The following is from an email I recently wrote to someone concerning the way people send their resumes to recruiters. The bottom-line here is that recruiters hate spam as much as anybody else--and since it's crucial to our job to instantly decipher "signal" from "noise", thousands of resumes (if not 100x that) are deleted by recruiters daily because the message simply didn't get through.
Don't take this personally (I wrote it on a very sarcastic Friday afternoon), but do--if you want a shot at that great job opportunity--take it seriously.
The number-one thing I recommend people to add to their resume is clear/concise language in the body of their email to me telling me why I should care.
I get a constant, deep and steady flow of resumes that say nothing but "attached" in the body of the email, with a dangling (possibly virus-laden) word-document hanging there with a title like "bills_resume_revision19.doc".
Or, the emails say, trying to sound personalized (but end up sounding spammy): "I noticed the job you posted and I am a perfect match for it... or any other positions you have."
That don't help me worth nuthin'
The point is (speaking to job-seekers and would-be resume-blasters), help me to help you. Tell me what work you want to do, no what work you'll merely accept. Now, tell me why you want to do that kind of work.
Tell me what fires you up about life and gets you out of bed in the morning!!!
...In 100 words or less, please (this is not your dissertation, it's a teaser--a lead)... and do not, whatever you do, say simply "attached" and hope that I am bored enough to be interested in clicking your resume just for kicks--all of us are too busy for that. You wouldn't respect an email like that if I sent it to you. (Plus, would you click a word document willy-nilly in our virus-laden Internet community?)
Oh, and, lay off the "picnic" and "summertime" stationeries for the background of your email, please. I thought you wanted a job, and your email is screaming "vacation!"
