This post will be more short and sweet because, well, your cover letter must be short and sweet. Anyone with say five or fewer years of full time (not counting graduate work) experience shouldn't be thinking of submitting a letter longer than one page. Those with several positions on their resume, a couple of institutions you've worked at, and some amazing experiences might get away with a page and a half. No one really (except maybe a VPSA or applicants for Director positions that are beyond the "we're calling this a Director but it's really an entry level position") should have more than a page and a half or so of a cover letter.
Your cover letter should give me an entry point, a peek into who you are, a little more information than what is on your resume. Do not use it to re-list things on your resume. Don't waste too many lines telling me how you found my position posting and why you found yourself compelled to apply for this particular job. Don't write fluff to fill in the space. Do use concise language, strong sentences and tell me what you will and can do, not what you might our could do if you worked for me.
Three paragraphs will do it:
1) If you address the letter to the "Career Counselor Search Committee" then you don't need to tell me again you are applying for the Career Counselor position. If you feel the need to remind me what position you are applying for, the make it short. "Please accept my materials as application for the XXX position." Don't bother telling me where you found it posted- chances are I've posted it in lots of places, and where you found it won't matter to your candidacy. Some employers do collect that information for their search records- if they ask you then tell them but don't waste the space in your cover letter. Your first paragraph should be for to maybe five lines of text at most- give me a strong sentence or two about who you are, what you believe about the work you do, and why once I read your resume I will think you are the best candidate out there.
2) This paragraph is your chance to summarize how you meet the qualifications listed for the position. Do not summarize your resume, recent positions etc. Tell me your philosophy and approach, tell me what skills and strengths you offer, tell me how you fit what we are looking for. That's it- ten to twelve or so lines of text should get the job done.
3) Closing- summarize again for me why you are amazing, what you will bring that is unique or original or just special. Do NOT invite me to interview you, do NOT say anything that sounds desperate nor overconfident. Do let me know if you are a candidate at a placement conference, and tell me if you are not so that I don't have to write you and ask.
This is the place to neatly inform us of any strange things from your resume- you took a year off to travel and do service work in Africa, you left the field to take care of an aging parent who recently passed away, you worked several years in a corporate setting before returning to your true passion which is educating and supporting students- you get the idea. One sentence, explain it, and be done.
The best cover letters do indeed use bullets, summaries, less text, plenty of white space, 11-12 point font, good margins, and show me you can highlight your strengths without falsely pumping yourself up. Be solid, be confident, be strong and you'll be a great candidate.
The Employer
Monday, February 28, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Your Resume
So the placement conferences are coming at us full speed ahead (TPE is only 17 days away!). You've probably sent out some resumes by now and if not it's perfectly ok, there is still plenty of time!
A few tips for your resume:
1) Lose the "Objective"- it takes up space on your resume, you've already told me your objective in your cover letter, and really we all get it that your objective is to get a job. Way too much time and energy is put into perfecting that one sentence summary of why you are applying, and it's perfectly useless. Remove it.
2) Simplify- make your font easy on the eyes and large enough to read comfortably (lots of us employers need reading glasses so don't make it any harder for us to read). Less than 11 point font is too small, which of course depends on the font you choose- some 11pt is smaller than others.
3) Your name should be fairly large, centered, at the top. Don't do anything fancy here- just put your name. A slightly more unique font is just fine, don't go all crazy with the font- you want me to be able to read and remember your name.
4) Your address and contact information should be one line, centered, under your name and in a smaller font. As I've said before you should have an email that is NOT your current work email, and you should NOT use your current work phone number! Don't waste space by stacking your contact information like an address label- it's virtually unimportant but still necessary so don't waste the space. If you are a current grad or in a live-in position consider using a PO box instead of any possible residence hall address. It's easier to forward from a PO box should you receive any mail from employers once your assistantship has ended, and you spare yourself from your (sometimes nosy) mail sorters seeing all your mail from employers as well.
