Email, Snail Mail, and Your Next Job
By Kevin Donlin | January 31st, 2008
I’ve drunk too much coffee this morning, so I’ll skip the introduction and just get to the job search tips …
1) Email
If you’re emailing your resume don’t neglect the subject line — along with the from: portion of your message, it’s the first thing employers see when your email arrives.
An article in The Tampa Tribune urges you to take the time to write a subject that gives a “compelling reason for the reader to open your e-mail.”
The article continues:
Unfortunately, most job seekers make the mistake of writing “John Smith — résumé” or worst (sic) yet just “résumé attached.” You must give the reader something of interest, ideally some glimpse into your specific expertise. Examples include:
- Nonprofit executive director with multimillion dollar fund raising experience
- Retail sales manager in Tampa
- Malcom Baldridge (sic) award-winning chief process engineer
Stay clear of non-descript (sic) subject lines such as: “Your perfect employee” or “Please read this.” Even avoid using an exclamation point, since many spam filters will redirect or automatically delete e-mails with this character.
2) Snail Mail
I spoke at the Minneapolis Star Tribune Career Fair two days ago and urged folks (as I’ll urge you) to use plain old paper mail, with a stamp, in addition to emailing your resume to employers. Although you make it easy for hiring managers to scan your resume into their tracking system when you email it, you also make it easy for them to delete and forget you.
But snail mail is different.
All employers were once children, and all children look forward to letters in the mail. Almost all adults still do, whether they realize it or not. That means, until you screw it up by writing a dull cover letter or resume, the hiring manager who gets yours in the mail will start reading with at least a tiny feeling of excitement and expectation. So you have that going for you, which is nice. Score one for snail mail.
More on how to use snail mail to get hired faster in the free Simple Job Search Manifesto.
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