I have the perfect resume, now what?

Once you have perfected your resume, it’s time to put yourself out there and apply to various roles of interest. In case you missed them, please check out our articles about resume writing best practices and resume formatting.

When you are actively looking for a job, you may need to change some of your habits…

Make it easy for potential employers to contact you. This means that you make sure your phone settings and email settings allow people who aren’t your “contacts” to get through. Many companies are moving towards texting candidates to set up interviews with RX2 Solutions being one of them. I know that sometimes you receive SPAM text messages and want to block everyone you don’t know – however if you do this across the board, you’ll never see the text about your resume.

Our Advice: while you are looking for work, bite the bullet and loosen up your SPAM/SCAM blocking tools on your phone and email so people can get through to you.

When someone calls you, pick up the phone. The tendency these days is to screen all calls where you don’t know the number. If you do this, you may be screening out someone who you actually want to speak with.

Our Advice: When looking for work, STOP screening your calls! We know it’s a hard habit to break – when an unknown number comes through its probably the auto warranty scam or some other scam call. When you are looking for work, pick up your phone – you never know when someone will be calling you about a job that may or may not still be available when you get around to calling them back.

Have a professional voicemail This is especially true for recent college grads.

Our Advice: Make sure your voicemail is professional as an unprofessional voicemail may lead to you never getting the interview and you’d never know it. If you are unsure about what your voicemail should be, you can find some ideas here.

Only apply for jobs that you are a 75%+ fit for. Some candidates think that the more jobs they apply to, the better the chance is of getting a job. I’ve also heard that some candidates apply to one job hoping that they can talk to you about something else. This is a poor strategy.

What is actually happens when you apply for a bunch of roles that you aren’t a fit for, the employer will block you from applying to ALL jobs for a period of time OR indefinitely – including ones that you might be qualified for. In the mind of an employer, applying to a number of roles that you aren’t a fit for is similar to “the boy who cried wolf”. Once you are blocked, you won’t know it and most applicant tracking systems have a way to eliminate candidates for a certain period of time or indefinitely.

Our Advice: Be selective with the roles you apply to. Avoid the temptation of single click applying to multiple jobs that some job sites offer. Tossing your resume at every job out there is a surefire way of unintentionally getting yourself banned/eliminated from a number of companies.

As always if you are interested in career opportunities or doing business with us, please do not hestitate to reach out to us directly 610.340.3490 or recruitment@rx2solutions.com.