Resume Writing - The No.1 Mistake To Avoid If You Want a Job Interview

By Anna Johnson

No question - your resume and cover letter are critical to getting you a job interview.

And they WILL do this for you... if they clearly communicate that you are the best person for the job.

And, really, that is your aim in preparing your cover letter, resume and, if applicable, your Job Fulfillment Description - to make it clear that YOU are the best person for the job.

But here's where so many people - "Outsiders" - ruin their chances of getting a job interview: they send out a “standard” cover letter and resume to an employer or recruiter. Even worse, they mass-mail or "email blast" it to dozens of different companies.

Big mistake.

Firstly, employers and recruiters can spot a mass-mailed job application a mile away... and they're far from impressed.

In fact, mass-mailed or mass-emailed job applications convey the very opposite impression of what you want to create.

Instead of coming across as interested in the specific company or job you're applying for... you come across as completely indifferent to it.

Instead of coming across as caring about the employer's needs, you come across as totally self-centered - wholly concerned about your need to get a job, rather than the employer's need to solve a problem by filling a position.

Secondly, when you send in a standard cover letter and resume, you just don't stand a chance against someone who tailors their job application to the job and employer... let alone an Insider who uses the cutting-edge Insider Job Secrets strategies.

Thirdly, even if an employer or recruiter offers you a job interview on the basis of a mass-mailed or spammed - oops, "email blasted" - resume... what kind of job are you likely to be interviewing for? Certainly not one where the company actually cares about who it employs!

So please... don't send out a standard cover letter and resume.

This doesn't mean you can't tailor or customize one cover letter and resume template. By all means do so. You don't have to reinvent the wheel every time you apply for a job and there are certainly elements of your resume (like your work experience and education) that will be the same in all versions.

But how you arrange those elements, what you say about them, and how you present them in the context of a particular job application, should be targeted to an individual employer. And the cover letter, certainly, should be customized to the employer.

And if in doubt about whether you've customized your resume or cover letter enough, here’s a rule of thumb: if either your cover letter or resume could only be used in applying for that particular job... you’ve done a good job.

On the other hand, if you could do a “find and replace” by replacing all the company and job details with those of another company, and the job application still made sense... then you have NOT sufficiently tailored them to the company and job!

You might object that tailoring your letter and resume isn’t “efficient”.

Well, your aim in getting the job you want isn’t to be efficient... it’s to be EFFECTIVE.

Resume Writing Pro offers a professional resume writing service that not only makes creating a professional resume easy, but ensures you get a resume, cover letter and thank-you letter that are specifically tailored to the organization and job you're applying for. And it's incredibly quick and cost-effective too!