Why You Need Resume Paper

from The Paper Mill Store

Maybe you already have a great resume that’s ready to send out instantly with the click of a mouse. If so, use it to its fullest potential by also printing it out on good quality paper. Presenting a hard copy resume to prospective employers makes you look more professional, helps you get the interviews you want, prepares you for networking opportunities while getting you closer to landing that big job. Submitting a paper resume increases your chances of success dramatically.

If your resume needs a little help, we can help you with professionally created free resume templates as well as give you 10 steps to creating an effective resume.

What a renowned HR expert says about using a paper resume

As seen on businessweek.com
Liz Ryan: The Workplace August 29, 2008

"I've been recommending sending snail-mail letters to corporate job-search target contacts for three or four years now, and people tell me it's working. The response rate is higher, and the approach is friendlier. A surface-mail letter can often get you an interview in a case where an e-mail would get ignored or sam-filtered. One friend of mine sent her surface-mail résumé and cover letter to a major company's COO in New York, and got a call a week later from a general manager wanting to interview her in Phoenix, where she lives. She showed up at the interview to see her paper letter—yes, her actual, signed letter, on bond paper—and résumé sitting on his desk in Phoenix (probably conveyed via an old-fashioned Inter-Office envelope). An e-mail might have ended up in the COO's spam folder."

Liz Ryan is an expert on the new-millennium workplace and a former Fortune 500 HR executive. For more great advice and insight into the workplace visit www.asklizryan.com
Ask for Liz!

You need every advantage in getting the interview and securing the jobs

Put yourself in the position of a person charged with reading resumes, and you will recognize the advantage of using a paper resume alongside an electronic version. Our company receives many, many resumes from qualified people seeking job openings. We receive electronic resumes and paper resumes. Electronic resumes often come to us with unintended formatting, can be difficult to read and sometimes remain within our computer system. Paper resumes, however, stay on executives’ desk tops and are handed around easily. A resume on nice resume paper stands out from the typical clutter found on managers’ desks as well.

You will need a paper resume to hand out at the interview

Have you been to interviews where you meet several different people in the organization and perhaps come back over a series of days? Each person you meet may not have seen your resume or have a copy. You should bring at least three copies of your paper resume to your interviews so that you can hand it to each manager you speak with during your interview meetings.

What does a paper resume tell the prospective employer?

The interviewing process really starts with your resume and cover letter. These two documents are a prospective employer’s first introduction to you. Interviewing candidates for any position is, in part, collecting a series of clues about the candidate. A professionally presented paper resume package shows a person's thoughtfulness, organizational skills and that they are prepared to go the extra mile to get the job done. When someone comes to us equipped with a well-organized, well-presented and appropriate paper resume, this answers some key questions for us.

What's the math behind a submitting a paper resume?

• An estimated 10% of job candidates don't use a paper resume; therefore, you are differentiated from 90% of your competition when you use a paper resume and cover letter.


• If you spend between $20 and $40 dollars on a paper resume kit and go on 20 interviews the cost is only $1 to $2 per interview handout. This is a very small investment in your own success.


• An estimated 60% of new jobs are secured through networking. Having your professionally prepared hard copy resume ready to hand out as opportunity arises is a critical step in securing a good job quickly.

The bottom line? It never hurts to have a paper resume, but it can hurt if you don’t.