Creating Your Verbal Resume
Every telephone call to an employer is a job interview, an interview you initiate. You must put the same preparation time and effort into it as if you were meeting in the employer’s office. At a face-to-face interview, you give the interviewer a copy of your resume. On the telephone, you deliver your verbal resume.
When you respond to an ad or use direct mail, you send your resume to the person with whom you want an interview. When you call to follow-up on the resume you sent, you deliver your verbal resume to remind them who you are.
If you are using direct contact, your verbal resume is how you introduce yourself to the person you call.
Your verbal resume is a succinct summary of your qualification and your experience. It is not a list of all of the jobs you have held. Begin with the script you prepared for making networking contacts. Also use your objective statement from your resume. You rewrite these to sound conversational.
Open the verbal resume by introducing yourself and telling the person why you are calling. You’ll need one opening for calls that follow-up and one for cold calls.
Follow the opening with the resume statement, the reason why this person should listen to you.
Close the verbal resume with a request for an interview.
