• Leave your résumé behind after talking with someone informally, perhaps at a social gathering.

• Give it to someone to carry in for you (they can say things you could never say yourself.)

• Take it with you to an interview - you and your resume arrive together - you and your résumé make a great first impression together.

• Mail it with a cover letter after you have spoken with the employer on the telephone and been told to send it. Even then, you should do everything possible to deliver the résumé in person. If the resume must be mailed, try sending it by special mail service or to someone inside that you have gotten to know on the telephone (who can then hand carry it to the decision maker.)

• E-mail it to an employer from the company web site listing employment opportunities and follow-up with a hard copy.

• E-mail it through a job-finding web site, and, when possible, follow-up with a hard copy.

• Respond to an advertisement in the newspaper, a trade magazine, or on the Internet. (People do get good jobs from responding to advertisements.)

• Send it to an executive recruiting firm or an employment agency. (Make sure you know the difference between these two.)

• Mail it out cold to some sort of list.

NEVER SEND A RÉSUMÉ WITHOUT A COVER LETTER!!! 

Always follow up, when possible, with a telephone call - don't be afraid of being too aggressive - your chances of getting an interview and a job greatly increase by following up. 

Use the subject line - write the position title followed by your name in the subject line: Vice President of Sales - Francesca Fontanella - this will ensure that you will be considered for the right position.

• Make an ASCII file of your cover letter and résumé and cut and paste it into the body of the e-mail. and send an attachment of the cover letter and résumé in Microsoft Word and PDF formats.
• Personalize your cover letter.  Express your interest and why you would succeed in the specific position.  When contacting an executive recruiter include your willingness to travel and relocate (geographic preference) and salary requirement. 
• At the top of your résumé, include a profile, highlights, or summary section to give a snapshot of your experience.  This is one of the most important sections of your résumé.  A recruiter with 1,000 résumés is unable to read each one thoroughly, so the profile section is an effective way to make it through the first cut. 
• Explain any gaps.  If you took off time to care for your children or take extra classes, say so.. 
• List specific accomplishments in each of your past jobs, include numbers and outcomes whenever possible.
• Tailor your résumé to the position.  Research the company through its web site, including the job requirements, company culture, management team, and mission statement.  If your résumé is tailored to what the company is looking for, you have a much better chance of impressing your interviewer and getting the job.
• Send the e-mail to yourself or a friend before sending it to the recruiter.
• Follow up.  Write the recruiter an e-mail one and a half to two weeks after sending your résumé.  Include a new cover letter expressing your continued interest and attach your résumé.  By then, the recruiters will have a better idea of the position and will be able to quickly assess if you are a potential fit for the client company.
• Be persistent without being pushy.  Recruiters assess personality and cultural fit to the same degree they look for the necessary skills to fill the job.  If you have not been contacted, it may simply mean that someone else fit the company's expectations better.  Maintain a good relationship with the recruiter.

A recent article entitled HR's Dirty Little Secret Nobody Is Reading Résumés by Dr. John Sullivan, posted in a e-newsletter for executive recruiters indicates that because of layoffs and hiring freezes, many corporate job sites are being inundated with résumés.  Companies like Microsoft, Intel, and Hewlett Packard receive upward of 50,000 résumés per month through their corporate web sites.  For many corporate recruiters, the days of relying on paper résumés are over.  Now nearly everyone has access to computers and the Internet.

The process of submitting résumés through corporate web sites seems, on the surface, like an excellent one.  From the applicants perspective, job postings are easy to find and submitting is fast and inexpensive.  Corporate sites allow applicants to cut and paste their current résumé, saving them a lot of data entry time.  There is no limit to the amount of times that a candidate can submit their résumé, so candidates submit multiple versions.  Firms with advanced applicant tracking systems send back automatic e-mails or postcard notices acknowledging receipt of the résumé and thanking the applicant for their interest.

It is after the résumé is submitted that the pain for the candidate begins.  For the most part, candidates cannot go to the web site to track the progress of their résumé through the system.  They never get a note saying outright that their résumé will not be considered and why.  Instead, applicants wait with great hope for a follow-up e-mail or call asking them to come in for an interview.  They wait because they assume the process offers them a reasonable chance to get a job and because they rightfully assumed recruiters and managers were reading their résumés.  Unfortunately they often wait and wait and wait!

