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Nothing is worse than not being prepared to receive a phone call from a company that you've submitted your resume to. As a Human Resources professional, one of my biggest pet peeves is when I call someone about their resume and they have no idea who I am.

If I call you and you don't have any recollection of sending me your resume, I will probably end the call pretty quickly and not schedule a face-to-face interview with you - no matter how great your qualifications are. The fact that you don't know who I am, or that you don't remember sending me your resume tells me that you are looking for just any job, and that you haven't done any research or put much effort into your job search. And that, is a big no-no in my book. It speaks volumes about your work habits and what we can expect from you as an employee. I want candidates that know my company and applied to the company - not just the job.

Chances are good that when you are conducting a job search, you are sending out many resumes. So how do you keep it all straight? Simple - stay organized!

Every time you submit your resume, you should do some research on the company you are applying to. These days, it's so easy to do that - almost every company has a web site. It doesn't take long to check out a web site and read some information. You should look at the web site and see what kind of feeling it gives you about the company. Do you like the colors? Does it look professional? Check out their mission and values statement. Do they even have one? If not, that might be a red flag. Does their mission make sense? Does it fit in with your values, and what your long-term career goals are?

You don't have to memorize the company history, but give it a glance and see where they've been and how much growth they have enjoyed over the time they've been in business. Also, check out their news page. See what they are working on, or, what their recent accomplishments have been.

Another thing to do is print out their home page. Doing this research will not only give you insight into the company, but it will help you remember them once you have sent in your resume.

Now that you have determined that this is a reliable, reputable company, go ahead and submit your cover letter and resume.

Always tailor your cover letter to each job that you are applying for. Don't ever use a canned response. You run the risk of quoting the wrong job description, or worse, the wrong company. When I see things like that (and it happens more than you can imagine), I don't even look at the resume. It tells me that the candidate didn't think enough of my company to really look at the job requirements or do any research. And, it tells me that the person is careless and sloppy if they didn't even edit their cover letter. If that's the case, why should I waste my time reading their submission?

Be sure and use the company's preferred method of applying, and if they require information from you like salary requirements, include that in your response. Also, if they ask you to reference a job code when applying, use it. In other words - follow instructions. If you don't, it tells the recruiter that you do not pay attention to details, and that may be enough to get your resume passed over before the recruiter even lays eyes on it.

Once you submit your resume and cover letter, print them out, along with the job post. Put all of those things, and the company's home page into a file folder and file it somewhere that you can grab it quickly when the company calls you. Nothing impresses me more than when I call a candidate and they know exactly where I'm calling from and which position it is that they applied for. It's also impressive when they tell me they've read through the company's web site, and they have a couple of questions for me. Most of the time, when this happens, I call the candidate in for an interview - and that's the goal of submitting your resume in the first place!