If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my 20+ years in marketing, it’s that ridiculously small things often make the difference between failure and success. Resumes are no different.
I’ve talked about how much more difficult it is to find a job when prospective employers know that you aren’t a local candidate. And let’s say you lived in Birmingham, AL but recently relocated to Nashville due to your spouse’s work. You might have family and friends in Birmingham, so you think about keeping your old cell phone number at least a few more months. Birmingham doesn’t share the same area code as Nashville. They are 205 and 615 respectively.
Now that you’ve unpacked a few boxes in your new Nashville home, you figure you’ll start sending some resumes to local companies. Since you heard it’s usually best to include your cell phone number on your resume, you include the 205-555-1212 number you’ve had since your teenage son was in diapers. You say to yourself, “they know I live in Nashville, so this long distance cell phone number shouldn’t matter”. Well, you would be wrong.
Unfortunately, here is what goes through some inquiring (and cynical) minds…
“I’ll bet this person actually lives in Alabama, and is now using a friend’s local address. She is just fishing in this market to see if she’ll get any bites. After all, if she already lived in Nashville, she would already have a local cell phone number.”
“She might live here, now, but her heart is in returning to this 205 area code… wherever that may be. I’ll be darned if I’m going to train her for nine months and then have her return to the friends and family she has there.”
Yes, people really are this way. Not all of them, but certainly enough to make you pause before committing this potential mistake.
So, what can you do? Well, if you really are committed to living in Nashville, get your number changed. It’s easy to do and probably won’t cost you more than 15 bucks. However, if you can’t part with your old cell number, there are still other options. You can probably add a local line to your existing phone plan, get a new local cell phone plan, or simply use your home “land line” phone number on your resume. The end result is the same, and you stand a better of chance landing your next employment opportunity.
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