Following up and common courtesy
Well this entry is part rant, part serious advice. I received a call a little while back from a gentleman I had met at a networking event. He asked me to look over the resume of a friend of his, which I was glad to do. The person sent me a long cover letter and a resume, and I reviewed them both, and sent him back a number of key suggestions. I also suggested a company that he could contact that would have been a perfect fit for his experience.
Now for the surprise: I never heard a single word back from him. Not even a quick “thanks” email. I suppose common courtesy is becoming less and less common. And this is from a person with an MBA and should certainly know better!!
So, now for the serious advice: you should ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS thank people for their help and advice in your job search, even if you don’t heed their advice. I don’t mean to be a jerk about this, but it is downright RUDE when someone obviously spends time helping someone else and they don’t even get a simple acknowledgement of their help, let alone a “thank you.”
Well, it would be a shame to not let my efforts go towards helping someone who deserves it more, so I’m posting some of the advice I gave him. Of course I’m not revealing his name or posting his resume here, but the advice should be clear even without the resume and cover letter.
1) This is the biggest thing I noticed: There are no numbers on your resume that spell out the value you added to your companies. Try to quantify your accomplishments wherever possible. Did you reduce costs, increase revenues, streamline processes, improve customer satisfaction ratings, reduce inventory shrinkage, reduce DSO through efficiently posting payments, etc.? How many end-users did you service as an IT professional? Some of these things may be hard to measure, but especially as an MBA you should understand that the language of business, and especially of senior management, is very rich with numbers, so your resume should display that you understand that language.
2) A cover letter should never be a rehash of the resume. Focus on what value you can add to the company and how your experience relates to helping them solve their problems.
3) Always include the months of employment on your resume. Many recruiters think that when someone only states the year, they’re trying to hide a gap in employment. Most people have gaps in employment these days - it’s a fact of life for our increasingly transitional workforce, so just be prepared with an explanation if that is the case. Also put your graduation dates on your resume.
4) You use the word “I” a LOT in the cover letter, including starting off each of the last 4 paragraphs - it does take a bit more work, but try to tailor each cover letter to the company you’re targeting. Check their website for news and other information about what they are facing and what they do for their clients.
5) Your “Other Skills” seem to all be technology skills - title that appropriately.
I do hope this is helpful for someone out there. While I’m on the topic, another thing is that if someone helps you with your job search, do not forget to let them know when you’ve landed at your new job.
To your success,
David B. Wright
Author, Get A Job! Your Guide to Making Successful Career Moves
www.thegetajobbook.com
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Actually, this is how I was able to land a few jobs in the past. I sent a thank you note to the company that interviewed me. They told me that this was the reason I got the job, since it was a tight race.
Thanks,
Richard Rinyai
http://www.theprofessionalassistant.net