Want to stand out in a sea (tons) of resumes that flows every day across the desk of search consultants all over the country? Sending an impersonal e-mail, letter or worse – a blast of your resume to thousands of employers and search consultants is not the best plan or ideal strategy. Nope. It usually will not work. If that’s your strategy, it’s not very targeted and falls into the me-too category. More often than not, the person on the other end (of your less-than-well-thought-out-plan) will find the delete button faster than (you fill in the blank – but it will be fast).
The information flow at my desk is overwhelming. Resume review, daily updates to search dashboards, uploading data to our ever expanding database, industry RSS feeds and on and on and on. I am sure I am not alone here. To get thru each day, you must make every second count. If the content does not stand out – I will not waste many cycles on it. OK – actually none.
There is another extreme which is very targeted. How about the lady in CT who posted her photo on a billboard in an effort to rise above the noise in her search to find a job. It’s estimated that she paid between $2,500 – $3,500 to place the ad for 30 days on a billboard located on busy I-95 near Bridgeport, CT. She was looking for a local company to hire her and that strategy, while interesting, is very expensive was actually highly focused in her geographical market. So far it seems to be paying off. She has several offers in play and I wish her the best.
If you are trying to capture someone’s attention (especially in this market), you have to make sure your message is directed to the right audience, ideal vertical market based on your skills, and your message needs to be much more personal than “Dear Recruiter”. You don’t need a billboard sign – but try to avoid having the reader automatically hit the delete button when they read your message.
My delete button is located on the top right portion of my keyboard.
I seem to be using it a lot more these days:-(
When it’s so easy to get actual names these days, I find it hard to believe that some folks will still do the “Dear Recruiter” thing. But my favorite is when the candidate sends out a mass e-mail and everyone is in the “To” column and I can see that he sent his resume to me and 25 other HR folks. Delete!
Crystal – Ditto from me! It’s just not that hard to get the names of the very people that might be able to help in a job search. Copying 25 other names in the same e-mail is…well ummm – pretty lame!
you just stated the obvious. I think a monkey could have written what you just wrote. You wasted my time with your less than thought out ideas, or lack there of. This information gives no help to anyone who is applying for a job. “Be personal” – everybody knows that. You would have to be pretty stupid not to.
Personalization is so important. I agree that the effort should be made to get to know the recruiter that an email is being sent to.
What can be done to eliminate the impersonal emails?
I’ve actually had the experience where the email Crystal mentions gets sent out to 30 people, and one of the recruiters hits “reply all” but deletes the senders name and comments to the group – “Nice, this person won’t be getting a call from any of us!”
Its amazing how “email naive” some people are…
Shotguns vs. sniper rifles…I always prefer a well aimed shot. You’ll never convince the masses of the impact the shotgun approach has. But I must also confess that I once received a shotgun “dear recruiter” resume and made a placement…once and only once.
This seems more like a rant than offering any valuable advice…
My guess is the message here to jobseekers is that promoting one’s personal brand is critical in this market. The use of mass emails to recruitment professionals and internal recruiters without some form of personalization runs the risk of being irrelevant to the very audience that individual is trying to reach.
A “Dear Recruiter” intro infers we are perceived as a commodity, and frankly places the author in the same light.
Instead, use a name in the salutation; comment on an industry trend or something posted on the recruiters website in the note – in short, differentiate. No guarantees of course, but it may save one from the Delete button.
Thanks for all of the great comments. Lee: it’s actually much more than a rant. In this economy you must rise above the noise to get the attention of the person you are reaching out to. “Dear Recruiter” does not seem to be a very good strategy. I’m just saying…
As a business consultant, I have heard so many stories of recruiters not even looking at email’s that are not personalized. If you can’t take the time and effort to send out quality emails, you are preaching laziness to the employer.