Q-1.1 What is the purpose of a resume?

A resume is an advertisement that you hope will convince the persons reading
it when you are not present to invite you for an interview. A good resume
focuses the reader's attention on those aspects of your background which are
most relevant to your current career goals; and distinguishes you from
hundreds of other candidates, so you are invited for an interview and they
are not. A resume does not get you a job, only a chance to come to the
interview. If you screw up the interview, the resume won't help.

Q-1.2 What is a 'req' and how is it advertised?

For someone to be hired, a hiring manager somewhere first has to decide that
a position is open and that someone has to be hired. This happens because
someone has left (resigned, was fired, promoted, transferred, passed away)
or because increased workload necessitates increasing the head count. In
most fields, it's extremely unlikely that a manager would first come across
an impressive resume and then consider creating a new slot or replacing one
of the existing employees. The "hidden" job market (reqs that aren't
formally open until the right candidate comes along) is a myth.

Once the decision to hire someone is made, the employer writes a
"requirement", or "req" for short, which lists the qualifications (skills,
education, personal traits) required of and desired in a candidate. A
decision is usually made at this time about the pay range.

Studies show that many (perhaps most) open reqs are filled through informal
networking. Employers ask their friends, who ask their friends, and
eventually suitable candidates are found. See Q-4.7 for some hints on how to
network. An attempt is made to promote or transfer one of the current
employee to fill the new req.

Some employers advertise their reqs by placing them in newspapers, on
Usenet, etc. Most give their names in the ads. Some place anonymous ads with
a P.O.Box number for responses (so-called "blind ads"), to avoid unwanted
phone calls and even personal visits from job seekers. A disadvantage of
advertising a req is that in addition to qualified candidates, they will be
inundated with resumes from unqualified candidates (typically, recent
college graduates). Some people "carpet-mail" their resumes in response to
every ad, figuring that even though they clearly don't match this req, the
advertiser may have other open reqs. On the Internet, indiscriminate
e-mailing of resumes wastes everyone's time and borders net-abuse. Job ads
also allow competitors to know vacancy information, turn-over rate,
position's salary and other information the company may not want revealed.
It's estimated that only 10-20% of reqs are advertised directly.

Employers interested in hiring entry-level candidates typically send their
reqs to the placement offices of reputable colleges, who make them available
to their students and alumni. Hundreds of colleges participate in JobTrak,
which posts such reqs on WWW (http://www.jobtrak.com, password required).
If a college doesn't participate in JobTrak, its placement office probably
has plenty of entry-level reqs sent to it anyway.

Employers interested in more advanced candidates sometimes send their reqs
to selected third party recruiters (see Q-3.3), who in turn advertise in
newspapers, on Usenet, etc, and match the reqs with their internal databases
of resumes. It's not unusual for several recruiters simultaneously to
advertise for the same req. Most blind ads are placed by recruiters.
Recruiters who receive the reqs also use networking to find candidates. Some
promise a portion of their fee ("finder's fee") for pointing them to the
right candidate. Many are willing to co-operate with other recruiters and
split their fees.

Given a choice between a suitable candidate found through networking and a
comparable candidate submitted by a contingency recruiter, most employers
would prefer to hire the former to avoid paying a substantial fee (Q-3.5).
It's estimated that only 5-10% of jobs are filled through recruiters.

Out of a pile of resumes, the employers identify a few candidates to bring
in for an interview. After one or more rounds of interviews, a job offer is
made to the best candidate. If she declines, the offer is made to the second
best candidate. If she also declines, the employer may choose to sweeten the
offer to the first candidate, make an offer to the third best candidate,
invite more people for interviews, or solicit more resumes.

Q-1.3 How do I come up with things to put on my resume? (What's a personal
inventory?)

There is no single right answer to this question, but some entry-level
candidates find it helpful to take an inventory of things that make them
proud, and also make them good job candidates. The purpose of this is to
make you feel good about yourself as well as help you write a resume. Open a
file in your favorite word processor and create these sections:

Under "Education", list colleges and graduate schools, exchange programs,
off-campus study, etc. List the coursework that distinguishes you from other
candidates and is relevant to the work you seek. Recent graduates can also list
their school projects here, in lieu of experience. (Indicate the complexity of
the projects, such as the number of pages or lines of course code.) Most
college graduates don't mention their high school here, except to list singular
achievements or achievements that show a pattern. Activities such as raising
money for a charitable cause may bring skills to an employer's attention which
are not prominently displayed elsewhere on your resume. Also, there is some
advantage to indicating a longstanding commitment to an interest, such as
journalism, by tracing that interest back to high school. However these belong
under "Activities", not "Education".

