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Presenting Your Contact Information In A Scannable Resume

Your name and contact information are the most important pieces of information presented in your resume because it does you no good to be the person best qualified for a positon if your potential employer can't contact you and offer you the job.

Presenting Your Name

It’s always wise to put your name on each page of your scannable resume. Why? If one of the pages of your three-page resume gets separated from the others, it will be nearly impossible for the administrative assistant handling it to know where it might belong. It’s best to avoid this situation by putting your name at the top of each page, along with a page number.

Presenting Your Physical & Email Address

In addition to your street address, including your city, state and zip, it’s important to include an email address. With today’s technology, a hiring manager most often contacts successful candidates by phone or by email.

Because of the importance of email correspondence in a job search, it’s wise to choose an email address that is businesslike in tone, rather than one that is overly personal or that reflects a special interest or a nickname.

For example, the following would be considered inappropriate:

Another important piece of advice is to avoid using work-related email addresses. Hiring managers are rarely interested in interviewing someone who is using their current employer’s time or email system to look for another job.

With so many free email providers around these days, it's best to get an account based on a variation of your name. Find an email service provider who will allow you to use a combination of your name without the need for numbers. You want to stand out from the crowd not remind people that there are 64 other people just like you. For example, John Doe might consider:

The key is to always be professional.

Presenting Your Phone Numbers

It’s sometimes wise to include a cell phone number along with your home phone number, especially if that’s your easiest point of contact. However, be certain of the quality of your cell phone and service provider before offering the number. Nothing is more frustrating to a hiring manager than to conduct a cell phone conversation through static and breaks in conversation due to poor technology.

In modern resumes, fax numbers are rarely provided. Most hiring managers will not fax an interview request to prospective candidates.

Never include current work phone numbers in your scannable resume. Hiring managers think poorly of candidates who use a current employer’s time to search for new opportunities.

Continue on to PROPER FORMATS ->

The essentials of a scannable resume include:

• The technology you’ll be dealing with
• How to find keywords and make the most of them
• Presenting your contact information
• Proper formats