Here comes a tool that will make writing your resume much easier as I’m soon about to hand you my “10 Point Cover Letter and Resume Checklist”. I use it every time I prepare a cover letter and resume for a client. And soon you can use it for yourself.

First things first, let’s just call these tips, instead of calling them rules — because I have never been a lover of rules. And sometimes you need to know when to throw all the rules away… Regrettably, this solely comes with the depth of knowledge and experience you gain from crafting a ton of cover letters and resumes. These are “almost rules” because they’re actually 10 classic tips for creating a good cover letter and resume that’s simple and easy to follow. This will be important in the final version.

With that said, please follow these as closely as possible. If you don’t have the fundamental principles down in your finished resume and cover letter draft, then you can go back and rework the details that are inadequate. These 10 rules of thumb are the bare-bones essentials of a captivating resume… and they will serve you well. Stick to this advice whenever you compose your cover letter and resume, and you can bet on it that you’re going to catch an employer’s eye. To create a respectable resume, it takes patience, time and a persistence to rework, edit and revise. Follow these ten tips when you write your resume and cover letter to assure you’ll be discovered by an employer.

One: Does your cover letter and resume look appealing to a potential reader? While it may seem straightforward, most resumes are cramped, difficult to read, inundated with detail and can seem disconnected in how they develop.

Two: Is the cover letter interesting, factual and informative? Don’t just summarize your whole resume, specify your qualifications, education and experience. Your cover letter should lead a potential employer to want to read the complete resume in its entirety.

Three: Have I kept things simple enough? Don’t just add a lot of info that isn’t applicable to the position you are applying for. Most resumes are designed for a shotgun type of application; this often means that you are unable to highlight the specific accomplishments that fit this one job. Most of the time merely altering your cover letter wont be enough and you’ll need to alter your resume for each application.

Four: Is there as much white space as text? Blank space can break up the bullet points, help to highlight information, and make your resume more easy to read and snazzy without all the supplemental lines, shading and graphics seen on some modern-day types of resumes.

Five: How’s my spelling so far? Make sure you double check grammar and spelling; then check again. Then get a list of common homonym mistakes and find which ones you might have used wrongly There’s simply nothing more unprofessional or uglier looking than spelling something wrong on your cover letter or resume. This includes the the business’ name, employer’s name or any other information. Before printing or saving the resume, the last thing you should do is to run an automatic spell check with your word processor. I also advocate printing out a draft copy and reading through the hard version. Automated spell check can’t fix a “there” that should be a “they’re” and sometimes it’s easier to see on the printed version.

Six: Are there enough phrases and bullet points being used to minimize the quantity of required reading by the employer. Shorten each sentence to a smallest amount of words while also painting a clear picture of your qualifications. If you turn your list of achievements for each job into a bulleted list makes it much easier for an employer to read quickly. Try to keep things concise, punchy and short.

Seven: Are you using a tad too much industry specific slang or technical jargon on the cover letter and resume? You’ll probably notice people work so long at a specific job that industry-specific words creep into their everyday usage like any other habit — now here’s the tricky part: a lot of time you do not realize and can end up using such words which not everyone understands.

Eight: Have you done enough research on the company you’re applying for? By knowing a particular company’s goals or mission statements you can get a feel for who they might be wanting to hire and discover some of their internal slang… then integrate them into your cover letter and resume when possible.

Nine: Have I said too much already? For professionals, the average two page maximum may not be enough room if you have enormous experience. Rather than keeping track of how many pages you have, focus more on writing a strong cover letter and resume.

Ten: Am I broadcasting the wrong message? If you’re using a fancy-looking, martian-like font instead of a plain typeface font, you just might be shooting yourself in the foot. This one is more for you since I already know to use the more easily read fonts from the beginning.

Here’s a quick conclusion (until I have more time to write something better): Using the above 10 tips will help with writing an outstanding cover letter and resume.

Finding employment is probably the hardest job you’ll ever have. Not only is finding the right job for yourself difficult to begin with, it also takes a commitment to go out searching for new job leads day after day.

Of course the very first step is knowing what kind of job you want. It should go without saying this will help you immensely with figuring out where to look. You never know when a lead can turn into something significant for yourself.

And while you’re waiting for that next solid tip on a job opportunity to come along, many days can bring a lot of rejection and despair.

Networking can be one of your best friends while looking for employment… and you’ll need as many job leads as you can find — the economy responsible for the current scarcity of employment isn’t going to get better overnight.

Keep your eyes open and your
ears alert to any job leads…

The first essential task you should complete — even before beginning your job hunt — is to write (and finely hone) your cover letter and resume. After all, it’s your calling card and you’ll need these documents for almost every job you’ll apply for. If at all possible, tailor your cover letter to each potential opportunity for best results when submitting your resume.

Initial contact with your cover letter and resume must be convincing to land that all important interview . It’s no secret you’ll greatly raise your odds of landing the interview if you design your cover letter and resume correctly to begin with.

Employers hire people based on their performance in the interview. No employer in their right mind is going to hire someone solely based on two sheets of paper. In order to get a clear message across of who who you are and how you’ll benefit the potential employer, you need to make sure you learn — and communicate in your cover letter and resume (and the interview itself) the following:

• What distinguishes you from the other candidates competing for the position?
• What have you accomplished in your career thus far?
• What characteristics or qualities make you truly distinctive?
• What noteworthy personal character trait or traits describe you?
• What types of problems have you solved (and how can this experience benefit the employer)?

Both of these documents — your cover letter and resume — must be as perfect as you can make them. You do want to be taken seriously, don’t you? Well, any spelling error, grammar error, or lack of organization could cost you the interview. And you do not want that to happen.

