Top 7 Tricks For Getting an Interview
Have you tried everything and you still cannot get an interview. The site, How to Write a Resume has some tricks for getting an interview:
- Use a different color paper for your resume
- Use a different size paper for your resume
- Inside contact
- Certified Letter
- Send your resume with a gift
- Deliver the resume in person
- The post-it note trick
Some of them are quite good suggestions – like different size paper, and using certified letter etc. However some of them are very tricky – like the post-it note trick:
The post-it note trick. In larger companies (and sometimes in medium/smaller companies) a secretary or an office assistant will open the resumes for the employees. This person is responsible for screening for junk mail and to weed out non-qualified candidates. Therefore, here is the trick. Take a regular Post-it note, and write something like “This one looks good! – J”, and attach it to your resume. Who is “J”? Who cares! The point is that the hiring manager will get a resume with a Post-it note on it, stating that it’s good. Therefore, they are more likely to pay close attention to the resume at the direction of another employee. By the time the person realizes its not a note from their mail screener, you’ve already gotten your resume reviewed – is it deceptive? – no, its effective and innovative advertising.
Is it deceptive? Yes it is. This is tricking the hiring manager with false message.
But read on from trick one to six – you may find some that suit the situation.
Top 7 Tricks For Getting an Interview – [how-to-write-a-resume.org]
Tags: 
Get your own Avatars at 
Loading ...
Comments
Josh S says on October 21st, 2005 at 5:36 am
Depending on who you are sending the resume to, you have to be very VERY careful about some of the above. For professional positions in many industries, only #3 and #6 are considered acceptable behavior–the rest of the tricks will disqualify you immediately. In other words, an oddly shaped pink resume may fly for a graphic designer position, but probably not for a management position at a Fortune 500.
You’d be much better off doing what you should be doing anyway: Research the company properly, tailor your resume to the position and company, write a great (concise, honest) cover letter that sells your interest, and networking.
BB says on October 21st, 2005 at 8:00 am
After hanging out with HR people at the agency I worked at, I can tell you that #5 is simply annoying. They like the gift, but think that you are a tool.
Lori says on October 21st, 2005 at 1:17 pm
What Josh said. If you have to trick me into wanting to hire you, well, doesn’t that speak for itself? And if you have to trick me to hire you, do you really want to work for me?
Spend the time and effort on the cover letter and resume (normal size, please — if it doesn’t fit in the file folder, it goes in the round file). Make contacts and network. Unless you want to be an advertising copywriter or a promotions guru. Then do the creative presentation in addition to the basic groundwork.
RS says on October 22nd, 2005 at 7:35 am
All of the tricks apply to paper-based resumes. Just wondering what percentage of professional jobs nowadays want paper resumes? When I was in HR, we asked candidates to email us their resumes because it was simply easier to manage them. Fax and snail mail unfortunately had a way of getting unintentionally lost in addition to being a minor mark against the candidates for not following our instructions.
I also would have to agree with the others, the suggestions particularly 1,2 & 5, and 7 are annoying at best. I *hated* when folks brought even small gifts (chocolates, for example) to interviews (mind you, I hated the experience not the individuals). It always felt like bribe money and made me feel very uncomfortable. You want to be hired on your merit not how ingratiating you are.
6 may or may not work. It has a better chance of succeeding in a smaller company I would think.
Number three is totally the way to go. A suggestion for if you know somebody at the company but perhaps not that well or have a very neutral relationship (don’t bother if it’s a negative one), is to ask this person if you would be a good fit for the company AND the company would be a good fit for you. This way you aren’t directly coming out and asking them for favors which is awkard if you are only acquaintances. By asking if the company would be a good fit for you, you also give them a kinder “out” by allowing them to put the problem with the company, not with your lack of skills or other more personal issue. However, asking still lets them know you are interested and they can then still help you out if they are so inclined. If they do say its not a good fit for whatever reason and they aren’t involved in the hiring, you can always thank them and say “I think I’ll give it a shot anyways”. They could be wrong and you haven’t burnt any bridges.
The resumes that always stuck out for me where the ones with a great cover letter. The cover letter should show they are enthusiastic but not grovelly (they respect their own worth), have done their homework on the company, be very curious about the company, tailored to the job description, and convincingly demonstrates why they should be hired.
Sorry no great tricks there, just solid positioning.
hikaru says on October 22nd, 2005 at 8:39 am
as a hiring manager at a fortune 100 company who has processed hundreds of resumes, i’ll say these tricks are terrible.
> 1. Use a different color paper for your resume
does not carry over in a PDF or FAX. not to mention it makes the resume harder to read.
2. Use a different size paper for your resume
this makes it easier to get lost, and non-standard paper does not work with FAX.
3. Inside contact
this is the best advice here — though this can easily be a double-edged sword. they should have either worked with you previously, or know you very well, and are themselves respected within the company.
4. Certified Letter
the mail room receives the letter, not the HR department or the hiring manager. way to impress the mail boy.
5. Send your resume with a gift
your resume and cover lever should stand on their own merit. a gift only cheapens those.
6. Deliver the resume in person
this is good — though in large companies, you would not be able to meet with HR or the hiring manager anyway.
7. The post-it note trick
terrible idea. does not carry over in a PDF or FAX. HR would remove it or deem it irrelevant. the hiring manager would not see it. if HR worked with an outsourcing company, they would immediately realize the discrepancy.
–
some real tips that work?
double check everything, then have someone else read it again — another pair of eyes will often find trouble spots you miss.
do not tell us about why you need this job — everyone needs this job. tell us objectively why you will perform better than someone else.
K.I.S.S. — artistic fonts and unique layout are detrimental. we spend only a few minutes on each resume. don’t waste our time with obfuscation. either the information we’re looking for is there, or it isn’t.
ramlal says on June 1st, 2006 at 8:29 pm
thks
Donna says on February 28th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
I tried the #7 post-it note one…and it worked. Only because I placed my resume in an interoffice envelope addressed to the hiring manager–so it landed on her desk. The reason I selected this method is because most of the jobs at this large firm are extremely competitive. Applicants are required to apply online. I have always tailored my resume and company for the job– and to be honest, I was the perfect candidate. But as you know, in this day and age of online applications, a person will receive anywhere from 150-200 applications per job that they must narrow down to 4 or 5 applicants to interview. When I have been a hiring manager I have found that you seek for anything to eliminate an applicant–”I don’t like Georges” or “my ex was born in Dallas, so they can’t be any good.
#7 worked in this case. I knew enough about the organization to select the same type of interoffice mail envelope and sent it with a nice note that said, “the perfect candidate–this one looks great –k” Of course I knew also that the VP of this area and the head of HR also shared the initial K. Tricky? Yes. Effective? Also yes.
Please keep in mind–this only brought attention to my resume– I rocked the interview and ulitmately was hired because “I was the perfect candidate.”