Hey friend,
Checking in quickly from Friedrichshain (a neighborhood in East Berlin, keep up n00b) this Saturday morning.
As you know from Instagram-stalking me, I've been to Bordeaux and now Berlin since we spoke last. Threw myself an epic birthday party on Thursday night. Things are good, and I am happy.
Easter is actually a 4-day weekend in both Germany and the UK, and 4-day weekends are always a prime time to get some job searching stuff done, so I wanted to shoot over some really useful resume advice I heard this week from a recruiter.
Literally, she said to me: "Are you sending an #ELB newsletter this week? Please can you tell everyone this, it's an emergency...."
So, with pleasure, I'm passing this message onto you.
TL;DR you're being really annoying about titling your resume. And your portfolio, and your cover letter.
When you submit attachments to a company, they most likely start a beautiful life of their own. That life has nothing to do with your email or application, and your attachments will be entered into a different context.
These documents need to be passed around to other people who can decide whether or not you get interviewed. And, especially at smaller companies but sometimes even at big ones, that probably happens in a really hacky way -- like putting all resumes in a master Dropbox folder.
And you're making that process really annoying.
Because you just sent them a doc titled Coverletter.pdf which can't be distinguished from any of the other docs they received today from other candidates. Bummer.
Better, more helpful solution:
FirstNameLastName_WhatThisDocIs_CompanyName_JobTitle_DateYouApplied.pdf
For example:
AlexaShoen_Resume_GringottsBank_Analyst_March2018.pdf
AlexaShoen_CoverLetter_GringottsBank_Analyst_March2018.pdf
Do this.
You will be (1) making someone else's job easier, (2) showing that you're organized, and (3) bonus jedi mind trick: associating your name with that position just from the way you f*cking titled your attachment.
They don't call me the Queen for nothing, yo.
I'm going back to my weekend now.
Big love,
xxA