How to E-mail a Prospective Employer

E-mail is another communication tool you can use to your benefit during a job hunt.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Career Books
• File Cabinets
• E-mail Accounts
• Computers
• Software
• résumé software

1. Make your subject line compelling to get attention and a quick response.

2. Use an abbreviated, but fairly conventional, business letter format: date, address, name, job title and salutation.

3. Mention how you heard about the job opening in the first sentence.

4. Make the inquiry or statement brief and concise.

5. Expect to be judged on attitude, spelling, grammar and ability to meet deadlines.

6. Close every e-mail with your contact information.

7. Remember that while email can feel impersonal, there is a human being reading it on the other end. Keep the tone friendly and professional.

8. Send a brief reminder e-mail if you hear no word for two weeks. Employers are inundated with resumes after an initial posting and might be more receptive once things calm down.

9. Carbon copy yourself on all e-mails to keep an active correspondence file.

Tips & Warnings

• If you send your résumé as an attachment, consider cutting and pasting it into the body of the e-mail as well. That way, if the recipient can't open the attachment, he can still view your résumé. Keep in mind that you may lose some of the formatting when you cut and paste.
• Remember that an e-mail's shelf life is basically forever.
• There is no expectation of privacy with work e-mail accounts.
• You can't "unsend" e-mails, so proofread carefully before hitting "send."

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[ITZoom]

on 1/24/2007 IT Professionals - visit www.itzoom.com for a free professional email address that markets your skills and expertise.

on 11/22/2005 Try to find out the name of the person that you are sending your cover letter to. "Dear Ms. Jones" sounds much better than "Dear Human Resource Department".

on 11/22/2005 Make sure that your name is correct for when your prospective employer reads it. That way it will say that he or she recieved mail from (Your name here) instead of something silly like "THa Dawg" or some other nick name of yours.

on 11/22/2005 If you are replying to a specific ad or listing number, be sure to add that to your e-mail. If it says to put the ad number or title in the subject line, don't forget! Attention to detail means everything.