chances are you’re applying for a developer position. As someone hiring I tend to expect developers to either be very detail-oriented or know how to use their tools to compensate for their short-comings. If you send me a resume with spelling mistakes, copy-paste errors, and the like you’re out of the running immediately. You’ve just told me you don’t give a crap about the quality of your own work so I’m certainly not letting you get your hands on mine.
It’s really not that hard to stand out from the crowd when applying for a job, which is a shame when you think about it.