Emailing your CV - Do's and Don'ts

I saw this great quote by Jim Larranaga, George Mason University basketball coach: " I always tell the kids, 'You know what's great about going the extra mile? There's very little traffic.'" And since I was going to write about taking that extra effort in your email application to online job ads, I thought it suited well. After all, if you can make your email application stand out even before the recruiter has seen your resume, you've beaten out a lot of competition whose resumes wouldn't even be opened.

You really do need to go the extra mile whenever you apply for a job or talk to a recruiter. Nothing is as unimpressive as a blank email with only a CV attached and nothing written in the message. Personally, having to open an attached generic cover letter to every email is not something recruiters enjoy or do. So if you have something important to say, write it in your email.

Here are a couple things you shouldn't do:

• Use a generic cover letter - it just shows a lack of effort and interest. You'll get the same amount of interest in you from the recruiter as the effort you had put into copying that generic letter into your email message. (zilch)
• A slew of stand alone buzzwords that are overused by everyone and hardly indicative of anything at all about your performance and abilities.

What you SHOULD include in your email:

• A clear idea of what you're looking for in your next job. It should be  fairly short and to the point.  The idea you want to get across is that  you know yourself really well and can show your strengths clearly and how they fit with the specific job you're applying for.
• Buzzwords won't do it. But a list of achievements that are relevant to the job you are applying to WILL. These are clear examples of things that demonstrate good qualities and abilities.

So the next time you click the "Apply now" button, really take some time to think about how to make your email message stand out by being personal, clear, and relevant. By going that extra mile, you really will be competing against less people.

Comments

[Andrew]

As a person who frequently sees 100 or more CV's, I agree with your comments and I would a couple of points

1) The purpose of a CV is to not to get a job. The purpose of a CV is to get an interview. To get face time so that you can sell yourself. Everything in a CV should scream 'I'm worth seeing'

2) Read their website. Make sure that you are really interested in the job. In our first phone call we ask "What can you tell us about our company?" We ask to see if people actually want the job or just clicked 'Apply Now'. Most people know nothing and they are not generally the people I want working for us.

Good luck.

[Steven Kempton]

Great point Andrew! If more people kept your thought in mind, "that a CV is for getting an interview, not a job" then I think they would get more success from their search.