Page 100 - Complete Idiot's Guide to The Perfect Resume

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Part 2 ➤ Six Steps to a Perfect Resume

I Got Your Number

Your phone number is critical in your resume heading because your
first contact from an employer will probably be by phone. Depending
on your situation, you may want to list one or two phone numbers. By
putting a phone number on your resume, you automatically give your
potential employer permission to do the following:
Job-Hunt Hint
➤ Call that number
Consider incorporating a hori-
zontal line or shaded bar into ➤ Leave a message about your job search
the design of your heading to set ➤ Expect you to speak freely if you pick up the phone
it apart from the rest of the
resume. Browse through the Be sure you’re okay with all three of these assumptions for each phone
sample resumes in the other number in your heading. Following are a few cases in point.
chapters and Appendix B,
Gretchin Hendley didn’t want any job-search phone calls at her place
“Portfolio of Sample Resumes,”
of work, so in her heading, she listed only her home number where she
to get ideas, or come up with
had an answering machine that she could check from work. Larry
your own creative approach. All
Picasso, on the other hand, was being laid off, and everyone in his
of the resumes in this book were
department was aware that he was looking for a new job. Therefore, it
created in MS Word, using tech-
made perfect sense for him to list his office phone number in his head-
niques you can learn from the
ing, because he could receive messages and speak freely about his job
program’s Help menu.
search during business hours.
If you list only one phone number in your heading (as Gretchin did in
the previous example), it will be assumed that it’s your home or per-
sonal line. If you give more than one phone number, you need to indi-
cate the difference between them (as Larry did in the second example).

That’s the Fax

Career Casualty The fax rule of thumb: Don’t list a fax number in your heading unless
you’re sending your resume to a recruiter. Recruiters frequently fax job
Don’t go overboard by listing
postings and related information to job candidates, so they appreciate
every contact number you have
having the fax numbers readily available. Melissa Groden was sending
(home, office, cell, and pager).
her resume to a recruiter, so she included her fax number in the head-
Give only the one or two
ing of her resume (following).
needed to reach you or to leave
a message.

Gretchin Hendley’s Heading section.

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