Under "Experience", list all jobs held-full or part time, paid or unpaid.
(Presumably, not much, or else you wouldn't be doing this.) Note your
responsibilities (such as "purchasing authority") and accomplishments
(such as "cut costs"). For supervisory experience, note the number of
people you supervised.

Under "Activities", list your participation in organized groups, teams,
clubs, community involvements, etc.

Under "Honors and awards", list scholarships, class standing, special
recognition and academic achievements. Explain the meanings of more obscure
honors that may not be known to most people. E.g., "Received the Random Q.
Hacker Award, granted to only one undergraduate in ten years." If you only
have a few academic honors, group them with "Education".

Under "Interests", list hobbies, travel experiences, special talents.

Under "Other" list everything you left out thus far that you're proud of,
such as the knowledge of foreign languages. Some recent college graduates
mention the percentage of college cost financed through employment.

Now identify the information that may relate to a possible job or show
different positive aspects of your personality or strength. These are the
items you want to include on your resume.

Q-1.4 What are the common formats for resumes?

Since you're reading a Usenet FAQ, you'll probably be e-mailing your resume
in electronic form. However it's important to have a paper version as well.

Many good (and bad) examples of resumes may be found in misc.jobs.resumes.
The most common resume format is the U.S. is the reverse chronological one,
discussed in Q-1.5. A curriculum vitae is a long version of a chronological
resume and is discussion in Q-1.6. Occasionally you will see examples of
functional resumes or problem-activity-solution on misc.jobs.resumes.

Q-1.5 What is the format of a chronological resume?

In the U.S., the recipients of resumes expect to see a tabulation of your
education credentials and a record of your job history, the latter in
reverse chronological order. Resumes listing accomplishments without dates
are likely to get tossed. One disadvantage of this format is that
significant experiences in your background will not be highlighted unless
they are recent. If only some of your experience is relevant you can divide
it into blocks: "Related Experience" and "Additional Experience," or
"Industrial Experience" and "Academic Experience".

In all formats, put your name, postal address, phone number, and e-mail
address on top, center. On a multi-page paper resume, put your name and page
number on each subsequent page, in case they get separated.

Next, put a brief summary of your qualifications, areas of expertise,
strengths, talents, and skills applicable to the kind of work you're seeking.
The summary section can be customized for a specific employer.

Don't use buzzwords like "self-motivated, goal-oriented, hands-on
professional" -- anyone can characterize himself/herself this way.

Next, put a section called "Experience" or "Work experience". In this
format, positions are listed in reverse chronological order.

Experience:
Dates    Company
         Title
         Description of what your duties and accomplishments.

Put the (total) dates of service in left hand margin for each company you
have worked for. When you have held several jobs at one company, put a
parenthesis after each position.

Stress your transferable skills and accomplishments over duties and
responsibilities. (However, successful performance of duties is in itself an
accomplishment.) Relate how your actions saved or made money, saved time,
improved production or whatever value it had to the organization. If you had
significant contributions or accomplishments, highlight them with bullets.

If you've had a lot of short-term positions, list only those in the last
10--15 years that are relevant to the work you seek. If, 20 years before,
you were in a totally different industry, summarize.

Then list your college and post-graduate education:

Education:
Dates    School
         Degree, Major
         Description of classes and skills learned.
         Titles of master's thesis and doctoral dissertation.

List any recent coursework related to the position for which you're
applying. Under some circumstances (particularly, a resume for an
internship) it's appropriate to give more information about your coursework
that may be important to the employer or show a special academic focus that
is not obvious from your major. If you've won any academic honors
(scholarships, Dean's List, election to honor societies, class standing
etc.), list them as well. See Q-1.12 for the discussion of the grade point
average.

Placing the education before the work experience tells the reader that you
consider your education to be more impressive than your work experience
(which may be appropriate for a recent graduate). Placing the education
after the work experience will force the reader to look at your work
experience before deciding to disqualify you because of the education.

Personal:
         Anything you have done on your own that you feel is a transferable
         skill -- HTML programming, e-mail usage, Perl programming, etc.

If applicable, list your professional affiliations, languages proficiencies
(foreign or computer), publications, etc in separate sections.