The problem with this seemingly "perfect system" occurs when you look more closely and discover that the odds of anyone actually reading a given résumé is often little more than zero!  There are several major firms where no none is reviewing résumés from the corporate job site at the current time. The simple fact is that at most corporations no live person actually reads résumés.  Instead they are scanned into or entered directly into the candidate database by the ATS (Advanced Applicant Tracking Systems).  Most systems do nothing with the résumés until they are specifically asked by a recruiter or manager to sift through them for a specific job opening.  Résumés can sit in the database and never be read by a human being.  Only if a recruiter or manager decides to search the database after the hundreds of thousands of résumés are electronically narrowed down to a manageable number (usually less than a hundred) is it possible for someone to actually "read" a candidate's résumé.

Few corporations will admit that no one is reading résumés submitted in good faith by applicants.  Even bringing up the topic causes recruiting managers to run the other way.  Any admission that résumés go unread would be a PR nightmare.  From the corporate perspective, no one promised that they would read all résumés.  Candidates "just assume" that there is some reasonable chance of getting a job through the existing corporate job system.

Unfortunately, the actual odds of getting a job through many corporate web sites approach winning the lottery.  Some of the reasons for this include:

• Cutbacks in the corporate recruiting function have been so dramatic that either no one is assigned or no one has time to scan more than a small segment of the résumés received each week.

• Recruiters who do search databases generally do it only one day per week - and if a candidate's résumé didn't come in that day, it will probably be lost in the volume of thousands of résumés that will arrive before the next search day.

• Résumé spamming by applicants has become so common that many recruiters and managers refuse to search the database, since it contains numerous unqualified candidates applying for jobs they have no skills for.  After being burned a few times, many recruiters and managers stick to referrals, niche job boards, and other tools - they actually abandon searching résumés that come in through the corporate web site.

• Applicant tracking systems sort résumés primarily based on the number of keywords in the résumé.  If candidates fail to use the right keywords there is no chance their résumé will be read by a human being.

• Most corporate hiring has been frozen or so dramatically cutback that those who are searching for résumés only look at the very narrow list of skills required by their currently open jobs.  This leaves most other résumés unread.  Since corporations don't announce hiring freezes on their web site, candidates have no way of knowing that when they apply for a job the company has no intention of reading it at that time.

• The volume of résumés received is tremendous.  Major firms receive thousands of résumés on some days.  Since laws require companies to keep résumés of applicants for as long as 2 years, the size of a major company's résumé database can easily exceed one million résumés.  Since hiring managers refuse to look at thousands of résumés, recruiters often scan the database only until they find, say, 100 qualified résumés, and then they stop looking.  If résumés are sorted by the level of skills and experience, unless you are "super qualified", the odds of getting your résumé read are extremely low.

• If the résumé scanning system sorts matches alphabetically, the chances of someone with a name beginning with "S" being found may be miniscule if the recruiter stops after they get their 100 target résumés.  Even if they search some other way, the odds of any individuals résumé being in that 100 selected for further review in a résumé database of 1 million résumés is probably in the single digits.

• Management ranks have been greatly reduced by layoffs and most managers have little or no time to search the database.  As a result, they rely on recruiters to do it for them or they hire external search firms to avoid the issue altogether.

• Some search engines are so complicated that most managers and a large percentage of the recruiters never even learn how to search the database.  And since most training has been limited, there is little chance that will change in the immediate future.

• Corporate recruiters are increasingly educated and often limit searches to passive candidates.  When you submit your résumé through a corporate job site, you automatically become an active candidate and your résumé is labeled as having lower value.

• Higher-level executive or technical job seekers who apply for jobs through corporate web sites have a zero chance of having their résumés read because most of those jobs are outsourced to executive search firms that have their own databases and sources.  Most executive recruiters do not have permission to search the corporate database.

