What To Do - And Not Do - When Emailing Recruiters
With many job postings now
requiring candidates to apply via email, first impressions
are made not with a handshake but with words on a computer screen. How
formal should your first email to a recruiter be?
Just as it's usually a good idea to dress your best for an
interview, emails also should be professional and polished, say hiring
managers. If you decide capital letters aren't worth your time, you might be in
for a long job search.
Kristen O'Hara, a senior recruiter for Dallas-based Affiliated
Computer Services Inc., an information-technology outsourcing company, says she
has seen it all, including emails with funky fonts and distracting backgrounds.
"Honestly, there are some emails that have completely ruined
a candidate's chances for me," she says.
To avoid sabotaging your job search, here are some tips to follow
when sending cover letters by email:
1. Forget what Instant Messenger has taught you.
Job recruiters report that young professionals are the applicants
most likely to send too-casual emails.
Liz Shupe, interim director of
the career-development center at the
When using Instant Messenger with friends and acquaintances, it's
acceptable to use abbreviations and incomplete sentences and to forgo capital
letters and punctuation. In business correspondence, however, stick to the
rules your English teacher taught you.
"We tell our students that an email is the same exact thing
as a cover
letter, without the addresses on top," says Ms. Shupe.
2. Don't be cute.
Your adorable email background of puppies snuggling with kittens
has got to go.
"I remember a particular email written in that 'comic'
font," says Ms. O'Hara. "That's just not professional to be sending
to a work contact." She recommends plain-vanilla fonts, such as Times New
Roman and Arial, and black text on a white background.
Ms. O'Hara also warns against sending emails from quirky email
addresses. Slackerboy@ or Sexgoddess@ might not get the chuckle you hope for.
If you leave your cellphone number as a contact number, make sure your
voicemail message is appropriate, and that means it shouldn't include music,
she says.
3. Customize your cover letter to the job.
Wynne Billings, a corporate recruiter, says many of the emails she
reads show a lack of effort on the part of the applicant.
"It's like they just cut and paste the same cover letter to
everything they're doing," says Ms. Billings, who works for Apex Systems
Inc., a technology-staffing firm based in Glen Allen, Va. "It's so
not catered toward our job."
It's a big plus if applicants can show they know a lot about the
position they're applying for, Ms. Billings says. She recommends job hunters
use part of the job description they feel matches their skills or experience to
explain why they'd be good for the position. "Nine out of 10 people don't
do that," she says.
4. Don't ramble.
"Get to the point," says Hank Stringer, a former
high-tech company recruiter in
Mr. Stringer, who founded Hire.com, a recruitment-management
software and services firm, says recruiters often have only seconds to devote
to each cover letter they receive, and many are looking for just three things:
the titles of the positions you've held, the companies you've worked for and
your educational background. Anything else, such as a long story about
yourself, can get in the way, he says.
5. If attaching a cover letter, write a brief note in your email.
There's no rule about whether a formal cover letter should be
attached to an email or whether the email itself can serve as a cover letter.
If you attach your cover letter, the text of your email can say:
"I really want to work for your company, please see attached resume and
cover letter," says Ms. Billings. "Even maybe just tell me briefly
why you want to work for my company, just give me a sentence, then I'm going to
open that cover letter and resume."
Mr. Stringer also warns against being too creative in the subject
line of an email. He recommends: "Experienced candidate seeking position
as [name of position]" or "Experienced candidate seeking position
with [name of company]."
"Use one word to describe yourself, but do not go
overboard," he says.
Mr. Flesher is an intern at CareerJournal.com.
Article from Career
Journal Online December 2006