KAS Recruiter Articles
Email Has Made Job Seeking Americans Lazy
by Ken Sundheim
Running a sales, sales management, social media and marketing recruitment firm since 2005, I have come to see some astonishingly poor job seeker resume, cover letter and email submission tendencies in both business development and marketing that used to shock me.
I would sit and say to myself, "What the ____ is this person thinking? Who does that?"
After 7 years, these poor tendencies are the norm and really don't phase our headhunters. Every now and again we get very wacky emails, but let's refer to them as outliers. We simply delete them.
When it comes to the initial consideration of emailed resumes, I would venture to guess that our firm is a little more strict than some other recruiting agencies. We'd rather have fewer intelligent job seekers than hordes of average ones.
Thank these individuals because they make your life easier. So you know where you stand, here is how to get your resume not just into our staffing agency, but into any recruiting firm or direct hiring company.
Submitting Resumes to Executive Recruiters
1. Flawless Grammar - On any given day, our executive recruitment firm receives roughly 100 resumes a day (on a slow day).
Of that 100, at least 10 lack basic capitalization, such as not capitalizing "i". I simply can't figure out the logistics of this, as every software and piece of technology that I personally use automatically capitalizes the letter.
The only logic I can come up with is that these individuals want to look relaxed when sending in their information to our recruiting agency. Rather, they look uneducated and lazy. When it comes to any form of grammar, always put your best foot forward and make sure 2 or so people proofread all of your correspondence before sending in the resume.
2. Decent Subject Line - "Oh, it's Bob Smith!" Yes. Many job seekers simply put their name in the subject line. To me, these types of submissions (although not immediately deleted), look self-important and overly vague as to intentions.
I've been published hundreds of times throughout the media, I've been interviewed by resources that are read by hundreds of thousands, I've given lectures, I've done a lot of cool things... and still I wouldn't put my name as the subject line in an email.
Two of the best pieces of advice I've ever received are the following: always be humble and take your work seriously. Submitting your information for a job with a subject line that is your name adheres to neither piece of advice.
My perception is that simply putting a name in the subject line may be an attempt to force people to open the email. Really, this simply shows a lack of people skills: we all know that you can't force anyone to do anything. You can only make them want to do it.
3. Short, Professional and Cordial Email - When writing an email along with your CV, keep the correspondence brief, professional and in a tone that says, "Thanks for the time."
About 25% of job seekers write nothing in their email to our executive search firm and it simply makes us take more time to look at their CV. That's annoying and that's a poor way for any job seeker to start off a relationship with someone who can potentially find them a job. Not to mention, it misses an opportunity to fill us in on important information not covered on a resume.
How do you feel when someone gives you busy work just to give you busy work?
In the End
The above information should tell you one of two things, both of which are positive:
a. Maybe the competition for the jobs I'm going for isn't as smart as I give them credit for.
b. I'm not doing some things properly and I have some quick changes to make. Once I get those things done, I am going to be more competitive.
Email has made Americans lazy and that's a good thing, because you're now going to follow the above rules and make sure you get more interviews than they do.
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