• The current definition of "applicant" is unclear, but most corporations are afraid that if they "read" a résumé the person must automatically be considered as an applicant for EEOC purposes.  As a result, recruiters and managers are reluctant to turn too many résumé into applicants.

This article increases your awareness of the importance of using methods other than posting résumés on corporate web sites to secure interviews and jobs.  You need to use the telephone, network with everyone you know, and make repeated follow-up calls.  Patience, persistence, and assertiveness are keys.  Avoid the human resource department when possible and contact the person that would be your manager.  Thousands of résumés may go unread but if you have the gumption to persist and make repeated phone calls, you may have your résumé read, get that interview, and find a great job.

Even senior level executives with decades of experience and 6-figure salary histories make mistakes when it comes to looking for new positions.  Common mistakes made by executives, especially those 50 or older include:

• Not explaining your experience adequately-executive candidates cite employers on résumés without explaining what the companies are and what they do. Jobseekers also don't describe their accomplishments specifically enough.  They fail to use numbers and percentages to illustrate achievements.  

• Relying on recruiters to get you a job - recruiters fill only 15% of all white-collar jobs. This is an especially ineffective method for executives 55 and older because there are fewer positions at this level and companies are looking for younger individuals to fill them.

• Seeking a full-time position if you are in your 50s - The reality is that job seekers in their 50s are unlikely to find full-time positions.  A more effective strategy is seek out contract or project opportunities.

• According to David B.Theobald, if you are a job hunter in your 50s, it would benefit you to spend only 15% of your time looking for a position and 85% of your time searching for project opportunities.

• Not conducting a targeted search - Don't send your résumé everywhere to everyone. Know what you want to do.  Spend time conducting research to identify a select number of companies that appear to have the need for your experience and expertise. Write each of them a tailored letter outlining what you can do for them and why they are among the few companies you want to work for.

• Too many executives don't want to do the research to find these firms, but it is important.  You need to talk to people, or network, after doing the initial research.  

• Not recording a pleasant and professional voice-mail or answering-machine message - you have only one opportunity to make a first impression, and everyone believes that it is in a face-to-face interview, but often it is on the telephone.  Be sure the tone of your message on your answering machine is upbeat and professional.  Make sure you have a dedicated phone line for your job search or that your children and spouse take messages professionally.

• Saying you won't relocate - if a recruiter with an opportunity in another city contacts you and you say you will not relocate, you won't get other calls.  Also, if you and the company like each other enough, they might find a position for you in a place you want to live.

• Forgetting the interview is never over - everything you say and everything you do when you are with an interviewer, an employer, or recruiter will be considered when comparing you with other candidates.

• Stopping the search before you receive a written offer - many candidates do this and lose their momentum.  It may be that the interview goes very well and you feel confident that you will receive an offer.  Don't stop looking and networking keep applying for positions until you have an offer on paper. Too many people stop looking and never hear from the recruiter or employer again.

• Accepting a job that is a poor match - Don't take a job where the chemistry, culture, and philosophical fit are not right.

Many of my clients are confused about what to expect when working with an executive recruiter.  It is important to keep in mind that a recruiter does not find a job for a candidate (you), but finds an employee for an employer who pays the fee to the recruiter for locating and screening candidates for positions.  They focus on finding exact fits for specific jobs.  If a recruiter does not return your call or acknowledge receipt of your resume, it is probably because you are not the right fit for any of their employers at that time.  There is no fee to the candidate.  The employer, not the candidate is the recruiters client.

 If you decide to work with a recruiter, this should be only one of many options that you explore.  If you want to work with a recruiter, you should understand that:

• There are two types of recruiters, contingency and retained.  Contingency recruiters are paid fees after the client company hires a candidate that they have referred.  Retained recruiters are paid in advance to conduct a search and may collect payments even if their search does not produce a successful hire. Both types of search firms earn 20% to 35% of the first years income for candidates placed.  This fee is always paid for by the employer.

• Contingency recruiters often are used to fill positions that have:

  - Salaries of less than $100,000
  - Many qualified candidates
  - Multiple vacancies with similar candidates
  - More screening, interviewing, and negotiating required