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Rosana Francescato's avatar

Customizing is so key. I've been on the hiring end, and it's amazing how many candidates don't seem to have read the job description and how clearly you can tell that from both their resumes and their cover letters. I would always toss those!

Apart from that one, the best advice I've gotten is one you also mention, talking about your accomplishments rather than your job responsibilities.

At my advanced age it's been hard to keep the resume to two pages, but I've managed that. I knew someone who took this to extremes and condensed his resume so much that it didn't give a good idea of his accomplishments, but he was an outlier.

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Bill Graf's avatar

Adam, which is more important: the resume or the cover letter? I've read conflicting views on this. In a hiring role, I found resumes useful in screening applicants for meeting minimum requirements, but cover letters were often more revealing (for better or worse) of an applicant's unique qualities.

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