Dear friends,
Last night in our virtual job-search coaching group, we were talking about
sending letters and resumes to employers via U.S. mail. As you know, I think snail mail can be a great way to reach a hiring manager, especially given the way that the Black Hole swallows resumes.
In the meeting I mentioned in passing, "Use the same type and weight of paper for the resume and the cover letter, and the same font in the same size." I threw in "That's good-quality white bond
paper, not old-fashioned resume paper" and the thought made me wonder whether
many job-seekers are still using that beige, white, grey or blue nubbly paper
that we used to get our resumes printed on when "Thriller" ruled the charts.
That 'resume paper' would date us now. We don't want to use it. What other
job-search tools of yore should we be wary of? I have already written about the
outdated accents aigu in the word 'resume' and of course, the phrase Dear Sir or
Madam. Are there other very-last-millennium job-search techniques and tools
job-seekers should avoid?
Thanks!
Liz
JANE REPLIES:
Liz,
Well this post really threw me. I'm currently in career transition and have my
resume on the "resume" quality cream-colored paper. In fact when I got some
freebies printed at Kinko's Fedex they said the color I chose was the most
popular.
With all the networking meetings I've attended this is something I've never
heard before.
The premise is if yours is standard white it will just be one in the pile with
all the others. This doesn't mean to go the route of neon pink, pastels,etc. And
these days we need to stand out (in a good way) any way we can, in addition to
our qualifications, character, personality, etc.
Am interested in getting your feedback regarding reasoning, and plan to share
this topic at a networking event I'm attending Friday.
Thanks again.
Jane
Liz replies to Jane:
Dear Jane,
Thanks for writing! The job search arena is changing fast. Branding is becoming
a bigger and bigger piece of the equation all the time. These things that I
mentioned in the "fading" post aren't evil, they're just not especially
up-to-date, and the danger of employing these methods is that we'll date our
job-seeker brand.
Dedicated 'resume paper' is a perfect example. That stuff was super-popular when
the most common way to get a resume in front of a reader was to send it by mail,
and when we ordered resumes in boxes of 100 copies. I subscribe to the idea of
using snail mail in job-hunting once again, because the Black Hole has proved to
be such a graveyard for resumes. But these days, we don't need (and I'd go a
step further to say we don't want) fancy resume paper, a branding choice that
suggests that we print and send a lot of resumes. After all, what other types of
business correspondence do we ever send anyone on special paper?
Resume paper is dated - that's why I don't like it. I don't doubt at all that
it's still popular. Fax-blast resume services are sadly popular, too!
Unfortunately, the not-especially-current job-search and career advice that is
out there gets spread far and wide in serious, authoritative tones every day. In
a reply to a LinkedIn query I had posted on this very topic, a lady wrote to
tell me 'In the resume-writing community, objectives in resumes are extremely
outdated.' Glad to know the RWC thinks so! I think that advice is bunk, and
random bunk at that.
An Objective that addresses the employer's pain a la "My Objective is to triple
inventory turns and reduce WIP costs as the Inventory Manager for Acme Plastics"
is spot on. I get nervous when I hear that The Resume-Writing Community (as a
body? Do they vote on this stuff?) makes pronouncements like this and,
presumably, teaches them to job-seekers in the same rote fashion by which we
learned our times tables in elementary school. Scary.
I heard a lady a booth behind me at Panera Bread the other day tell a hapless
job-seeking gentleman seated across from her that the phrase "Hands-on manager
with a bottom-line orientation" would make a snappy addition to his resume. This
is the prevailing view. That's why our Ask Liz Ryan members have a job-search
advantage over other candidates, if our worldview and methods suit their brands
and their job-search goals.
Nubbly beige paper would be the absolutely last way we'd want to differentiate
ourselves from other job-seekers. Assuming that the masses of candidates whose
resumes might end up in piles alongside ours are not writing to decision-makers
directly with pithy, pain-based letters and human-voiced resumes, I'd say we can
proceed with the bond paper and let the words on the page do the heavy lifting
for us.
Cheers,
Liz