If you find a position on Craig’s List that you are interested in exploring, keep two things in mind.
One, it may not be a real job. Perhaps a company just posted a job description so that when you try to apply, you have to jump through rings of fire and fill out a ton of applications to get to the place where you can (finally) submit your resume. If you have to fill out any type of information on a Craig’s List posting, don’t do it (unless the posting takes you directly to the hiring company’s legitimate web site!)
Two, you are LITERALLY one of hundreds (if not thousands) of people applying for that EXACT SAME JOB!
If you don’t get a response, it is for one of two reasons.
One, it’s not a real job.
Two, your resume scared off the reader! This is accomplished in several ways.
a) Your resume contained too much information about yourself (like your age or your husband just got out of rehab and you need to get a job now that he is home all day chain smoking!)
b) Your resume’s objective is the same one you used to apply for a Customer Service Job at J-Mart even though you are now applying to a position as a professional Pizza Tosser.
c) The most recent job on your resume says you worked there until 2007. What have you been doing for 2 years? No one else wanted to hire you?
d) You have the year you graduated from high school on your resume.
e) Your resume is typed in a paragraph.
f) Your resume looks and reads like everyone else’s.
g) The jobs you have listed have a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y nothing to do with the job to which you are applying.
h) You have words that are spelled wrong on your resume.
i) In a nutshell (or nuthouse), your resume S-U-C-K-S; mean people suck, ok? Your resume should not suck.
Surf over to any resume writing service’s web site and they will tell you the same thing I am telling you here – YOUR RESUME MATTERS. It is the ONLY document, the only tangible “thing” a prospective employer has about you. FIRST IMPRESSIONS COUNT when it comes to a resume.
You need to get ONE awesome, freakin’ jaw-droppin’, head-turnin’, goosebump-inflicting resume written and designed during your professional career. ONE. Then you just keep adding to it and deleting from it as you move forward in your career.
If no one is responding to your resume posting on Craig’s List or if no employers are responding back to you after you have submitted your resume for their review – THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOUR RESUME.
Can you afford that? Can you afford to get lost in the shuffle? Overlooked? Ignored?
If you are getting lots of interviews and responses from your resume, awesome! If not, your resume must be changed to produce a different result!
If you are having trouble getting a response from your resume, email your resume to me personally and I will give you my professional opinion of it for free.
vfassinger@att.net
