Every industry is different, but I can tell you from my personal experience that I almost never look at a Cover Letters except, perhaps, as an afterthought. On the other hand, I LIKE seeing a tailored resume. It helps me hone in quickly on the person’s skills that apply to the job I’m hiring them for AND shows they took the time to learn more about the job before applying.

Nothing frustrates me more than to see a resume that looks like someone just “fanned it out to the world as is”. I usually pass right over such resumes and never bother with an interview.

Versus, say, 3-5 years into a Wall Street or a Corporate Attorney career. Two pages will justify your salary; One page says you are still on the first floor and have never been promoted.

A Senior Administrative Career over 20 years might have 3 pages – the first 2ish listing position – with many bullets of high profile accomplishments and responsibilities. Saying that you ran a 500+ person international conference in France takes up more space than “event planning.” Then you might want to list relevant CE training; consulting; and relevant ad hoc committee meetings for corporate organizations. But an A/P clerk will have no more than one page.

I can’t emphasis enough that when you have the choice, when sending electronically, use: a)pdf format; b)text format; c) any other format. The reason? You will never know when the “track changes” or “save last copy” will pop up when the reviewer opens the file. It’s a major glitch with the older versions of Word.

And paper matching envelopes. So old fashion, it hurts. That is, unless you are applying for a job in maybe the design or art fields. It’s the days of frugality. And some of the “textured”, “colored” or “tinted” paper does not scan or copy well — so please, at most, use a heavier, higher quality bright white paper — say the $10 per ream multi-purpose or ink jet paper at Staples. (Yes you can use ink jet paper in a toner environment – it is heavier). No one has ever lost a job because of paper or envelope, design and art fields exception.

BTW, HT to @AriHerzog for sending me over to this post and in particular, your comment.

I don’t agree at all about the one-page rule. While I certainly advise people to put the most important and most relevant items on page 1, I think that in some fields, and for some people, more than one page is okay.

Why? Well, it’s twofold. For some of us, in more academic fields, one page simply isn’t enough. For others, going through a career change, for example, it makes sense to put prior experience on the resume. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve spotted something I connect with on a resume and called someone in for an interview because of it. You just never know.

I also realize no one typically knows how to create PDFs. You DONT need adobe acrobat to do it. There are tons of free apps out there that create basic pdfs. Do a search for CutePDF (I know…dumb name) but its a rock solid tool. You just hit print as if you were printing to your printer, but instead select the printer “CutePDF” and it pops a new PDF onto your desktop of your document.

I don’t care about a few drinking pictures like some people would. I would rather work with someone who is qualified and still has a social life, rather then that person who shows up for work and then goes home to never be heard from until the next day. You know who those people are…they never show up to any out of work events.

A couple of points that I’d like to add:
Keep an accomplishment journal. Some suggest sitting down once every year, or even every six months to revise your résumé. Make it easy on yourself by recording the projects you complete. I know that I have overlooked accomplishments at work and school that could have helped me in my job hunts.

Secondly, It’s always good to have an updated basic résumé ready for those times when an application needs to go out now, and there’s no time to really tailor one specifically. I have ended up saving a couple formats depending on which of my specialties I’m emphasizing.

I’ve taught resume writing and have been told by HR professionals and by employers that a two-page resume is OK. Personally, I wouldn’t go to work for a company that allowed the person doing the hiring all of seven seconds to review resumes…just imagine how they treat the rest of the slaves, if an employee with that kind of responsibility is treated that way!

Resumes should be designed so they’re easy to customize, and Every. Single. Resume you send out should respond specifically to the job description, using keywords and positioning data to highlight the most relevant skills and experience. Different professions and trades require different designs; for example, my academic CV always begins with my education, but my real-world resume begins with a list of specific skills followed by relevant job experience.

LaTex is a cool program but it does have a learning curve. Word can be made to create a presentable resume simply by using the Tables function to force copy to align correctly and to place blocks of copy where you want them.

The resume and the cover letter should always be printed on the same letterhead (i.e., use the same “letterhead” design in your Word docs). And absolutely: spare your future employer the cutesy e-mail addresses and the inane voicemail messages!

In that situation I really prefer a crisp, to the point, not wasting any of my time resume. Plus in nearly every job I have ever held (except for roofing) communication skills were paramount. And as I said a short & sweet resume is a great proof of that skill. Like a famous poet once said – sorry for the long letter, I did not have time to write a shorter one.

But then again I never was a defense contractor.

Nothing worse than getting a response on a resume and not remembering which one you sent! And it goes without saying that if you do any verbal fumbling on the phone or at the interview in regard to your resume, your candidacy will be toast.

It does make for more record keeping, but definately worth the extra effort.

that is great advice. hard work pays off