How long should your resume be? Aim for one page whenever possible. Personnel people do not want to read several pages of information. One page is all you need for entry level positions and those fresh out of school. If you have tons of relevant experience, then you can go beyond the “one page rule”, but keep the the question “is this relevant?” in your mind at all times.

Remember, your cover letter and resume are a reflection of you – you want to put your best foot forward. Make sure to use high quality paper and a good laser printer for both of these pieces. You must also show organization, skill, and talent when writing and preparing your cover letter and resume for any employer. Make your documents visually attractive and utilize plenty of spacing, bullets, headers, and paragraphs.

When you’ve got your cover letter and resume to a point you’re happy with, have an “outside” pair of eyes proof read your documents as well. This is how you’ll give yourself the best chance possible if you decide to go it alone and prepare your own resume and cover letter.

When searching for a job, many people tend to forget that a cover letter and resume are designed to get you an interview and not the job itself. No employer is simply going to look at your credentials and say “you’re hired”. The hiring process does not work that way. You must get your chance to sell yourself doing an interview. The best way to get an interview is by making the employer want to know more about you, your skills, your education, and what you can bring to the company.

The first item you might include in a cover letter is where you found out about the job. Companies like to measure their advertising so make sure that you indicate when and where you learned about the job opening.

Many times a cover letter never gets around to indicating that the person writing the letter wants to apply for a job. So make sure to include this in your cover letter unless you just want to waste some time by applying for random jobs.

Another item for a good cover letter is to highlight your education, skills, and past experience. Do not take away too much from your resume but simply enough details to show that you have the qualifications for the job.

The fourth essential of a masterful cover letter is to ask for an interview. After all, that is the ultimate goal of a cover letter and resume and the basic intent of these documents. You should also refer to your resume in your cover letter which will provide the reader with more specific details about your qualifications.

Here’s some handy resume tips to keep in mind: Try to be as brief as possible. Make sure you make it easy for the employer to get in touch with you by indicating e-mail addresses and phone numbers. You’ll want to include a job objective on your resume that relates to the job you’re going after. Place things in reverse chronological order — this includes education and work experience. Center for focus on skills and accomplishments when possible. Don’t put any personal data on your resume other than phone number, name and address.

Both your cover letter and resume must be perfect. You can’t afford any spelling errors or grammatical errors. These documents should endeavor to reflect first-class quality, organization, and visible proof of your talent and skills. Always make sure these tools help you to ensure an interview for the job and they act as your personal sales pitch to the employer. You will be sure to land that interview if you work at designing these two documents.

A cover letter and resume helps sell your personality, skills and credibility… And if there are mistakes in spelling, if the resume utilizes unprofessional clip art, or if the layout makes discerning the info inside impossible, then chances are the resume has just sabotaged your potentiality for employ at the company in question.

Mistakes of any form can still occur even with the best computer spell-checkers. Don’t let these mistakes happen to your resume:

Example: Things like ‘there/they’re/their’ etc.

Be sure to watch out for errors in the contact info: The smallest blunder here, even on a top-notch resume, could keep a hiring director from being capable of getting a hold of you.

They’re busy people… they likely won’t try beyond the first phone number or email destination — if it’s incorrect, you won’t be getting that all-important call for an interview.

Poor layout and confusing
arrangement of info

The terrible truth is the cover letter and resume you’ve worn-out the better part of the day preparing will receive 8-10 seconds of a hiring manager’s time.

Make sure you clearly order your information, mark important segments, and have a linear job history.

Make it instantly unmistakable what position you are applying for, and how your skills fit into that position.

NEVER make the person reading the resume have to look for basic information like education, job history etc.

Do your cover letter and resume say you’re a good fit for the job?
It really doesn’t matter if you’re qualified for the job or not — what’s important is if your resume states you are. And even if you have all the qualifications in the universe, it won’t serve you if your resume does not list those!

Remember: A resume is not a life story. And it doesn’t require you have every last position you’ve ever maintained in your life. If particular jobs aren’t related to the position at hand — dump ‘em!

Don’t mass-mail your resume!

If you’re mass-mailing your cover letter and resume, you’ll probably discover that your resume might be disqualifying you simply because it is not relevant.

The problem with this approach is that you’re burning bridges with only the click of a mouse — you only get one shot in most cases, and it’s essential to see it as an opportunity to deliver the goods, not as some other email address to add to your cover letter and resume email spam-blast.

Improper or Impertinent Information

If your personal hobbies aren’t connected to the position, don’t include them. They’re unneeded. Make sure your resume is as simple as possible — resumes that are too over-embellished easily get on job recruiter’s nerves because it makes the info within to a lesser extent understandable, not more.

No private information beyond what’s necessary (address, name, phone, email) should be volunteered.

Even past jobs that are irrelevant to this position could be viewed ‘inappropriate’, nevertheless, this is left up to the resume preparer’s free will, since a strong job history is highly valued.

Poor Paper Selection/Graphic Components

Uninitiated resume writers frequently believe that a different colored paper will spruce up their cover letter and resume.

This is a bad mistake. Nothing screams ‘unprofessional’ as much as using colored paper for your cover letter and resume. If the paper’s tone is dark and your text is light — what we call “reverse type” — it makes the resume almost out of the question to read.

Using mediocre-quality clip art
is another big blunder

Clip art is certainly not common on resumes, and if you are in any way uncertain, play it safe — use a standard layout and a standard font choice (Arial, Verdana and Times New Roman are most easily readable), common paper color (white or slightly off-white) etc.

In fact, always use white, or somewhat off-white paper. Everybody should strive to look like a professional in the eyes of a potential employer, and colored paper is an assured way to diminish your professional credibility to someone you’ve never met. Not the most satisfactory way to start!

That’s all for today, folks! More cover letter and resume tips to follow shortly.