Job Hunting with “Snail mail”
Definitions first. “job hunting” is when you use contacts (known or unknown) to discover potential opportunities while “job search” is when you search existing jobs (web or print) to try and find a match. Now, on to the topic.
When was the last time you received a letter at work from an individual? In today’s world, everyone sends their resumes via email. People even send their thank you notes after interviews via email. One job hunting strategy is to send your resume with a cover letter to a key contact at a company via snail mail.
How do you do this (we will get to the “why” later)? First, make a list of the companies that interest you. Then, using Fortune.com (or a similar site) as discussed in a previous post, look at the list of Corporate Officers and find the one that handles your area of interest (like the CFO if you are interested in Finance). Now, using the Corporate address, write your cover letter to this individual. When mailing, use a large envelope that allows your resume and cover letter to be sent without folding.
Now to the “and why would I do this?”. First, for the reasons I mentioned earlier, your resume will be one of the few (maybe the only) that arrives in this way. Even if your resume does not receive the personal attention of the individual, it will be delegated to someone who will give it special treatment which will hopefully lead to an interview. Does this work all of the time? No, but it does work very often.
I’ve listed links below to the area of several Fiancial Services Firms’ websites (there are lots of us from that industry scrambling for a job these days) that lists Corporate Officers. This information can generally be found under investor relations for most publicly held companies.
Happy hunting!
- JP Morgan Chase - Leadership team at JP Morgan Chase
- BankofAmerica - BankofAmerica Executives
- Citigroup - Citigroup Executives
Despite the stats, I see thousands of high paying jobs posted on employment sites –
http://www.linkedin.com (Professional Networking)
http://www.simplyhired.com (Aggregated Listings)
http://www.realmatch.com (Matches you to the best jobs)
I see 75K, 100K and 125K jobs posted on these sites.
[...] via snail mail (Job Hunting with “Snail mail”), your cover letter/resume to 3-5 [...]
I would add a sentence in the cover letter indicating that you will be following up via phone. That way, about a week later, you have a reason to call to confirm your letter and resume have been received. This may be an opportunity to get someone talking about possible job openings. At a minimum, you can present yourself professionally and will know your resume was received.
[...] date back to the days of “snail mail” (for more on Snail Mail, please see my post - Job Hunting with “Snail mail”) but have made the transition to the Internet as the content of your email sent when forwarding [...]
Just grabbed the feed… thanks for posting this.