Follow the (Job Search) Rules!

I’ve lost count of the times someone has sent me an unsolicited resume. This one came with a transcript, but there was no cover letter. There was no information in the email as to why the person was sending me her job search materials or what she was attempting to apply for. I’m not hiring, I have no open positions.In fact, I have no clue why she wasted my time, and her own, and clogged up my email with multiple attachments as well as a message. The only thing the sender succeeded at doing was annoying me. If there’s one thing not to do when job searching, this is it. Instead, do yourself and your prospective employer a favor and follow the rules when you’re job seeking. I promise you that you’ll have much better luck with your job search and the employers will appreciate you more, as well.

Focus Your Job Search
Why would someone waste their valuable job search time, my time and the time of countless other people? I’m not quite sure, but, one of my pet peeves is people who randomly send resumes, cover letters and requests for information to someone who is not involved in hiring, like me. Or sends them to companies which are hiring, but, haven’t expressed the slightest interest in receiving unsolicited resumes for positions they haven’t advertised for.

Don’t Waste Time

In my day job, I work in a college career services office. We’re not responsible for hiring for jobs, internships or for anything else. Our college web site clearly lists jobs that are available with instructions on how to apply for them. Despite that, I receive several resumes a week asking me to consider a person for employment at our institution.

To make matters worse, many of the emails I receive are riddled with typos and I really don’t need attachments that I’m not expecting to receive. I’m probably not even going to open them.

Because I’m polite, I’ll take the time to write back directing the candidate to the appropriate section of our web site, which contains all the information they need to apply for a job here. So, not only have I received an email I shouldn’t have gotten (and I get way too much already), I’ve wasted time responding to an inquiry I shouldn’t have received and I have one more attachment I need to delete from my computer.

Job Search Don’ts

What has the job seeker in question accomplished? Nothing. Not only have they wasted my time, they have wasted their own. Sending random inquiries isn’t going to help anyone find a job. It really isn’t. Nobody is going to say “great!” another resume to review. Instead, the email will probably be trashed.

It simply isn’t effective to apply for positions that don’t exist, to randomly apply for positions where your qualifications don’t meet the criteria the employer is looking for, or to send job search correspondence that is any less than perfectly proof-read. There are too many candidates who are following the directions and targeting their job search. They will be the people who get the interviews.

Job Search Do’s

What should you do instead? First of all, make sure everything you send out, whether by paper or email, is perfect. Capitalization, grammar and content all need to be perfect. One typo is one typo too many. If you’re like me and it’s hard to proof your own work, have someone else read it over for you.

Apply for positions that you are qualified for. Focus your job search. Carefully review the criteria mentioned in the job posting. If it’s a stretch, make sure you mention why you are qualified in your cover letter. If it’s not even close, save your time and the employer’s time and don’t apply.

Use the time you might have spent sending random inquiries to network. I know two people who were hired within the last couple of weeks because of the networking they did. They approached contacts at companies they were interested in working for an asked for assistance. Remember that college career office I mentioned? If you’re a college grad (even from years ago) ask your career services office if they have alumni you can network with. Professional associations are another good source for contacts. Friends, neighbors and acquaintances can all help too.

Follow Instructions

Finally, and most importantly, if there are specific instructions in the job posting, in the newspaper ad or on the company web site, please do yourself, and everyone else a favor, and follow them!

Ozfreeonline recommends Job Search at OzFreeOnline for your Career Opportunity. Ozfreeonline is the author of job posting site.

Source:http://jobsearch.about.com/cs/jobs/a/rules.htm

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