Applying to a job: How persistent should I be in emails?

Question

How persistent should I be? Over the past several months I must have sent out emails to 20-30 companies in two different fields, but have only heard back from two of them! Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong? Should I be more persistent and send out a second email? Should I mail them my resume via snail mail?

Answer 1

I can only suggest that maybe you're applying to jobs that you are not really qualified to do. Are you making sure to check that you fulfil all the requirements in the job advertisement? Are you making sure that your CV is particularly targeted to the job? (I'm assuming that you're applying to advertised jobs rather than sending speculative emails - if you are applying speculatively then it could just be that they have no suitable vacancies.)

I'm a recruiter with a large multinational software company, and for every position advertised, I receive at least 100 applications if we only advertise it on the company website, or many, many more if the job is advertised on a job board like Monster. Out of those applications, I will speak with EVERYBODY who appear (from their CV) that they could do the job. You want to know how many that is? At most, eight or ten people. So, that's AT LEAST ninety people that applied to a job that they're not qualified to do.

I wouldn't advise being more persistent as there's no need for it - you have to assume that they looked at your application and chose not to contact you, so there's no need to send it in again. Likewise, you don't need to mail it in - besides, hard copies are no use to anyone.

It's quite sad that you haven't heard anything back at all. I always do follow up with an email saying "thank you ... blah blah blah ... will not be progressing ..." as this is just good manners. But then again, it's *only* manners - it's not going to affect the end result at all.

Answer 2

Try the telephone and snail mail.