Try to customize the resume and the cover letter for each company you're
applying to. Emphasize products or customers or procedures that the target
company is involved with. One way to do this is to first write a longer,
all-inclusive resume, then, when you apply, cut on the details of no
interest to this particular company.

In other countries, resumes sometimes include photographs, date of birth,
height, weight, ethnicity, marital status, religion, and handwriting
samples; names, ages, and occupations of family members; etc. All this
should be left off the resume in the U.S.

Q-1.6 What is a curriculum vitae?

A curriculum vitae (a.k.a. vita) is a comprehensive biographical statement
emphasizing professional qualifications and activities. C.v.'s tend to be
low on "hype" and consist mostly of lists: publications, research, grants,
honors, awards, presentations, fellowships, consultations, workshops, etc.
It is typically much longer than a business resume, and is used primarily by
job applicants in fields like academics and consulting; as a supporting
document with a grant or contract funding proposal; as part of a periodic
review by an employer; as part of application for membership in a
professional society or organization; as part of an application to a
graduate school; or as a background statement for an introduction at an
important convention presentation. Other than publication titles, a c.v. may
not give a strong indication of the candidate's expertise.

A typical c.v. consists of the following sections:

 Personal Data

Your name, phone number, e-mail address, etc, like on a resume. It's also
common to include the month the c.v. was last updated on the first page.

 Educational Background

 Employment Experience

These two sections follow the format of the reverse chronological resume.
Use action verbs and little punctuation.

 Professional Affiliations and Honors

Names of local, state, regional and national professional associations in
which you have current membership (in alphabetical order). Length of
affiliation is seldom of interest (e.g., "member of X since 1913")

Professional Service: Leadership positions you've held in associations at
any level: memberships on major committees, task forces, boards; elected
offices you've held, etc. Give dates.

Membership in professional honorary societies; receipt of competitive
assistantships, scholarships, fellowships, etc.; teaching or research
awards. Give dates.

 Publications/Creative Works

This section contains:

Bibliographic citations of articles, pamphlets, monographs, chapters in
books, research reports, etc, that have been published or accepted for
publication. Listing works that have only been submitted for publication or
are in progress is considered tacky. Keep joint authorship straight.

Description of papers presented at conferences: title, name of conference,
dates and location. Sometimes this is split into presentation by
competition, and presentation by invitation and consulting. Also list
workshops and seminars conducted in this category.

These may be listed in reverse chronological order to be consistent with the
education and experience sections and because your most recent publications
are probably more relevant.

Recent and Current Research (if applicable): Description of research
projects recently conducted or in progress: type of research, purpose, etc.

 Civic, religious, and service activities

 Other important items


Never ever list essentially the same activity twice in different sections.

In contrast, resumes are sales tools. The well written resume is designed to
make it abundantly clear what you have a accomplished, and what you can do
for a potential employer. When an employer reads a resume, you want to make
sure it is written so that they feel a compelling need to call you and find
out about your interest in their position. In the business world, people
don't have the time to spend trying to figure out what you can do from your
multi-page lists of accomplishments. You have to tell them that in a brief
resume.

Never submit a c.v. instead of a resume, unless specifically asked for one.
Once you've interested them enough with your resume, they will probably ask
you to fill an "employment application" form that will list all of your past
jobs, just like a c.v.

Q-1.7 What is a functional resume/combination resume?

Unlike the chronological resume, the functional resume ignores historical
sequence and stresses skills and abilities regardless of where they were
developed and demonstrated. This approach offers you a way to group/cluster
your education, experience and activities into significant ability
categories that support your job objectives. The functional format may be
most useful to career changers and those with many diverse experiences. A
drawback is that many employers are suspicious of or confused by this
format.

A combination chronological/functional resume blends the directness of a
chronological format with the highlighting of skills found in the functional
format. The combination resume is helpful in communicating skills for
individuals whose experiences are limited, widely varied, or not clearly
related to their job objective.

Q-1.8 What is a problem-action-solution resume?

TK

Q-1.9 What about resumes that can be e-mailed?

TK

It's best to e-mail straight ASCII resumes. Lines should not exceed 80
characters. Sections should be separated by blank lines.

Even if a recipient has the facilities to print out Postscript or (La)TeX
resumes, resumes in these formats cannot be easily put into a text database
for a subsequent keyword search.