5) I like the dates down the right side of your resume. I get it- not everyone prefers that, and as I've said before all employers have our own preferences. However, having your dates down the right side of your page allows my eye to flow easily and find them all without searching. Don't make me search for information! I am reading hundreds of applications a year, sometimes a hundred in a week- you do the math, if I'm trying to read a hundred applications on top of my regular work load I don't have time to dig deeply to find information, make it easy for me! Tab your dates of employment to the right column and I know where to find them, bury them in lines of text and my brain skips right over them.
6) Get your GPA off your resume- it absolutely does not matter any more. It didn't matter once you got into graduate school and it matters even less now. I can't tell if you will be an amazing area coordinator by your 3.75 gpa in undergrad...and if you don't have a 4.0 in grad school then don't tell me otherwise! Deans list- doesn't matter, Magna Cum Laude- doesn't matter. Sorry to tell you- but get it off your resume and gain back some blank space.
7) Blank space- be sure there is some of it! Too much text, too many bullets, too much bold and italic- curses of the blank space. We all know the trick of shrinking the font and the margins so you can squeeze in one more line- don't do it. I am much more likely to read deeply a resume that allows for breaks for my eyes and my brain.
8) Cut it down- seriously seriously down. We use far too many words to try to tell our story. Resumes that are text heavy hurt my eyes. The ones that are loaded with too much text I have a gut reaction to- pretentious. Who do you think you are to have to cram that much onto a resume- seriously, did you do that much amazing work in grad school or in your first RD position? I doubt it. In fact, I have yet to see a resume from anyone where they loaded it with too much text and I thought "wow, this is a rock star candidate". The best resume's I've seen use a few strong words that capture the experience, skills or competency gained. I'm a wordy person, but not on my resume.
9) Undergrad be gone! Unless you are a current undergraduate student applying for a bachelors level position- your undergraduate experiences have no place on your resume. Get them off- they don't matter any more! Ok- one caveat- you might have done something incredible as an undergrad (internship with the Chancellor, attended ACUHO-I's Stars College or the Student SJTI experience for example) and if so, give it one line of text at the end of your resume somewhere among the awards, presentations, professional involvement section. It should NOT warrant it's own subset of information with multiple bullets. Nothing from undergrad is that great- cut it and show what you've done since.
10) Your resume should be no more than two pages at the very very very most. If you are asked for a Vitae then it can and should be longer, a cover letter and resume package should contain no more than four total pages: cover letter (1 page), resume (no more than 2 pages), references (1 page). The less professional experience you have, the shorter it should be (I have around 20 very full years in student affairs and my resume is still only 2 pages long). I know you think you need to tell us everything about you in your cover letter and resume- not true. Give us a taste, tell us the important things, and then tell us more in your interview.
11) Use strong powerful words- catch my attention. I am often scanning resume's for words that meet our scoring rubric. If you've supervised, advised, developed and implemented, chaired, trained and so on then tell me that first. I am surprised by how many soft sentences are lobbed my way "had the opportunity to collaborate with my peers to supervise 8 student workers". Really?! I see nothing strong there- instead how about "Supervised 8 student employees in a team oriented highly collaborative work environment". Strong words up front.
12) Talk competencies- it's the hot new thing. All the national associations have competency models now- read them, and use that language in your cover letter and resume. We like competencies. It means you are already trained and have some skill in areas we are looking for. It means you'll be able to come in and get right to work without a lot of micromanaging supervision. Tell us that- competent in supervision of a highly diverse staff, competent in student judicial processes including educational sanctioning and peer review boards, competent in admininstrative tasks including room assignments, occupancy, budget management and program tracking. You get the idea, but don't overdo it- every line on your resume shouldn't start with "competent in".
