Career Information Online

Whatever telephone number you use as your contact number on your resume must have a professional voicemail message. I know that many people like to have their funny or cute voicemail messages and that’s fine, but not when you’re looking for a new job.

Change your voicemail message to one that sounds confident and professional. Use your full name in your message if you record a personal message, or use the system generated one that is available with many cell phone providers. Here is an example of a personally recorded voice mail message you might use:

“You have reached the voice mail of John Doe. I am unable to take your call right now. Please leave your name, telephone number and a detailed message and I will return your call as soon as possible. Thank you for calling.”

If you check your cell phone voice mail regularly throughout the day you can state that in your message as well. Plus, using your cell phone as your primary contact number means employers will have an easier chance of reaching you and speaking to you directly during the business day.

As soon as you get your new job you can change back your voice mail message to something more casual. You don’t want a potential employer to not leave a message or have an interview with you because you failed to change your voice mail message.

When a company posts a position online or in the classified ads they are probably going to get a lot of response to the ad.  Your resume might get lost in the pile.  Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone, ask for the contact person listed in the ad, and inquire if he/she received your resume.  If they say they’ve had too many submissions to go through them all, or if they can’t find yours ask for his/her direct email address or fax number and get another copy of your resume in front of them that day.  Often the resumes will go to a general email address for resume submissions and not directly to a person.  Asking for his/her direct email address will help to make sure you get your resume in front of the person who needs to review it.  If they tell you to send it over again, do that, and follow up again later the next day to see if they received it.  There’s a fine line between being persistent and being a pest.  Persistence can be a good quality in a potential new employee.  Just make sure you don’t become a pest as you follow up with the potential employer!  

Good, talented employees are hard to find.  All the experts are saying that the market for employees is going to dry up, and that there will be millions more jobs open than people to fill them.  For this reason I think you’re going to see a lot of companies go back to employee referral programs (especially larger companies).  You give your friend your resume and he/she turns it into the HR department at their company.  If you are hired, the company gives your friend some sort of “reward” and that usually translates into cash.  This type of program is beneficial for both the job seeker and their friends.  Why not give your old college roommate a call and see if they have any open positions for people with your background?  What could it hurt?

It’s commonplace to have a company request that resumes be forwarded to them via email rather than snail mail.  However, there is a detail that needs to be considered and often is overlooked.  It is your email address.  Some people have “cutesy” email addresss - ilovemydog at something or perhaps it’s even something a little risqué.  Do yourself a favor and get an email address that is more professional.  There are so many places you can go to get a free email address, whether it’s Hotmail, Yahoo or now AOL.  Make it a serious email address - perhaps your first and last name with some numbers, or maybe your first and last name with job search or whatever.  For example:

• JohnDoe12345 at whatever
• john_doe_12345 at whatever
• john_doe_jobsearch at whatever

You get the idea. 

Also, be sure to have the display name on the email be your actual name and not your email address (especially if you ignore the advice about getting a serious address).  When someone from your future employer goes looking for your resume they are going to be looking for something from Jane Smith and not beerismylife!