TK

Q-1.10 What about paper resumes and optical character readers?

Whenever you submit a resume by fax or paper mail, you can be certain that
someone will scan your c.v. into a database and later do a keyword search.
The optical character recognition (OCR) technology is ubiquitous.

To skip scanning, many prefer to receive resumes by e-mail.

Some hints for paper resumes:

Avoid unusually colored or odd-sized paper. Use white non-textured paper
only. Off-white or beige paper increases the number of OCR errors; other
colors or textures may interfere even with photocopying, when your potential
employer makes copies to pass around to others in the hiring process. Be
careful of your copy quality. Let your resume stand out in other ways. Use
8.5"x11" paper (US; A4 in Europe). To a human being anything looks better on
bond paper. Don't staple multi-page resumes, or staple anything (business
cards) to resumes. If you want to avoid folding the resume, mail it in an 8
1/2" x 11" envelope. Creases may interfere with scanning, but this is much
less of a problem than, say, small fonts.

Unusual fonts, underlining, italics, script, and graphics (clip art, shaded
backgrounds, leader dots, black rules/bars, boxes) don't scan well. Stick to
Courier or Times Roman. Emphasize headers sparingly using a boldface font.

Leave wide margins and a lot of white space.

Two-sided (duplex) resumes are inconvenient.

Don't highlight items with color markers.

Small fonts don't scan or fax well. Use 12pt or larger. Sans-serif fonts
(such as Helvetica) give fewer errors than serif fonts (like Times Roman).

Do not use a dot-matrix printer (doesn't scan or fax well). If the resume is
produced by a laser printer or a xerocopier, be very wary of stray toner
marks that look sloppy to humans and confuse scanners. Load fresh toner/drum
if you must.

Q-1.11 Do I mention a "career objective" on my resume?

Some resume screeners like resumes with targeted job objectives because they
make it easier to toss the resume if if no req matches the narrow objective.
There may be opportunities which you qualify for and would be interested in,
but which you reject by putting a narrowly focused objective on the
resume. For example, a programmer who states that her objective is to write
programs under Unix may not be considered for a development position under
WNT, even though she may be qualified and interested. A broader objective,
such as "A position to make use of my people skills or training in data
processing", tells almost nothing, but may exclude you from consideration
for a very interesting opportunity that doesn't require "people skills".

Most job seekers are better off without a "career objective" on a resume.
Unless you have a very clear idea of what you are seeking from a particular
employer (which might be a case if you are responding to a very specific
advertisement), it's better to explain your interests in a cover
letter or during the interview -- after the employers express their
interest in you.

Some posters feel that stating a career objective conveys a sense of
direction on your part. Such a statement does not have to be limiting if it
is worded in an open-ended, but not vague, fashion. In this case, the
objective briefly describes your primary functional goal (type of work
desired), your primary organizational goal (type of place where you want to
work), and may contain a phrase about a particular interest area or short or
long term professional goals. Try to answer the question: "What would you
like to be doing in the next few years?" Never mention a specific job title.

Q-1.12 Do I mention a grade point average on my resume?

Most recent graduates with impressive grade point averages (GPA) mention
this fact on their resumes. Thus, omitting the GPA suggests that it may be
low. Some employers are very interested in your grades, and will ask, while
others are not interested. If your overall GPA is really unimpressive, you
may prefer to mention a subset of it on your resume, such as the GPA in the
major, or the GPA during the senior year, or the GPA over the last four
semester, if one of these figures was higher than your overall GPA (mention
how you arrived at the figure). Likewise, if your recent SAT, GRE, etc
scores were unusually high, mention this fact on your resume.

Generally, the SAT, GRE, GPA, and other numbers are of little interest after
about 5 years.

Q-1.13 How long should a resume be?

Note: for a resume is distributed in electronic form, a 'page' is roughly 60
lines of text.

Unless you're a recent graduate, it's probably impossible to adequately
describe your capabilities in one page, but even one page may be enough to
grab the reader's attention. Do not sacrifice margins and white space to
keep your resume to one page, when two pages may be more readable. Two or
three pages is probably the most common if any elaboration of experience or
accomplishments is to be done. It's better to have two to four pages, than
to omit important information about yourself because it didn't fit. If your
resume doesn't fit on three or four pages, create a separate long version
that you can provide after you've captured their interest with a shorter
version.

Q-1.14 What are some common resume tips?

