By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
So Why Are You Spamming Recruiters and Others?
One of the reasons I like Gmail as much as I do is because its spam filter is extremely good. The spam filter our local ISP provides is horrible and requires that every time I open it, I have to manually create rules that direct future spammer emails to go directly to my delete files. It is too time-consuming, so I’ve switched to Gmail and abandoned the ISP’s email account for me to the spammers.
At work, every day, I used to arrive to at least 100 and, more often, 150+ emails from individuals whose resumes in no way shape, or form reflect the specifics of the requirements of the job description they were applying for.
I wonder why they sent the resume.
Many people are brought up with the idea that if your resume fits 20% of the requirement, you send it because maybe . . .
Or that if a recruiter does work in a specific field, but the ad doesn’t fit your experience, you send them your resume because they might have something else. This strategy may work with junior recruiters but is frustrating to people like me who have high demanding and extremely demanding clients.
So let me explain why this is so troublesome.
On Monday, if I walked in to 100 new resumes, call and speak to each person for 5 minutes, I would take 5 hours qualifying every person. I would have done nothing to help the people who contacted me on Friday who may or may not fit the requirements. I probably won’t actually speak to everyone; I’ll need to leave messages that may or may not be responded to that day. I will need to keep everyone’s resume organized and easily locatable so that when they decide they have the time to call back, I can easily retrieve it which delays my contacting someone from that day’s group of 100 resumes.
And then I will have discovered that the resume was sent speculatively.
I know I am not unique in having this problem. Recruiters I connected with all over the country lamented that they spend all day reading one useless resume after another.
So, here’s a piece of simple and EXTREMELY USEFUL ADVICE. If you have the experience that is required of the job, make sure it is in your resume, even if that means adding it to your basic resume.
Do not just include it in a cover letter or cover email; PUT IT IN THE RESUME. Pretend that someone even busier than I was will be reviewing it so MAKE YOUR RELEVANT EXPERIENCE OBVIOUS.
By doing that, you will get many more interviews and your resumes won’t look like spam.
Ⓒ The Big Game Hunter, Inc., Asheville, NC 20008, 2014, 2021
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, all as well as executive job search coaching, job coaching, and interview coaching. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1900 episodes, and is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.
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