Job hunters spend a lot of time writing their resumes. Understandably they should; resumes are the first step in job hunting. However, in practice the resume is not as valuable as you might think. Why is that?
Picture yourself as someone who is evaluating candidates for a lucrative position in a company. You won't only be looking at a few resumes, if the job is really good, you would be looking to evaluate tons of resumes.
You'll probably be looking at piles of resumes, trying to decide who should get one of fifteen openings. The first thing you have to do is narrow them down.
Most candidates only submit their resumes plus cover sheets. Most of these cover sheets aren't really worthy of attention. You'll throw these out immediately.
You'll probably accept only those resumes that are not more than one page. You'll pitch at least those that go on to three or more. You'll probably also toss out those resumes that are not pleasing to the eye in terms of fonts, etc. Then you will focus your attention to the remaining resumes.
Do you see what's happened here? You've trimmed down the bunch significantly. In the first round, if your resume gets noticed, it gets tossed.
The problem is, at this point the pile is still probably 1500 resumes deep. It would be great for your resume to stand out a bit from this crowd, but you won't reach this point in the process if it does.
That is why recommendation letters are a great help: they'll get you noticed without getting you thrown out!
For more information, including tips, samples, and templates, please check out our website: letters of recommendation