A resume should be visually attractive and easy to read, whether it's
presented on paper or on a computer screen. Use even and wide margins,
spacing between major headings, and clearly identifiable sections. Avoid
large blocks of text (i.e., paragraphs over 6 or 7 lines). Use bullets to
break them up into logical sub-blocks.

Be brief. Remember that the screeners have many resumes and applications to
look through. A needlessly wordy resume will waste their time and may make
them stop reading before they find the juicy parts. Use the minimum number
of words necessary to convey your meaning (except when adding possible
search keywords). Avoid unnecessary phrases, such as "Duties included ...".
Start each description with action words (see Q-1.15 for suggestions). Avoid
personal pronouns. E.g., "Wrote documentation" (but not any more) "Writing
documentation" (still) is better than either "I wrote documentation" or
"Write documentation". Leave out data not relevant to your obtaining an
interview.

Be honest. There is a difference between making the most of your experience
and exaggerating or falsifying it. A falsified resume can be easily spotted
by an employer and if it doesn't prevent you from getting the job, it can
cost you the job later on.

Use parallel grammatical structures and consistent verb tenses. Use past
tense (never imperative) to describe a completed job and a present tense to
describe continuing work.

Spelling and grammar must be perfect. Avoid using words repeatedly.
Proofread the resume and have another literate person proofread it.

Skip titles like "resume" or "vitae". Most employers know what resumes look
like.

Don't put detailed career objectives, salary expectations, or reasons for
leaving jobs on the resumes. You can explain these in interviews, if you get
them.

Omit personal data, such as marital status. You never know what prejudices
people have. (But see Q-1.16)

Omit hobbies and outside interests (except competitive sports).

Q-1.15 What are some helpful "action words"?

accelerated  accomplished achieved     acquired     acted        adapted
administered advertised   advised      advocated    aided        analyzed
anticipated  appointed    appraised    arbitrated   arranged     assembled
assessed     assisted     attained     audited      authorized   bolstered
briefed      budgeted     built        calculated   caused       chaired
chose        circulated   classified   coached      collected    communicated
compensated  compiled     completed    conceived    conducted    confronted
constructed  consulted    contracted   controlled   coordinated  corrected
corresponded counseled    created      critiqued    defined      delegated
demonstrated designed     determined   developed    devised      directed
dispensed    displayed    distributed  drafted      edited       educated
elected      eliminated   enlisted     entertained  established  estimated
evaluated    examined     executed     exhibited    expanded     expedited
explained    familiarized financed     fostered     found        generated
guided       handled      helped       hired        identified   implemented
improved     included     incorporated increased    influenced   informed
initiated    inspected    installed    instructed   integrated   interpreted
interviewed  invented     investigated kept         launched     led
lectured     listened     located      maintained   managed      marketed
measured     mediated     monitored    motivated    negotiated   observed
operated     organized    originated   participated performed    persuaded
pinpointed   placed       planned      predicted    prepared     prevailed
printed      processed    produced     programmed   projected    promoted
proposed     protected    proved       provided     publicized   published
purchased    qualified    raised       recommended  reconciled   recorded
recruited    rectified    reduced      re-evaluated referred     rehabilitated
reinforced   reorganized  repaired     reported     represented  researched
responded    reviewed     revised      saved        scored       scheduled
selected     served       set up       sketched     solicited    sold
solved       spoke        sponsored    streamlined  structured   summarized
supervised   supported    taught       trained      translated   updated
used         wrote

Q-1.16 How do I indicate on the resume that I'm a member of a group that is
sometimes discriminated against?

Today, many candidates choose to indicate their membership in a group,
figuring that if a potential employer has a problem with group members,
they shouldn't waste each other's time. An unobtrusive way to advertise
is to mention one's membership in student or professional organizations.

Some posters feel that jobseekers should never indicate race/religion/sexual
orientation/ethnicity on a resume, because it might get it tossed -- better
nothing, than something that makes you a target. Others feel that unless
the candidate is desperate, s/he would not want to deal with an employer
who would discriminate if he knew.

In the U.S. most companies supply candidates with special forms to indicate
their race/sex/ethnicity for affirdmative action purposes.

Q-1.17 What are some common cover letter tips?

Do include a cover letter, even one paragraph, whenever you submit your
resume by e-mail, fax, or postal mail, to explain why you are submitting it.
State state why you are writing, name the type of position and, if you have
heard about a vacancy, mention how you heard about it (in certain
affirmative-action situations, not stating that you saw the position
advertised may preclude you from consideration). If you were referred by a
person, mention their name. Next, detail what you could contribute to the
company and how your qualifications could benefit the firm.