13) Watch the position posting and use their words. Most postings give you clues about what we are looking for. We might do it in the minimum and preferred qualification sections, or the language we use in our summary of the position. Regardless you will see from our language what we prioritize in our candidates. Your job is to tell me how you fulfill them best. I can't read your mind, nor can I assume anything from your materials. If you don't tell me you've done extensive work to develop as a strong advisor, or even that you have experience advising a student organization then well, I can't assume it. If my position listings specifically indicate that candidates with experience supervising full time staff are preferred then you have got to tell me that the Coordinator of Student Activities you supervised was full-time or a graduate student. Spell it out- we give you as many hints as we can as to what we are looking for, it's tragic if you have the skills and experiences but don't tell us.
14) Everyone is looking for people who can work with diversity. This is not news, so whatever you have done, tell us, and tell us up front. Don't bury it at the end- if you've done a lot of trainings and presentations on racism in the LGBT community then you have GOT to put that in your cover letter, not at the end of page 2 in your "presentations" section! We are looking for it, so spell it out for us. If the only thing you have is a class you took, then you'd better tell us how that class impacted your work with students and what you've learned since and what you plan to do about it. (Note to self- if all you can say about your diversity experience is you took a class you are in serious trouble. You'd better think critically about why this is, what opportunities have you missed, how have you maintained your own ignorance to issues of diversity, inclusion, and justice? I can guarantee you'll be asked about it by someone. Do what you can to fix this problem now and in your next few years' of work).
Until next time,
The Employer
A few tips for your resume:
1) Lose the "Objective"- it takes up space on your resume, you've already told me your objective in your cover letter, and really we all get it that your objective is to get a job. Way too much time and energy is put into perfecting that one sentence summary of why you are applying, and it's perfectly useless. Remove it.
2) Simplify- make your font easy on the eyes and large enough to read comfortably (lots of us employers need reading glasses so don't make it any harder for us to read). Less than 11 point font is too small, which of course depends on the font you choose- some 11pt is smaller than others.
3) Your name should be fairly large, centered, at the top. Don't do anything fancy here- just put your name. A slightly more unique font is just fine, don't go all crazy with the font- you want me to be able to read and remember your name.
4) Your address and contact information should be one line, centered, under your name and in a smaller font. As I've said before you should have an email that is NOT your current work email, and you should NOT use your current work phone number! Don't waste space by stacking your contact information like an address label- it's virtually unimportant but still necessary so don't waste the space. If you are a current grad or in a live-in position consider using a PO box instead of any possible residence hall address. It's easier to forward from a PO box should you receive any mail from employers once your assistantship has ended, and you spare yourself from your (sometimes nosy) mail sorters seeing all your mail from employers as well.
5) I like the dates down the right side of your resume. I get it- not everyone prefers that, and as I've said before all employers have our own preferences. However, having your dates down the right side of your page allows my eye to flow easily and find them all without searching. Don't make me search for information! I am reading hundreds of applications a year, sometimes a hundred in a week- you do the math, if I'm trying to read a hundred applications on top of my regular work load I don't have time to dig deeply to find information, make it easy for me! Tab your dates of employment to the right column and I know where to find them, bury them in lines of text and my brain skips right over them.
6) Get your GPA off your resume- it absolutely does not matter any more. It didn't matter once you got into graduate school and it matters even less now. I can't tell if you will be an amazing area coordinator by your 3.75 gpa in undergrad...and if you don't have a 4.0 in grad school then don't tell me otherwise! Deans list- doesn't matter, Magna Cum Laude- doesn't matter. Sorry to tell you- but get it off your resume and gain back some blank space.
7) Blank space- be sure there is some of it! Too much text, too many bullets, too much bold and italic- curses of the blank space. We all know the trick of shrinking the font and the margins so you can squeeze in one more line- don't do it. I am much more likely to read deeply a resume that allows for breaks for my eyes and my brain.
