Has it been a while since you were a job hunter?

When you submit a cover letter and resume, it’s best to put your cover letter in the body of the email and then attach your resume. As in days of old, the content of the cover letter is very important, since it needs to be customized to the opening and the company. A good cover letter also differentiates you from the competition. It should make a compelling impact.
The same holds true for your resume. One-size-fits-all doesn’t cut it anymore. You need to speak in results language and match your past results to the requirements of the job. A pdf format works well for the reasons you mentioned. When mailing it in, colored paper doesn’t matter.

Most HR departments are lean and so they are looking to the latest technology to find talent for their openings. Most companies have their own career section on their website and they make use of some of the better, secure job boards out there. Better yet if you have not done so, create a free profile on http://www.joboodles.com today.
Employers scan for certain skill sets or certain kinds of experience. That means you need to be careful to use specific key words in your resume so your resume comes up when employers are searching. For instance, they may want to hire a facility manager but if you have used the term property manager, your resume won’t come up when they search. Nouns are more important than adjectives, since key words specific to the requirements of the job are what matter.
Conversely, when you are searching a job board to find your dream job, use the following search rules (and use FAQs and tutorials on their site):

• Use lower case letters in your search. If you use upper case, such as Property Manager, you will only pull up jobs where that phrase has been capitalized.

• If you require two specific things in your job search, such as System Administrator and $65,000. Search with AND. For example, System Administrator AND $65,000.

• If you want to link two words, such as IT manager, use quotes around the words: “IT manager”.

• If two phrases are interchangeable and you want to see jobs using both phrases, use “IT manager” OR “Technology manager.”
Incidentally, job seekers should know companies often search their own company name to see who is job-hunting. And they are increasingly checking out social networking sites such as MySpace to find out what potential candidates are saying (or showing) about themselves, so use common sense when revealing personal information about yourself on the Web.