Most recipients read a cover letter is read after the resume and only if the
resume was interesting. The cover letter should include relevant information
not obvious in the resume and try to answer the questions that you expect to
be raised by your resume, which might be asked in the first interview (see
Q-2.6). For example, if it's clear from your resume that you were educated
in another country, you can expect someone to ask whether you're authorised
to work in this country. You can answer that in the cover letter before you
are asked. Other questions often addressed in the cover letter are the pay
rate you expect, your willingness to travel or relocate, why you wish to
work for this specific company, how hiring you would benefit this particular
company, and why you are better than the other candidates applying for the
position. Even if you're not sure, try to talk about the company's products
or services in the cover letter.

In some fields it's appropriate to include your list of references in the
cover letter. E.g., if you've submitted a curriculum vitae to apply for a
teaching position, you might write: "The following persons have written
letters of recommendation on my behalf..." and list the names, titles,
departments, institutional addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of
those individuals.

Don't address it to "Dear Sir or Madam". "Dear Hiring Manager" is
acceptable. If you know the name of a person who'll read it, use the name.

Q-1.18 What happens to my resume when I submit it to personnel or a
recruiter?

Most large companies have human resources specialists (h.r., formerly known
as personnel) whose job is to help hiring managers fill their reqs by
screening out unsuitable candidates. On the Internet, many companies
advertise special e-mail addresses for the submission of resumes, usually
'jobs@company.domain' or 'resumes@recruiter.domain'.

When you submit a resume, an attempt is made to match it with the current
open reqs (internal reqs in case of h.r.; multiple clients' reqs in case of
a recruiter). In the past, your resume sat in in a stack of hundreds of
resumes that was being mindlessly screened by a non-technical junior h.r.
person with a list of buzzwords to look for. Today most companies, even
small ones, enter all submitted resumes into a "resume management system"
database (see Q-1.8) and search it with computer programs, which look for
buzzwords and rank resumes by the number of "hits".

Many of these resumes are submitted by unqualified candidates who apply for
every position just in case. E-mail or mail-merge make such carpet-mailing
easy. Some of the people in that pile of resumes are probably as good as you
technically. Only a a few resumes will be picked from the pile and chosen
for an interview (h.r.) or for possible submission to clients (recruiter).

Even if it takes a minute for a person to look at a resume and reject it,
these minutes add up to hours when the the task is to extract one or two
qualified resumes from hundreds of randomly submitted unqualified ones.
That's why hiring managers object to having to look at unscreened resumes.

If the screener doesn't find an active requirement for the job title (your
most recent job title, not the desired one) and the skills that you have on
your resume, but your credentials are good, they will keep your resume on
file (in paper or electronic form) for a while (typically 6 to 18 months)
and review it periodically to see if it matches any newly arrived reqs. If
the screener doesn't see a match between your resume and one of their reqs,
there's nothing they can do for you. That's why, if you're responding to an
ad that mentions an internal req number, be sure to indicate that, or the
screener may not realize that there is a match. (Of course, your resume may
match their other reqs as well.)

To increase the chances of keyword matching, use as many buzz words as are
applicable to your skills. E.g., a computer program searching for 'finance'
won't find 'financial', so both should be used. Instead of just saying
"worked in all aspects of X", list those aspects in parens, just in case the
screener (computer or human) is searching for these keywords. Membership in
professional organizations (IEEE, ACM, AMS, SIAM...) is one of the
"buzzwords" that hit keyword searches.

Q-1.19 How can I bypass h.r. and get my resume directly to the hiring
manager?

A typical company has procedures to stop you and your resume from bothering
the hiring manager. Secretaries are instructed to intercept all unsolicited
resumes coming by mail or fax and send them to personnel for "logging in."

E-mailing unsolicited resumes to people who you think might have a job for
you is rude and borders net-abuse. Some recipients might be so annoyed that
they'll complain about your e-mail to your internet provider.

If you have any contacts within your target company, you can ask a friend to
hand-carry your resume to the hiring manager and recommend you. An inside
referral always has an edge on a total outsider if the manager probably
knows and trusts your acquaintance. However, once you do succeed in getting
your resume through, the recipient may view it as an unwelcome intrusion.