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Getting your resume to the employer
Just a few more steps and your resume will be in your new boss's hands. Here's what's left to do:
- Wrap it up
- Send it out
Although sending out a resume is not rocket science, it's worth taking a few minutes to look at the following hints to ensure a smooth send-off and landing.
Instead of stuffing your cover letter and resume into the standard 4 × 9-inch business envelope, mail your marketing duo in a large 9 × 12-inch envelope (white, manila, or gray willdo). In the larger envelope, your documents will lie flat, allowing them to arrive without creases that can crack the print. (Imagine how badly cracked print will look after theresume is photocopied and faxed a few times--a common paper trail in corporate America.)
If your printer doesn't accept a 9 × 12-inch envelope and most version it's perfectly fine to hand-address your envelope. Or you could type or print out the address on a plain white label, if you have sticky labels for a typewriter or computer printer.
Snail Mail
If you have plenty of time before the application deadline, the U.S. Postal Service (increasingly referred to as snail mail) is a great and fairly reliable way to send your resume and cover letter. There's no need to send your packet certified or registered; simply put a stamp for first class delivery on that big envelope I suggested and head for a mailbox.
Career Casualty
Don't staple your cover letter and resume together. Clip them together with a paper clip instead so the recipient can easily separate them for copying and filing.
Special Delivery
If you're in a hurry to get your resume and cover letter to an employer,use one of the overnight or two-day courier services such as FedEx,UPS, or the U.S. Postal Service's Express Mail. Most of these services will pick up your packet at your address, or you can take it to their dispatch center and have it sent from there. Here's how to prepare your packet:
- Print out your cover letter and resume.
- Place your material in a 9 × 12-inch envelope with the employer's name and address on it (just in case your stuff escapes the courier's packaging).
- Put your envelope into the courier's cardboard delivery envelope. 4. Fill out the courier's form, pay him his money, and you're done!
Terms of Employment
There are several cool ways to communicate with folks during your job search:
- Snail mail. What the U.S. Postal Service delivers.
- E-mail. Mail sent electronically over the Internet.
- Fax. Memos and attachments delivered over a facsimile machine.
- Voice mail. Messages left on someone's telephone answering machine or service.
Fax Magic
When you're up against a tight deadline or the job posting says to fax the resume, go straight to a fax machine and start pushing those buttons. Your faxable cover letter and resume should be created exactly like the ones you would send via the U.S. mail. But they need one more ingredient--a fax cover sheet, which simply states the following information:
- The date
- The recipient (to whom the fax is being sent)
- Who is sending the fax (that's you!)
- The total number of pages being faxed and the general contentsof those sheets.
Here's what a typical fax cover sheet looks like:
Date: September 13, 1999
To: Brad Thompson
From: Susan Ireland
Pages: Three:
- cover letter
- resume
- fax cover sheet
If you fax your cover letter and resume, call the employer and ask whether you should also send your resume by mail. Some companies are so inundated with paperwork that they prefer not to receive duplicate resumes. Others appreciate having the real thing sent on nice paper, especially if they don't have high-quality fax machines or copiers.
Job-Hunt Hint
Figure out when your resume and cover letter are likely to land on the employer's desk (depending on whether you send it via U.S. mail, courier, fax, or e-mail). Then make a note to follow up by phone one day after you think your packet has arrived.
Hints
- Limit your resume to one page, if possible, and no more than two pages.
- No paragraphs! Use bullet points to make your material look quick and easy to read.
- Choose an appropriate font, set wide margins, adjust line spaces, and indent text to make the body of your resume inviting to read.
- Print your resume on a laser or inkjet printer.
- Reproduce your resume on a high-quality copier using appropriate paper.
- Send your cover letter and resume via U.S. Post, express/courier service, fax, ore-mail, depending on how quickly it must arrive and which way the employer would like it to be delivered.