Candidates - Send Fewer Resumes: Best of reCareered

Which do you think is more effective: 1) Sending 100 resumes for many jobs in the hope that a few will be interested in you? or 2) Send a few resumes to a few jobs where you are a perfect fit?

While this strategy is counterintuitive, sending fewer resumes is a much more effective method. An effective and customized resume can get a 15-25% "hit ratio" (face to face interviews with hiring managers divided by total resumes sent) using a send fewer strategy. Notice this ratio doesn't include recruiters (nor informational interviews) - while both are nice they aren't job interviews...they may be a preliminary step to an interview, or they may not be.

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Why does this work?

When you send fewer resumes, you spend more time customizing and targeting each position. Candidates tend to do more research (See: http://recareered.blogspot.com/2008/05/4-killer-ways-to-use-research.html if they send fewer resumes. You tend to select jobs you are "perfect for" if you send fewer.

I advise my clients, even unemployed clients, to send no more than 5 resumes per day on average. That's only if there are 5 perfect fit jobs, otherwise sending fewer than 5 works more effectively.

When you send fewer resumes ... you focus.

When you send fewer resumes you also take more care on each, and really spend time on wording, bullet locations, look of the resume, reformatting.

So try sending fewer resumes - How did it work for you?

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How Effective is your Resume? Here’s how to measure: Best of reCareered

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Source: http://reCareered.blogspot.com