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I can’t think of a single person who actually enjoys junk email. Regular junk mail, maybe. But not the digital kind. All of the messages are impersonal, generic and boring. You can spot a junk message miles away, and most of us are equipped with spam filters to help block them out.
But many job seekers send out spam email to employers.
Instead of taking the time to do much more than change a name, company and address on a cover letter, a generic message might be mailed or emailed to hundreds of different employers. And there might be a few hits. But they’ll be discarded for the same reason that one would get rid of spam emails. After all, they’re impersonal, generic and boring.
Even if the average time spent by an employer on a cover letter and resume might be ten seconds, that’s no reason not to make a personal message or put a few minutes of extra effort into a cover letter and resume. The special touches might get you noticed more, and at the very least, will probably get you some sort of response beyond your application being moved to the trash.
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Comments
10.09.09
Good call! I'm both a hiring manager, and currently applying for work. I can't believe the completely uncustomized applications I get each time I post a job. I am usually recruiting for help desk staff, and get people sending me a form letter along the lines of dear sir/madam, please see my resume in application for your posted position. And then there's a resume outlining their vast experience as an electrical engineer/executive assistant/forester.
In my current job search, I review my resume for each job I'm applying for, and often tweak it a bit to highlight various aspects of my work history for relevant aspects of what I'm applying for. Then each job application is accompanied by a cover letter, addressed to my best guess as to who the hiring manager is, and while there are a few heavily reused paragraphs, much of the body of the letter is a freshly written explanation of how my background and skills will meet the hiring managers' needs.
I would say I spend a minimum of an hour per job application, preparing just the cover letter and resume.
I can't say this is the perfect way to do things, but I know I prefer receiving applications that are like mine!
10.09.09
Thank you so much for your knowledge, it was a big help. I'm currently looking for employment and its great to know an insiders perspective
10.09.09
Thanks for the comments!
CaroLyn - I usually spend about 30 minutes per application, though I have several different resumes and cover letters that I can choose from, depending on the buzzwords and employer. But it definitely is a quality over quantity issue.
Laura - This is one of the biggest problems job seekers make; I once tried sending out almost 200 identical applications and didn't get any results. You have to take the time to make custom applications for each job.
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