In today's world, hiring managers and even HR professionals are pressed for time. With appointments, assignments, and other daily tasks to take care of, time can be limited for these individuals. This time shortage could also limit the amount of time someone takes to look at your resume, listen to your phone message or read your cover letter. With little time to spare, having a message in a resume, cover letter, phone call or e-mail that is concise, short and sweet to the point will help you get your foot in the door for a job interview or networking opportunity.
When applying for jobs, having a resume that is concise, to the point and easy to read will get your message and ideas across to a hiring manager. Writing up a resume that is concise takes time but can be done with hard work, another set of eyes looking at it and patience. It might seem hard but there is a way to get your accomplishments and experiences across in shorter sentences. Look for words that are repeated too often, redundant phrases that are repeated more then once in the same section, and use bullet points to list your accomplishments. Have another set of eyes look at it before sending it off so that you can tell whether or not you got your message across. If this person can't read your resume because it is not concise, the hiring manager won't be able to comprehend it in a short amount of time either.
In addition to a resume, a cover letter that is to the point and has concise points to it can easily get your message across effectively and efficiently to the hiring manager. If you are applying for a job that is posted online or was posted elsewhere, take a look at the qualifications the company is looking for and figure out different bullet points as to how your experiences match what the company is looking for in a candidate. Using bullet points with good lead in sentences before them can help a hiring manager read your resume in a short amount of time and determine if you are a good candidate for the position. A cover letter is designed to prove what you are capable of and show how your qualifications match what the company needs and having a cover letter that has concise bullet points will help get your message across effectively.
During the networking process, if you decide to reach out to someone via phone call or e-mail, make sure your message is short and sweet so that the hiring manager can understand why you are reaching out and what you are looking to do. When reaching out via phone call or e-mail, one of the best ways to format this type of communication is do use the following template:
"Hello Mr. Smith, my name is Jeff Sabo and I obtained your name from [fill in the blank here. Always mention the name of the person who gave you the name of the contact]. He [or she] thought you would be a good person to talk to in regards to finding a [fill in the blank here] position within your industry.
When it's best for you, I would welcome the opportunity to hear your thoughts and advice on finding such a position. Please call me at [leave your phone number here] when you have a free moment.
Thank you."
By using this type of template, you are getting your message across quickly, you are getting to the point and the person you leaving the message for will understand what you are looking for easily. A message that is way too long runs the chances of being ignored or ends up being responded to by someone who is very confused on the other end (I once sent off an e-mail that was WAY TOO LONG to a possible network contact and the person told me over the phone during a call back that she had no idea what I was really looking for because my message was so long and drawn out.)
Whether you are writing out your resume, cover letter, or placing a phone call or e-mail, having a message that is concise and to the point will help the hiring manager or network contact understand your message and know how to help you.
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