ResumeWriting.com

It’s an age old question. When is the best time to respond to a job ad? Some people believe getting there first gets them a leg up, so they obsessively watch the job boards for new openings, hoping to get their resume in before anyone else. Others take a measured, respond-after-a-few-days approach.

Is there a time after the job opening is posted when it’s better to respond? If you’re going to play the odds, what gives you a better chance for success?

I didn’t know the answer to this, even after almost 15 years helping job seekers. So, this summer, using data from both ResumeWriters.com and ResumeService.com (using real world job seekers and actual job applications) I set out to find out. It took me 6 months, but I finally gathered enough data to hazard a guess.

First, I’ll share the data. Then, below the fold, I’ll discuss my methodology. Finally, I’ll speculate on why the results are what they are.

Results- There Are 4 Distinct Times After The Job Is Posted That Are Best

It turns out that there are 4 distinct periods of 72 hours when job applications seem to get the best responses. They are:

• The 72 hours after the job is first posted.
• The 72 hour period that marks 1 week from the time the job was first posted.
• The 72 hour period that marks 2 weeks from the time the job was first posted.
• The 72 hour period that marks 3 weeks from the time the job was first posted.

The charts below will illustrate this.

Click for a full size image.

The numbers at the bottom of each chart show the number of days elapsed since the time the job ad was first posted. [...]

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For a couple of years now, I’ve been suggesting job seekers use Google Voice as a job seeking tool. Just a few weeks ago, I mentioned how an enterprising job seeker had used Google Voice in a way I had never thought of before.

It seems that more and more job seekers are using Google Voice. And so, I thought I’d do a quick primer about how you too can use Google Voice, and how it might be the best new tool available to job seekers in many years.

First of all, if you’re not familiar with Google Voice, here are a couple of primers. Also, Lifehacker has a great rundown of the different features and tweaks here.  [...]

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Having spent the better part of two decades helping people land new jobs, I sometimes think I’ve seen (or thought of) it all. But just this weekend, a new job search tip presented itself that I’m sorry to say I’d never thought of before.

What happened was, I had to call a client back to go over some final tweaks to their resume. The client wasn’t available, so I got his voicemail. To my surprise, the voicemail seemed to address me, and his job search, directly. I’ll paraphrase what it said (obviously changing some details for the sake of privacy):

Hello, this is John C. Doe, Project Engineer. I thank you for contacting me about a possible opening at your firm. I’m eager to speak with you and tell you more about my 20 plus years of project management experience. You’ve reached me at 555-555-5555, but you can also try my home number which is 555-555-5555. I look forward to speaking with you and learning more about your team.

Obviously, this message was more than the usual “I’m not here, leave a message” greeting most of us leave on our voicemails. When I finally got the client on the phone, I asked him why he had recorded a special voicemail just for his job search.

“I figure that’s the first real interaction I’d have with an employer,” he told me. “I wanted to make sure my first impression to the employer would be as professional as we’re making this resume. I’m sort of thinking of my voicemail greeting as a supplementary resume.” [...]

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What is the best paper to use when printing up your resume to present in an interview?

What is the best paper to use when mailing a resume as part of a job application?

I guess this goes along with my post concerning the best font to use for your resume.

I actually have a very specific answer to this question.

For more than a decade now, we’ve been printing hard copies of people’s resumes as an add-on feature to ourresume writing service.

And in all that time, we’ve used the same paper.

I’ll tell you all about it, but first, let me make clear: I’m not getting paid or receiving any other consideration for the endorsement I’m about to make.

Having said that, in the resume writing industry, Southworth is the only paper brand most of us use. You can find a wide range of Southworth paper products at most of the “big box” office supply retailers like Staples or Office Depot.

The specific type of paper I recommend using is Southworth Business Paper, 32lb, 100% Cotton, 8 1/2″x11″ and WHITE. [...]

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Here’s a very basic resume writing question: What font should you use for your resume?

It’s not an insignificant issue.

First of all, you want your resume to be legible. And you want your resume to be legible (easily readable) not just for human eyes, but also for computer eyes… in case your resume might be scanned into a database. You want your resume to be legible if faxed, scanned, transmitted, emailed as a photo attachment, etc.

But secondly, and just as important, the font you chose can communicate a lot about your professionalism and intentions. If you’re an accountant, you want to stick with normal, conventional “professional” fonts. But if you’re a graphic designer, you want to and probably need to be a little more adventurous in your font choice.

So what are the fonts I would recommend using for most professions in most cases?

Your choices are basically between traditional serif fonts (Times New Roman) and sans serif fonts (Arial, Helvetica, etc). Here are the fonts I’d feel most comfortable using: [...]

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