It's vital that you call, email, fax and/or write to every employer you send your resume to, to make sure they received it.
If you think this is a lot of wasted effort, think again.
It's possible -- even common, given the blizzard of resumes most employer get -- for the hiring manager to never receive your resume, even if you follow the instructions in their want ad or online job posting.
And if they don't get your resume, how can you get an interview?
So, keep this in mind each time you contact an employer to follow up on your resume -- you're doing them a big favor. After all, why would they spend all that time reading resumes and interviewing people if they didn't want to hear from every qualified candidate, especially you?
This happened two weeks ago to a client of mine, whom we'll call Stacey.
She faxed her resume to a Fortune 500 company in Bloomington, Minn., to apply for a job she was eminently qualified for. But she never heard back. After three days, she called to ask if they had any questions about her resume.
Surprise! They never got her resume.
Stacey sent it again, this time by email. And she was called for an interview. Which would have NEVER happened if she hadn't taken two minutes to call and follow up.
Action Step: Trust, but verify. Send your resume with the expectation that it will be read by the right person. Then call to make sure that it actually was.
Compliments of David E Perry and Kevin Donlin. For more creative job search tactics, go to the Guerrilla Marketing for job hunters blog and download the free audio CD.