Some tips for job hunters
When applying for jobs where written communication is a core skill, you can enhance your chances of getting hired by doing the following things in your resume:
- Make up entirely new plural versions of nouns that aren’t in the dictionary. Indeed, we will all be very excited to ask you in the interview about the very special dictionary you are working from.
- Understanding that the position will handle lots of written communications with clients, be sure to do things like fail to line up your columns in your resume. Don’t bother to correctly indent columns so they line up. Don’t worry if three or four words of your resume bleed onto a second page that would otherwise be unnecessary. After all, nothing says, "I’m an MS Office expert" like seeing a two page resume that could have been one page if you knew how to find "Page Setup" in Word.
- Best of all, ensure that if a job posting says certain experience is a requirement to apply, go ahead and apply even if you’re unqualified. Know that we just put that in the ad to get a hearty guffaw around the office.
A good resume and cover letter is not hard to do, and when someone does it well amid a pile of screwups, they just look that much better. So much so, in fact, that we’re going to try and fill a different position from a well-written resume that we received in that same pile that didn’t quite make the cut.