“Spray and pray” resume distribution (sending it to every email address you can find or posting it in every job board you can find) is a waste of time, and makes you look desperate and dumb. Don’t do it yourself, and don’t hire a resume distribution “service” to do it for you.
Not only do you look desperate, spray-and-pray may send your resume into the wrong hands, for example, to:
- Your current boss, if you are employed, or someone else you work with, which can result in loss of the job you have.
- Someone who will use your information for their own purposes completely unrelated to job search – selling your contact information to mass marketers, for example. Need more spam, junk phone calls, or junk mail?
- Someone intent on identity theft or other nasty action.
| Sponsor: | |||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
Don’ts
Don’t send your resume to anyone without a good reason, a “connection” of some kind to the person receiving the resume, an approach customized to the person and organization, and a plan for following up appropriately.
Do NOT send your resume, unless:
- You are responding to a job posting you have found – be sure to specify the job title, the posting number (or other identifier used by the employer), and where and when you found it.
- You have done some research on the person and the organization, and you think it could be a good place for you to work.
- You know the person, have met them, or have been introduced in some less concrete way (email, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.).
- You have done the research to know – or to strongly suspect – that they have a need for someone to do what you could do for them. Don’t be rude about it – NO “You guys are very bad at…!”
- You customize your approach, based on research you have done, so that you address people correctly and demonstrate your sincere interest in them. “Hi [fill in name]” is not effective without the name filled in! You can use a template, but be sure to use it very carefully!
The Research
Once you have identified a target job or target employer, leverage LinkedIn to find out:
- Who does the job probably report to?
- Who is their boss?
- Who else is at that level
- Who recruits for the organization?
- Who else works at the organization?
Track down people who work there now and who worked there in the past. The people working there now know the organization, names, titles, and locations, and have easier access to those people than anyone else.
The people who worked there in the past know the organization (or how it was at the point of their departure), and they might know and share: the names, titles, and organizational structure plus why it is or is not, a good place to work, who to work for and who NOT to work for, which group(s) are growing and which group(s) are dying, etc.
How do you find those people on LinkedIn?
- Do a ”Company” search for the target organization, and LinkedIn will show you who in your network worked there or currently works there.
- Do an “Advanced search” for People, type the job title into the “Title” field on the form, choose “Current or past” from the drop down. LinkedIn will show you who in your network who currently has, or who had, that job title. If you only want people who currently hold the title, choose “Current” from the drop-down.
Your LinkedIn network is too small? It’s easy to enlarge by joining serveral LinkedIn Groups – you can join up to 50 of them.
You can also have Google search ALL of LinkedIn for you, not just your connections. The query should look like this:
“marketing manager” +Verizon +Philadelphia site:linkedin.com – OR
“marketing manager” +mellon.bank +philadelphia site:linkedin.com – OR
“[job title you want]” +[employer you want] +[location you want] site:linkedin.com
See Google-ize Your Job Search for more tips.
Do’s
Do your own customized approach based on your research and your belief that the employer would be a good place for you to work.
If you do know them or are connected in some way, be sure to politely remind them of the connection. Immediately! Otherwise, your resume will probably just get deleted.
Best, have someone else send them - or, even better, hand them – your resume. Someone like:
- Their boss
- Their boss’s boss
- Someone else at their boss’s level in the organization
- Someone else at their level in the organization
- Another employee of the same organization
- Someone else in their network, a colleague or former colleague, someone they went to school with, a relative, a neighbor, etc.
- A recruiter in the same organization
- A recruiter they know
- A former employee who is on good terms (can be a good source of inside information when you have more than one source)
Many employers have “employee referral programs” which actually reward employees for referring someone who is hired. So, they may actually be paid by their employer to help you. I call this a win/win!
Bottom Line
Yes, research will be required, and most likely, so will a fair amount of time time. You might even need to leave your computer, take a shower, dress nicely, and go out into the world. It will take more than 30 seconds, but the payoff will be much better. And, your network will be bigger and more effective, if you do this right, and you’ll land a job where you will hopefully work happily for several years (just keep that network alive while you’re employed, so it’s ready for next time).
© Copyright, 2011, Susan P. Joyce. All rights reserved.
———————————————
About the author…
Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg.
Email This Post
Loading ...
Good advice and good article. I wouldn’t totally discount job boards, but I would suggest being a bit more selective. Also, it is a good idea to periodically “rest” and not have your resume on any job board. Recruiters who keep seeing the same name soon grow used to overlooking it. For the same reason, do not apply to every position that might be a fit in a company. This is spray and pray of a different sort and it hurts your chances of an interview.
I have been trying to tell friends not to just mass email their resume. I feel it is better to go in person and drop it off. Make it personable. Of course, I know this can’t be done for all jobs out there. But if at all possible, it sure will look better to the company to see you put more effort into it than simply hitting the send button.