The Perfect Virtual Appearance for a Job Hunter

Few job-hunters appear as professional as they do when they are at their jobs.  If you were a VP/Sales, would you let a letter go out on computer-generated letterhead, let a potential customer get a busy signal (or repeated busy signals), or take all of your incoming phone calls on a cell phone that crackles and hisses?  

Many, and probably most, job-hunters do just this.  Particularly when unemployed, job-hunters do everything they can to save money, and this works to their detriment.  They have only one phone line which is constantly tied up on the internet, or busy from a teenage daughter, so you can never get through.  Their main line is busy, so they take incoming calls on their cell phones, which usually have poor connections. 

• Spend a little money at the corner printer and get good letterhead printed.  Have them use paper that is at least 25% cotton, at least 24 pounds, and has a watermark.  For a really fine look, use Crane Crest 100% cotton (You've seen Crane's quality - they also make the dollar bill paper for the U.S. Treasury).  The extra cost isn't that much.

• Get voice mail (available from your local phone company for about $6 a month) so people can leave messages when you're on the phone (don't use call waiting, which is insulting to the person you're putting on hold).  Your message needs to state your name rather than simply repeat the phone number or say, "No one is available to take your call right now."  I never know if I'm calling the right person when I get a voice mail greeting like this, and rarely leave a message when I end up with an anonymous voice mail.

• Don't use a cell phone or internet telephone service (VOIP) - the quality is inconsistent at best, and sounding good on the phone is critical (see Why Cell Phones Are Bad News for Job Hunters for more on this). 

• Get a second phone line installed if you have a dial-up internet connection, so your main line won't be constantly busy.  

• You can get a free, dedicated fax line which delivers your faxes to you via email at www.efax.com.

These things aren't really that costly, and may stop the person on the other end of the line from moving you to that call later pile which he never gets to.  You may feel that you're unemployed, and broke, and can't afford this, but you are working on a $500,000+ project (you will earn at least $500,000 over the years on your next job), so you must spend some money to get there.