8) Cut it down- seriously seriously down. We use far too many words to try to tell our story. Resumes that are text heavy hurt my eyes. The ones that are loaded with too much text I have a gut reaction to- pretentious. Who do you think you are to have to cram that much onto a resume- seriously, did you do that much amazing work in grad school or in your first RD position? I doubt it. In fact, I have yet to see a resume from anyone where they loaded it with too much text and I thought "wow, this is a rock star candidate". The best resume's I've seen use a few strong words that capture the experience, skills or competency gained. I'm a wordy person, but not on my resume.
9) Undergrad be gone! Unless you are a current undergraduate student applying for a bachelors level position- your undergraduate experiences have no place on your resume. Get them off- they don't matter any more! Ok- one caveat- you might have done something incredible as an undergrad (internship with the Chancellor, attended ACUHO-I's Stars College or the Student SJTI experience for example) and if so, give it one line of text at the end of your resume somewhere among the awards, presentations, professional involvement section. It should NOT warrant it's own subset of information with multiple bullets. Nothing from undergrad is that great- cut it and show what you've done since.
10) Your resume should be no more than two pages at the very very very most. If you are asked for a Vitae then it can and should be longer, a cover letter and resume package should contain no more than four total pages: cover letter (1 page), resume (no more than 2 pages), references (1 page). The less professional experience you have, the shorter it should be (I have around 20 very full years in student affairs and my resume is still only 2 pages long). I know you think you need to tell us everything about you in your cover letter and resume- not true. Give us a taste, tell us the important things, and then tell us more in your interview.
11) Use strong powerful words- catch my attention. I am often scanning resume's for words that meet our scoring rubric. If you've supervised, advised, developed and implemented, chaired, trained and so on then tell me that first. I am surprised by how many soft sentences are lobbed my way "had the opportunity to collaborate with my peers to supervise 8 student workers". Really?! I see nothing strong there- instead how about "Supervised 8 student employees in a team oriented highly collaborative work environment". Strong words up front.
12) Talk competencies- it's the hot new thing. All the national associations have competency models now- read them, and use that language in your cover letter and resume. We like competencies. It means you are already trained and have some skill in areas we are looking for. It means you'll be able to come in and get right to work without a lot of micromanaging supervision. Tell us that- competent in supervision of a highly diverse staff, competent in student judicial processes including educational sanctioning and peer review boards, competent in admininstrative tasks including room assignments, occupancy, budget management and program tracking. You get the idea, but don't overdo it- every line on your resume shouldn't start with "competent in".
13) Watch the position posting and use their words. Most postings give you clues about what we are looking for. We might do it in the minimum and preferred qualification sections, or the language we use in our summary of the position. Regardless you will see from our language what we prioritize in our candidates. Your job is to tell me how you fulfill them best. I can't read your mind, nor can I assume anything from your materials. If you don't tell me you've done extensive work to develop as a strong advisor, or even that you have experience advising a student organization then well, I can't assume it. If my position listings specifically indicate that candidates with experience supervising full time staff are preferred then you have got to tell me that the Coordinator of Student Activities you supervised was full-time or a graduate student. Spell it out- we give you as many hints as we can as to what we are looking for, it's tragic if you have the skills and experiences but don't tell us.
14) Everyone is looking for people who can work with diversity. This is not news, so whatever you have done, tell us, and tell us up front. Don't bury it at the end- if you've done a lot of trainings and presentations on racism in the LGBT community then you have GOT to put that in your cover letter, not at the end of page 2 in your "presentations" section! We are looking for it, so spell it out for us. If the only thing you have is a class you took, then you'd better tell us how that class impacted your work with students and what you've learned since and what you plan to do about it. (Note to self- if all you can say about your diversity experience is you took a class you are in serious trouble. You'd better think critically about why this is, what opportunities have you missed, how have you maintained your own ignorance to issues of diversity, inclusion, and justice? I can guarantee you'll be asked about it by someone. Do what you can to fix this problem now and in your next few years' of work).
