Yes, You Still Need Paper Resumes for Your Interviews

Yes, You Still Need Paper Resumes for Your InterviewsYes, You Still Need Paper Resumes for Your InterviewsYes, You Still Need Paper Resumes for Your InterviewsBecause most of your job searching can be done erreichbar, you might wonder why youd ever need to print hardcopies of your resumes and cover letters. After all, if you applied to the job online and emailed your documents, they should have everything they need when you go in for your interview. Right?Wrong. There are several instances when the interviewer wont have your documents readily accessible. Most times its because theyre unprepared (which might have something to do with the dozen other people theyre interviewing). If you think you can get away with going to an interview with nothing more than a nice suit and a pen in hand, think about how you would handle these situationsThe interviewer forgets or misplaces your resume. This has happened to me more than once. The interviewer sat down, then realized she didnt bring a copy of my resume with her. Ill never know if it was a genuine oversight, or a test to see if Id prepared well. Luckily, I had printed a few copies and brought them with me in case this happened. The interviewer is the decision maker so shes allowed to be a little unprepared (even though it drives us job seekers nuts), but never let yourself be the one who has to apologize for not being ready.You interview with several people and not everyone has your resume. Good hiring managers will let you know ahead of time how many people you will be meeting with, maybe even in what order. But others will give you a date, time, and place, and expect you to deal with whatever they throw your way. That might mean that you go in thinking youre meeting with one or two people, but instead its five plus the HR director. Again, a good hiring manager will make sure all interviewers have copies of your resume and cover letter. But in case they dont, you should have extra printouts on hand to show that you t hought ahead and planned for all contingencies.You applied with an older resume and want them to have the new one. This one actually happened to me (and I still laugh about it). I submitted a first draft of my resume with some typos and didnt notice the mistakes until a few days later. Despite the errors, the company called me in for an interview. Given the chance to correct my mistake, I forwarded an updated resume to the hiring manager days before the interview. But guess what? I interviewed with four more people than I expected, and they all had the old version of my resume. Lessons learned before, I handed out the updated version (and again wonder if it was all just a test to see how well prepared I was).Having paper copies of your resume available for your interviewers shows preparation, organization, and good planning skills. And if the interviewers forgotten resume is actually a test, youll pass with flying colors.