News Munchies
Spamming Your Next Boss
Originally Posted
Updated
You need a job; someone out there needs a good employee. In this day of instant communication, what could be better than sending a quick email, once you learn that a job is open?
Heck, they may even ask you to respond by email. And then the recipient organization's filters may toss you out as a spammer ("spam" is mass-posted, irrelevant, inappropriate, invasive, unwanted, unsolicited commercial email), because of the very characteristics they are looking for in employees, the ones you so dutifully highlighted in your message.
Don't say magna cum laude
Seems the IT folks aren't bothering to talk with Personnel or the hiring departments, and you're the one getting jobbed. Of course, your resume is not alone; their "brute-force" filters also delete many other legitimate email messages. But if you graduated magna cum laude, you'd better find another way to say it.
And what if you, personally, worked on the extraordinarily successful Viagra campaign? Guess you'd better not mention that, either.
If you use one of the "resume-blast" services, you'll doubtless have ample proof of this problem when you get a bunch of your own messages back in your inbox. Worse still, some of the filters don't bother to reply, so you'll never hear if your inquiry about that perfect job for that perfect company, the one you were perfectly suited for, goes into a black hole.
Spam yourself
Here's a trick: Some job-hunters are running their outgoing messages through multiple spam filters before sending them, in hopes that they'll discover words and formatting that could cause their message to be rejected on the receiving end.
In a perverse way, it may be better to send a letter than a quick message demonstrating that you know how to use the latest technology. And there is a silver lining: This is a wholly justifiable reason to call a prospective employer, to see if they received your message.
While you have them on the phone, well, about that job ...