Lonely Resumes

By Judi Perkins

Several times each week I receive resumes. Well, that's obvious, of course I do. It's one of the things I do: fix resumes. But these resumes just land in my inbox. There's no note of explanation, no introduction, no polite request to look at it and see what I think, no paragraph on the problem. Just....the resume.

My point isn't, "If you're going to send me your resume, don't do that." I'm not an employer, so I don't care. I just email back and ask if they wanted me to look at it or what. Sometimes it's one of those resume blasting services and somehow I got on their list. That means some person has paid good money to have their resume blasted all over the place to who know who and who knows where.

But the employers, now that's a different story. They're deleting the email. The same people who wouldn't dream of sending their resume by snail mail without a cover letter, will do exactly that by email.

A cover letter is a courtesy. It's also a sales piece. So it should introduce you and it should sell you according to the requirements of the job.

Why doesn't the resume get read anyway? Just to see if there's something meaty in there? Because not sending a cover letter is rude. It's egotistical. It's assumptive. It's very impersonal. That's for starters. Not sending a cover letter becomes a qualifier for screening out. No cover letter = delete email. It makes the resume a moot point.

From the company's point of view, anyone who would skip a fundamentally, basic step as not sending a cover letter is lacking in good judgment and basic protocol. Even a poorly written cover letter is, at least, a cover letter. It won't get you far, but it will at least get your resume a glance.

I take that back. For very entry level positions, this isn't necessarily true. For minimum wage jobs, this isn't true. For anything else, it's true. And the higher up you go, the more egregious it is to send a lonely resume.

The other reason lonely resumes end up in my inbox is because someone paid money to a resume blasting service. How did I get on their list? Obviously the service isn't qualifying its recipients. I do something with finding people jobs, so they send it to me. If I'm getting it, who else is getting it that isn't interested and doesn't care? Good money for no results.

Besides, getting a job isn't about you. It's about what the company wants and whether or not you fit that profile. That means the company can focus on themselves to the exclusion of you, but you can't focus on yourself to the exclusion of the company. Companies looking to hire need to be wooed - like a prospective partner. Blasted resumes - usually email spam or fax spam, by the way - are about as impersonal as you can get.

For those companies who subscribe to a service like that, you want to ask yourself, how particular are they? How urgent could that hire possibly be? The deal sounds good to you, but what's in it for the company? If you owned a company would you give attention to whatever came through one of those resume blasting companies?

None of those firms are worth what they ask you to pay. Don't be fooled by the numbers and think the odds are in your favor. Instead, do your due diligence on companies that are hiring. Research the company, pay attention to the ad, use its requirements and phrases in your cover letter, and don't send a lonely resume.

Prior to starting Find the Perfect Job, Judi was a search consultant for 20 years in the contingency and retained markets. She now teaches job seekers how to find their perfect job through renegade methods that entail doing the opposite of the traditional methods. Understanding of the psychology of the process, coupled with increased awareness, results in the excitement of a rewarding job instead of increasing frustration and despair as months continue to pass with no results. Sign up for her free newsletter and learn how to take control of your job search: http://www.findtheperfectjob.com and submit questions for the next teleseminar at http://www.askfindtheperfectjob.com

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