Until next time,
The Employer
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
What to do with breaks in your job history
I know I said my next post would be about cover letters and resume formatting, this however has arisen several times in the past few weeks and I didn't want to miss the opportunity to comment.
By breaks in your job history I mean of course those periods of time when you were not working, or were not working in a Student Affairs position (but were a barista, a server, a Target Cashier for example). Get it off your resume, but explain it in one or two lines of your cover letter. Unless you are going to try and claim that your time serving pancakes has helped you develop into a better supervisor, advisor, administrator or teacher, and trust me that would be a serious stretch, I don't need to see it on your resume. We all know that times are tough in the job market and that there are fewer and fewer positions to move up to after your first entry level job. We get it that life happens and you fall in love, fall out of love, deal with ill and ailing parents and so on. You are human, we are human- employers get it- so just tell us. Explain it succinctly in a line in your cover letter, and get your part-time gig off your resume.
Poorly done- folks who feel the need to take five bullets on their resume to explain in detail their responsibilities as a barista. Yes, seriously- five bullets to tell me you made a lot of drinks (I believe they said something about being able to multitask in a fast paced environment while retaining large amounts of ever changing information- translation- made lots of coffee drinks). Creative, sure, necessary- nope. If for some reason you don't heed my advice and absolutely must put these jobs on your resume please keep it simple, don't pad it to make it look like more than it was, and have someone review it before you submit. You make yourself look foolish, and make me wonder if you think I'm a fool- so keep it simple and if you can, cut it all together.
Examples I have seen recently that are well written:
"As you can see from my resume I have taken some time off from student affairs work (between XXX and XXX years)in order to care for an elderly parent who recently passed away."
"Upon finishing graduate school, while I continued my job search, I worked several part time positions near my home, none of which were in Student Affairs."
"After leaving the field in 2007 to pursue an interest in business, I realized my true fulfillment is working with college aged students and thus am returning to the profession at this time." (Note- when asked, this person's "business interest" was working at Target, but they sure framed it nicely didn't they!)
Next up- I promise we'll talk about cover letters and resumes. Until then- happy searching!
The Employer
By breaks in your job history I mean of course those periods of time when you were not working, or were not working in a Student Affairs position (but were a barista, a server, a Target Cashier for example). Get it off your resume, but explain it in one or two lines of your cover letter. Unless you are going to try and claim that your time serving pancakes has helped you develop into a better supervisor, advisor, administrator or teacher, and trust me that would be a serious stretch, I don't need to see it on your resume. We all know that times are tough in the job market and that there are fewer and fewer positions to move up to after your first entry level job. We get it that life happens and you fall in love, fall out of love, deal with ill and ailing parents and so on. You are human, we are human- employers get it- so just tell us. Explain it succinctly in a line in your cover letter, and get your part-time gig off your resume.
Poorly done- folks who feel the need to take five bullets on their resume to explain in detail their responsibilities as a barista. Yes, seriously- five bullets to tell me you made a lot of drinks (I believe they said something about being able to multitask in a fast paced environment while retaining large amounts of ever changing information- translation- made lots of coffee drinks). Creative, sure, necessary- nope. If for some reason you don't heed my advice and absolutely must put these jobs on your resume please keep it simple, don't pad it to make it look like more than it was, and have someone review it before you submit. You make yourself look foolish, and make me wonder if you think I'm a fool- so keep it simple and if you can, cut it all together.
Examples I have seen recently that are well written:
"As you can see from my resume I have taken some time off from student affairs work (between XXX and XXX years)in order to care for an elderly parent who recently passed away."
"Upon finishing graduate school, while I continued my job search, I worked several part time positions near my home, none of which were in Student Affairs."
"After leaving the field in 2007 to pursue an interest in business, I realized my true fulfillment is working with college aged students and thus am returning to the profession at this time." (Note- when asked, this person's "business interest" was working at Target, but they sure framed it nicely didn't they!)
