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Guide: How to Get Interviews:
Establishing Contact Now it’s time for your plan to take action but you
might need to do some last minute detective work before you
begin. It is best
if you have the name of someone on the inside capable of
either considering your qualifications or forwarding you to
someone that can. As you browse the list of companies you wish to
contact, you might have contact names for some of the people
conducting the search but in many cases you will not.
Some companies listing jobs online choose to keep their
contact options limited to a generic email address or an
online form. If you try, you can find out who some of these parties are by
looking for the names of proprietary technologies, email
domains, company profiles or by other means. If you know the
name of the company and where they are, you are in pretty good
shape. If not
you’ll just have to keep a record of the web URL from which
you originally replied so that you can follow the same method
to follow up with them. If you have the company name but not a contact person, the old standby is to send the résumé to the company President or CEO by postal mail and/or email. This is better than sending it to “Company”, where it may never be seen by the right person. A trick that recruiters use to play the “Who’s Who” game is to call into the company during off hours and try to navigate through the company voicemail system hoping for a directory of names and/or departments. If you are privileged enough to have a personal email address from an ad, you can sometimes decipher the name well enough to find the person in the voicemail directory and get both their first and last name. Knowing their name will put you well ahead of your competition when you send them your résumé, addressing them directly as if you were referred to them personally. You also have a real person to ask for when you call to follow up. You can call the company and in many cases the operator will tell you whom you should speak with about a particular opportunity just for asking. We
recommend mailing your résumé as well as forwarding it
electronically whenever possible. Print
your résumé on a quality 24lb paper if you have not already.
Get matching full-page size 9_ x 12 envelopes. If
you’re able to print addresses directly on the envelopes or
can print labels to address the envelopes, with it will look
more professional than hand-written envelopes. Be sure to
include the contact person’s name if available just below
the company name and above the address so that it is delivered
directly to the intended recipient. Mail all of your résumés
out at once, ensuring that each company has the appropriate
copy enclosed. Allow
2 days for local delivery, and four business days for the rest
of the addresses you have sent your resume to. On the
anticipated day of arrival of your resume, send a copy by
email and announce the arrival of the hard copy in the mail.
It is best if your email goes out the day before or the exact
day that your resume arrives. Mention in the email that you
will follow up with them by phone on a specified day and state
whether you will call in the morning or afternoon. You should
call no later than three business days after your resume
arrives.
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