Cold E MailingSilly subject title, huh? Well, right now I am not in the most creative mood. I was just told that I should not come to a second interview because they found someone else for less money. I actually mentioned it in another post so that I could b!tch about recruiters. Anyway, tell me what you think of this idea. This either shows my frustration level or I am more clever than I think today. I have an interview this afternoon so I won' t do this all tonight. Is it a good idea to get out the phone book, flip to the section of the yellow pages dedicated to my field, find those listings with e-mail addresses and send them my resume with a cover letter stating that I am looking for a position with their company? Tonight, after my interview, I could look up on the Internet the firms I am targeting and find the human resource or employment person' s name. What do people think? I have done this and will continue to do it because I sincerely believe that one of these times either the agency will remember they saw my resume before even advertising for a position or if they advertised and I applied, they will recall my cold-email sell and call me. I worded the email like an advertisement for my services...since that is the industry I am in. I am on every advertising, print, publishing, etc. industry website I can find and those are my sources for email addresses. I will always send it to a specific principal at the company too. In this internet day and age, there is no reason why a cover letter or email should be sent to a "To Whom it May Concern"...well, that' s just my 2cents. Definitely GO FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and Good Luck. Let me know how it goes, or if I can help. As long as each email is targeted to a specific person, and not 50 email addresses at the top of a "To Whom It May Concern" email, I think it is a good idea. However, don't let it drop there. Follow up each one with a call. Have a brief opening line ready "Hi, my name is Kelly and I forwarded my resume to you yesterday. I have five years experience within the construction industry with companies similar in size to yours and would like to discuss any open positions that you may be looking to fill." I wouldn't use the phone book. If you have specific industry experience (say biotech), you get hold of a list of biotech companies in your area, go to their websites and look up their managers and target the manager that is right for the positions that you seek.
Go for it. What have you got to lose? I agree about not sending a blind letter though. Find out to whom the letter should be addressed.
Just to reply briefly before i go to bed: unless you have a way to write off the amount of time that is going to take to actually find a job that way then DON' T BOTHER. That way is taking it back in time...move forward with technology and stick to the subject of emailing and responding through companies websites. Better yet, it is free to go through a Temp-to-hire or Temp-to-perm recruiting agency for free before you do all that researching or potentially becoming a corporate stalker.lol Seriously, they work except you work on their time frame. If you need a name or so then let me know. Keep me posted.
I totally agree about the cover letter. I would need to take my cover letter and tailor it to include the name of the contact person as well as the individual company. This is something that I have already started. So each email is going to be directed to the contact individual with, of course, a blind cc to myself. I have a "cover kelly' s @ss policy". And each cover letter is going to have the name of the company I am sending it to, plus the ATTN: Contact Person. I don' t believe in the type of mass mailing and blind cover letters with "to whom it may concern" Never did and never will. But at least I am not just being silly. I am glad that someone else has done this and that I am not just being weird. I don' t believe and never will believe in the type of mass mailing and blind letters that a few of you are warning me against. The letters that start out with "to whom it may concern" are most likely the first letters to be wadded up and tossed basketball style into the trash bin. I have absolutely nothing going on tomorrow, so I will start right after I drop my son off at school. I don' t believe in mass or blind letters. They are very unprofessional in my view. Plus, a "to whom it may concern" letter is the first disregarded letter. My field is legal and in this area, the law firms are, with a few exceptions, sole practitioners or XXXXX and Associates with the associates being 1-6 other lawyers. So, looking in the phone book is the best way to get a list and target them. I have already been in contact with the Nevada State Bar Association and they will only provide names of firms IF that firm is hiring at that time and the firm has listed the opening with the Bar Association. I can also get a list of lawyers and law firms through the Bar with absolutely no problem, but it would be the same list I could get out of the phone book. And it would actually cost me between $30 and $75 depending on if I wanted to get a list of ALL attorney' s regardless of their specialty or a list of just a particular specialty. But, thanks. At least I know that it won' t be a complete waste of my time to do this. What the heck else do I have to do? I don' t have an interview tomorrow and I have done the faxing thing already for this week from Sunday' s paper advertisements. In this area, the jobs come out on Sunday and re-run the entire week. No new jobs are added in general. And, the paper provides an on-lilne employment seekers section in their website. So, while I am very much aware that it is going to be time-consuming, I don' t have anything else on tap. As for temp agency? I could continue my rant and rave about them, but to put it in a nutshell, I have NEVER been able to get anything more than ignored and treated to lies, mis-statements, embellishments, exaggerations, etc. etc. etc. Temp agencies and recruiters do not work for anybody I have known or had a conversation with regarding them. And they have no place in my life at this time. Maybe later when I am not so p!ssed at the latest attempt. | |
|
Career Tips
|