Next up- I promise we'll talk about cover letters and resumes. Until then- happy searching!
The Employer
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Second step- Check, double-check, triple-check and then have a friend who hasn’t looked yet do a final check before you submit!
Your resume and other application materials must must must be free of errors. I cannot stress this enough. Even if a search committee is told to ignore errors and give you the benefit of the doubt it is very difficult for people to actually do so. Many times people will refer to a candidate by the errors on their materials “you know, the one who put San Diego State instead of San Francisco State”. Recently a candidate applied for an RD position with us and accidentally left "Graduate Assistant Hall Director" on their cover letter (it was a full time RD job they were applying for). I can't tell you how many times people have allowed spell checker to auto-correct words and turn them into something else entirely. Or clearly were typing too fast and didn't realize they added or left out letters in words, forgot a space, or put punctuation in the wrong spot. Employers might have reviewed hundreds of resumes in our time, we become amateur editors and our eyes catch pretty much everything, and we remember the doozies in particular. You get the idea, and you don’t want that to be you.
Check names so you are positive they are spelled correctly, I've been called the wrong gender, given a title I don't have (Professor, Director, Dean), and my name is a common one with several variations of spelling but I like my way so please do make sure you give me the decency to care and spell it correctly. I am slightly impressed by those who do, and find a small hesitation for those who don't. It's my name, and if you can't take the time to spell my name correctly will you work hard to spell the names of your international students or those students not named John, Jane, Beth or Bob correctly? I can either hope so or you can just show me so by getting them correct from the start. Granted, everyone doesn't always get names correct, but if my name is on the position posting and on my business card and even on my email- I do expect you can get it right and I'll do you the same courtesy.
Be sure the institution name is correct, and for goodness sake check the title of the position- Residence Hall Director and Resident Director are not the same thing in the mind of the employer! Position titles are an important enough thing and are one more indicator that you are able to attend to detail. Apply to enough jobs and you stop caring so much about those details, I get that, but we have to care and need to know that in the end you do too. It's simple enough- save each resume and cover letter for each position you apply to in it's own folder on your personal computer (not work computer!) with the correct institution and position title as the name of the document: "Name-institution-coverletter.doc". Then when you have a friend edit it, have them double check you have it correct.
Be sure your own name is spelled correctly (yes, seriously!), you have your personal email and not your current work email, and that the title of your degree is written correctly. I honestly had a candidate recently who had to explain to me that they were really sorry but had apparently mistyped their own name and then didn't bother to correct us when we called them by the wrong name during their entire on-campus interview day. At the end of the day they finally told me, and provided me with a corrected resume that they had "meant" to send me the week before. We were trying to be respectful of the unusual name, they didn't have the courage to let us know it was wrong. We felt like fools- not exactly an optimal way to join a department.
Do not, and I say it again, do NOT provide your current work email as a contact for your candidacy. Work email is not appropriate, nor is it confidential. On the other hand please do NOT provide me with your cute but inappropriate personal email. DO however set one up just for your job search. Gmail, yahoo, hotmail- all free. Sign up for one that is your.full.name@gmail.com, or something similar. I can't share real examples here without permission of the actual candidates but suffice it to say that words like "hottie", "partier" and "bitch" have made their way into my inbox and helped those candidates make their way into the "no" pile. You may be asking no way, really?! Yes, really.
Do be sure your degree, alma mater, and current place of employment are all spelled correctly. Once again, not kidding. Seems simple yet people get it wrong all the time. I know enough that The Ohio State University is big on the "The"- if you claim to have gone there I'm expecting to see the "The", if I don't see it I begin to question and as I have said before- do NOT make an employer question and do not create more work for us. Sometimes it's spell-check that does it to you, sometimes it's haste but either way a triple edit-check should catch nearly everything.
