Note: This is a complete rant. Please forgive me. I am going to go think about butterflies and rainbows now. Or maybe, a double rainbow if I’m lucky.
Oh so you want a job or internship? It’s because of the economy you can’t find anything, right? WRONG. Maybe, just maybe, it’s YOU.
I am the go-to resume-getter at my PR agency so I see a lot of different e-mails and resumes each week. A lot of the time, I get great e-mails from great people with lots of great experience. I wish I could give them all jobs! But then, there’s those who get under my skin. A lot of these I see are from students who frankly, don’t know any better. (Not all students, though. I see my fair share of smart and savvy people.) I’m sure I made some of the same mistakes along the way, too. But, have your PR classes taught you nothing? I know my professors at Slippery Rock University nailed it into our brains about how important making connections and *keeping* them are. So take a lesson from Dr. Valerie Swarts and keep reading!
Here’s some of the worst things I see in e-mails:
Subject Line: “Resume”
…or even worse: “NO SUBJECT”
Opener: It’s a tie between “To Whom It May Concern” and those who spell my name wrong
Body: “I would love to work at your company. I have XYZ skills. Looking forward to hearing more about your company.”
…ughhh….what company is it you are talking about? There’s no mention of it anywhere.
The art of FOLLOWING UP
Sometimes, students will e-mail me looking for advice. I am ALWAYS happy to help and have made some great connections with them and they are always so appreciative. But one time, a student e-mailed me her resume asking for a position, which we did not have at the time. But I thought I’d give her a few tips for optimizing her resume and cover letter for when she sent it to other firms. I took a good 20 minutes listing out things to update and tips on leads, etc. etc. Then, no response. Two weeks later I remembered I never heard back, so I forwarded her the e-mail again asking if she received it. Crickets. I think it’s been almost a year now.
RANDOM TIP: When you interview for a position but don’t get it, don’t ignore the person. I e-mailed three intern candidates during one of my agency’s rounds of hiring to let them know that unfortunately, they did not get the position. Two of them I still haven’t heard from. Third girl e-mailed me and asks for ways she can improve for the future and why she did not get it. I politely gave her some advice and constructive criticism. Crickets. NOTHING. It’s called THANK YOU, people! It takes two seconds.
And finally, my personal favorite:
Girl on Twitter tweets to me and asks if I work in PR. Never heard from girl before and this is the first thing she says to me. I say yes. She tweets if we’re hiring for part time positions/internships. I say look on our website for more information. She e-mails me. I politely tell her we don’t have anything available but to keep in touch, yada yada. I hear nothing back. A week later I see an interesting internship opportunity she may be interested in and e-mailed her to see if she had seen it. This is her (edited) response:
“Yes I did, not sure if its paid though.
I did interviewed with them back in December for a summer internship.. The ceo of the company I interned with in my last job personally sent them my resume. They are the same type of company I worked for. I followed up numerous times and never heard back. Gave me a sour taste in my mouth since I have a lot of knowledge on their organization and thought it would be a perfect fit.”
Ummm….OK. A simple, “thanks so much” would have sufficed. And it was paid, thank you very much.
End rant.
Here’s some of the worst things I see in e-mails:
Subject Line: “Resume”
…or even worse: “NO SUBJECT”
Opener: It’s a tie between “To Whom It May Concern” and those who spell my name wrong
Body: “I would love to work at your company. I have XYZ skills. Looking forward to hearing more about your company.”
…ughhh….what company is it you are talking about? There’s no mention of it anywhere.
The art of FOLLOWING UP
Sometimes, students will e-mail me looking for advice. I am ALWAYS happy to help and have made some great connections with them and they are always so appreciative. But one time, a student e-mailed me her resume asking for a position, which we did not have at the time. But I thought I’d give her a few tips for optimizing her resume and cover letter for when she sent it to other firms. I took a good 20 minutes listing out things to update and tips on leads, etc. etc. Then, no response. Two weeks later I remembered I never heard back, so I forwarded her the e-mail again asking if she received it. Crickets. I think it’s been almost a year now.
RANDOM TIP: When you interview for a position but don’t get it, don’t ignore the person. I e-mailed three intern candidates during one of my agency’s rounds of hiring to let them know that unfortunately, they did not get the position. Two of them I still haven’t heard from. Third girl e-mailed me and asks for ways she can improve for the future and why she did not get it. I politely gave her some advice and constructive criticism. Crickets. NOTHING. It’s called THANK YOU, people! It takes two seconds.
And finally, my personal favorite:
Girl on Twitter tweets to me and asks if I work in PR. Never heard from girl before and this is the first thing she says to me. I say yes. She tweets if we’re hiring for part time positions/internships. I say look on our website for more information. She e-mails me. I politely tell her we don’t have anything available but to keep in touch, yada yada. I hear nothing back. A week later I see an interesting internship opportunity she may be interested in and e-mailed her to see if she had seen it. This is her (edited) response:
“Yes I did, not sure if its paid though.
I did interviewed with them back in December for a summer internship.. The ceo of the company I interned with in my last job personally sent them my resume. They are the same type of company I worked for. I followed up numerous times and never heard back. Gave me a sour taste in my mouth since I have a lot of knowledge on their organization and thought it would be a perfect fit.”
Ummm….OK. A simple, “thanks so much” would have sufficed. And it was paid, thank you very much.
End rant.
AMEN. This should be required reading for college seniors. Another personal fave from students: excessive emoticon use in networking emails. Actually, any emoticon use in networking emails. If you’re attempting to represent yourself as professional enough to have a fulltime job, the colon and any followup symbol have no place in your email.
Yes…or when they put excessive exclamation points!
I should make this post into a downloadable whitepaper for professors for $39.95.
Ha! Before you do that I’m going to use it at Bethany College this fall when I speak to their professional transitions class. Good stuff Deanna.
Do me proud, Russell!!
I’m curious what you use for an opener when you don’t know who the person is – Dear Sir or Ma’am?
No no no. Look all over the website for the appropriate person’s name. If you can’t find it, call the place you want to send it to and ask. If you STILL can’t find it at this point, which is unlikely, just put in your e-mail you tried finding a name but couldn’t find it and apologize. At least that’s what I’d do 🙂
In these days of Craigslist, that’s great advice. Thanks!
Kids these days, huh Deanna?
Not only was the last one not even remotely thankful that you took the time to think of her, but she apparently wasn’t even appreciative enough to use proper grammar. Good luck getting a job you “did interviewed with,” sweetheart.
Oh, kids. Yes, I did not even mention her grammar! “I done interviewed and it was good!”
I can haz job now?
I once got a job by dressing up as a bear, walking into the office and punching photocopiers.
If it worked for me, it’ll work for you.
My uncle once took a guy to a job interview wearing a Rage Against the Machine t-shirt. Might as well have asked the man for a job wearing a “Don’t let the man get you down” t-shirt.
My favorite story was told my a woman interviewing a prospective employee who answered his cell phone DURING the interview. He then said it was kind of private, and ask her to step outside – of her own office!