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Never Send Resume In Response to Help-Wanted Ad
"By Marky Stein Sending a resume in response to an ad is one of the least effective methods of finding a job, according to J. Michael Farr, author of Getting the Job You Really Want (JIST Works Inc.) This is because hundreds of other candidates are responding to ads, causing a deluge of resumes in human resources departments. One internal recruiter for a biotechnology firm in Menlo Park, Calif., for instance, confides, "On any given day, I've had up to 750 resumes sitting on my desk. It's overwhelming. I hate to admit it, but on a bad day, I've been known to throw away a resume simply because I didn't like the font." He motions to the paper shredder. "With the volume of resumes we receive, if the resume doesn't catch my eye in the first few seconds it goes into the 'revolving file.'" To get around this scenario, don't send a resume. Instead, send a "Q" or "qualifications" letter. This document is a short letter that compares your qualifications with the employer's requirements for the job. It's brief and concise enough to catch the reader's eye with highly relevant material within those first crucial seconds. When you compose a Q letter, list only those qualifications that you meet or exceed. Requirements that you don't meet or exceed should be omitted from the letter. Q letters can be especially effective for qualified candidates who haven't succeeded with traditional direct-mail methods. After being laid off in October 2001 from a high-tech corporation in Cupertino, Calif., a marketing and communications director mailed more than 300 resumes to employers and posted her resume on several Internet sites, but didn't receive any interview invitations. After meeting with a career counselor, she decided to send Q letters to employers in response to their published ads. The marketing pro located an ad for a position she liked and drafted a letter. The company wanted applicants to have three to five years' experience (she had 10), and preferably, an M.B.A. (she had a B.A.) and other qualifications. So, she started her letter with a brief introduction to express her interest. She then listed the company's requirements for the job on the left side of the page and her qualifications on the right side, creating a simple chart. "I was a bit apprehensive about sending it alone, without a resume, but I decided to give it a try," she says. "After 300 resume submissions and no serious replies, I decided any technique might be better than the ones I'd been using." She applied to four ads posted on the Internet with tailored Q letters, which she then faxed (without resumes) to the employers. The next day, she received three responses. She interviewed with two of the companies and received an offer from her top choice. Within four weeks, she was employed in the marketing department at Cisco Systems Inc. in San Jose, Calif. How can such a brief and unconventional job-search tool have such a powerful effect on employers? Angie Dahl, a former staffing manager and recruiter who's now a consultant in San Jose, Calif., with Lee Hecht Harrison, a national outplacement firm, evaluates hundreds of resumes weekly. A Q letter saves time for recruiters because it "quickly gets to the bottom line," she says. "You're already doing the work of 'connecting the dots' for the employer," Dahl points out. "In a competitive market, you're establishing yourself as someone who stands out from the mainstream." Marky Stein is the founder of a career counseling firm and author of Fearless Interviewing: How to Win the Job by Communicating With Confidence (McGraw-Hill). This article is new this week in The Business Journal's small business how-to section. To see what else is new, click here or click on the "how-to" tab at the top of The Daily Business Journal Online home page. "