That brings me to editing. As I mentioned in the title of this post- check your documents before you even THINK about submitting them, double-check once you've got a job in mind, triple check after putting it aside for a few days and coming back to it and finally have at least one (if not several) friends colleagues or mentors look at your application materials for errors. Most of the time candidates have people edit content and formatting and yes you should do that as well AND then have different people edit for errors. The more often the same eyes look at your letter and resume the more likely they are to miss things that need editing. Fresh eyes catch more things and if you ask someone to check for editing they are more likely to say yes because it's often quicker than focusing on content and formatting.
Enough about editing, next time I'll discuss cover letter and resume formatting tips and traps.
Check names so you are positive they are spelled correctly, I've been called the wrong gender, given a title I don't have (Professor, Director, Dean), and my name is a common one with several variations of spelling but I like my way so please do make sure you give me the decency to care and spell it correctly. I am slightly impressed by those who do, and find a small hesitation for those who don't. It's my name, and if you can't take the time to spell my name correctly will you work hard to spell the names of your international students or those students not named John, Jane, Beth or Bob correctly? I can either hope so or you can just show me so by getting them correct from the start. Granted, everyone doesn't always get names correct, but if my name is on the position posting and on my business card and even on my email- I do expect you can get it right and I'll do you the same courtesy.
Be sure the institution name is correct, and for goodness sake check the title of the position- Residence Hall Director and Resident Director are not the same thing in the mind of the employer! Position titles are an important enough thing and are one more indicator that you are able to attend to detail. Apply to enough jobs and you stop caring so much about those details, I get that, but we have to care and need to know that in the end you do too. It's simple enough- save each resume and cover letter for each position you apply to in it's own folder on your personal computer (not work computer!) with the correct institution and position title as the name of the document: "Name-institution-coverletter.doc". Then when you have a friend edit it, have them double check you have it correct.
Be sure your own name is spelled correctly (yes, seriously!), you have your personal email and not your current work email, and that the title of your degree is written correctly. I honestly had a candidate recently who had to explain to me that they were really sorry but had apparently mistyped their own name and then didn't bother to correct us when we called them by the wrong name during their entire on-campus interview day. At the end of the day they finally told me, and provided me with a corrected resume that they had "meant" to send me the week before. We were trying to be respectful of the unusual name, they didn't have the courage to let us know it was wrong. We felt like fools- not exactly an optimal way to join a department.
Do not, and I say it again, do NOT provide your current work email as a contact for your candidacy. Work email is not appropriate, nor is it confidential. On the other hand please do NOT provide me with your cute but inappropriate personal email. DO however set one up just for your job search. Gmail, yahoo, hotmail- all free. Sign up for one that is your.full.name@gmail.com, or something similar. I can't share real examples here without permission of the actual candidates but suffice it to say that words like "hottie", "partier" and "bitch" have made their way into my inbox and helped those candidates make their way into the "no" pile. You may be asking no way, really?! Yes, really.
Do be sure your degree, alma mater, and current place of employment are all spelled correctly. Once again, not kidding. Seems simple yet people get it wrong all the time. I know enough that The Ohio State University is big on the "The"- if you claim to have gone there I'm expecting to see the "The", if I don't see it I begin to question and as I have said before- do NOT make an employer question and do not create more work for us. Sometimes it's spell-check that does it to you, sometimes it's haste but either way a triple edit-check should catch nearly everything.
That brings me to editing. As I mentioned in the title of this post- check your documents before you even THINK about submitting them, double-check once you've got a job in mind, triple check after putting it aside for a few days and coming back to it and finally have at least one (if not several) friends colleagues or mentors look at your application materials for errors. Most of the time candidates have people edit content and formatting and yes you should do that as well AND then have different people edit for errors. The more often the same eyes look at your letter and resume the more likely they are to miss things that need editing. Fresh eyes catch more things and if you ask someone to check for editing they are more likely to say yes because it's often quicker than focusing on content and formatting.
Enough about editing, next time I'll discuss cover letter and resume formatting tips and traps.
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