Thank You!
Recently, we helped students at Provo College by holding mock interviews. They went very well, and some of the people we met seem to be on-track for very excellent careers.
A few days later, we received, literally, a stack of handwritten, personal Thank You notes, one from each of the people we interviewed. This was huge!
What you’re up against:
On Tuesday this week, I started my day downloading more than 250 emails from people looking, even begging for work. Part of my job is to sift through those people as intelligently as possible, finding the ones that stand-out the most and align them with the needs of my clients.
The sad truth is, few people actually do stand out, and we have technology that helps us find the golden candidates in the massive inbound emails, but the ones who do stand out will almost always land more interviews, faster than the ones who don’t. Better than that, the stand-out candidates always seem to have a few common characteristcs. Consider some of these before the next time you slam out 2,000 resumes, mass-distributed to every possible email address you can find:
Personalize Your Message.
Hey, everybody likes hearing the sound of their own name. If you could address your email to the individual who will be reading it, you will get their attention! If you can’t do that, please be at least more creative in your cover-letter than something which sounds like “I’m applying for a job at any company I can find where I might make a buck…”
Show Me—I am not a mind-reader
Give me an excuse to get excited about your potential. Make it easy for me to immediately see how you are different, and how you will solve the problems I (or my clients) have. Don’t bury information in your resume just to follow chronological order. Use headlines, use action-oriented phrases, a summary paragraph and speak proactively about your skillset.
Go the Extra-Mile
The truth is, you should never rely on my tickler file to secure your next position. Give me excuses to remember you. Thank-you notes are absolutely huge for this. They show up a few days after your initial interview, by mail, and they should be hand-written and addressed to show you took time to thoughtfully write it. Don’t worry about tissue paper and a second-envelope though, that’s for wedding announcements.
Summary:The whole point is, the way you approach things before, during and after your interview goes a very long way toward showing how you will work, how you will act in certain situations, the kind of energy you will expend in your job, the kind of attention-to-detail you will give, and how quickly I could count on you to make a positive, measurable difference for myself or for my client.
Good luck!
