People don’t care about you
Tags: career consultant, career uk, Networking, people don't care about you, unsolicited
ON a regular basis, I receive this kind of emails :
“Dear Laurent,
I am an engineering graduate in the area of Electronics & Communications and is looking forward to start my career.
I am looking for a position leading to further enhancement of my knowledge and skills.
Should you require any further information, please feel free to contact me.
Warm regards,
Tar***”
This is the kind of email I call “unsolicited and annoying” emails.
This person sent me an email without even knowing exactly what I am doing (I am a career consultant and not a recruiter) asking me for a job.
Why do you think I would help this person?
There are no reasons for me to help this person, I don’t know her, never heard of her, no relationships in common…
And if you look at the email in details, this person did not take the time to really read my profile and craft an adapted email…nothing like that…asking for a job because I have a blog talking about job and career.
It is just a waste of time for her sending me this kind of emails…and even worse, next time I will come across her profile, I will have a bad image about her.
Every day people send unsolicited emails asking for jobs to people they don’t even know. Instead of wasting your time and the time of unknown people, you should send relevant, anticipated and personal emails.
Relevant: related to what the person is doing showing that you read and understood her profile
Personal: talking about her, explaining why you are contacting her.
Anticipated: and you can’t ask too much, you need to ask something small to start with
If I receive an email from someone I know or from someone’s else contact, I will answer.
If I receive an email explaining why I should answer with a personal message, I will answer.
If I receive an email, asking me for a job, I won’t answer.
And you, do you send emails asking for jobs?
Do you waste people’s time?
It is time to rethink your way of looking for a job and using referrals to contact people. A proper networking process is needed.
Why wasting your time and annoying people with unsolicited emails instead of preparing a networking approach?
At the end of the day, people don’t care about you.
Duncan Elliott said:
Sep 23, 09 at 8:23 pmLaurent
As always – brutally honest. I think you have hit on an area that might be known as the ‘Generation Y Phenomenon.’
I too constantly receive emails asking for jobs (which is fair enough as I am an agency) but along the lines of’ “I am seeking a role to improve my skills and knowledge…”, skills and knowledge which, presumably, once gained, will be sold to the highest bidder.
What happened to stating what you can offer the new employer?!
Laurent Brouat said:
Sep 24, 09 at 10:48 amYes Duncan! Nothing more than a few lines…you throw an email hoping for the best, thinking you spare your time but indeed you harm your reputation!
David Everitt-Carlson said:
Sep 24, 09 at 1:05 pmRight on Laurent. There’s nothing wrong with selling oneself but this is just annoying. Duncan has it right too. Good call.
Jo Mack said:
Sep 24, 09 at 2:20 pmThis is a very good post Laurent, albeit slightly brutal! I do agree with your basic point though – badly spelt, badly targetted emails like these will always make it straight to the bottom of the pile. If a “job seeker” doesn’t have the courtesy and insight to prepare a proper well researched and targetted application, he/she has no right to be expect a personal and considered response.
Laurent Brouat said:
Sep 24, 09 at 3:29 pmExactly selling oneself is not wrong but what annoys me is the lack of personalization of the emails, the lack of research, and the fact that people ask too much (instead of asking for a job, they could ask for a piece of advice or something smaller)
Duncan Elliott said:
Sep 24, 09 at 3:36 pmLet’s not forget the emails we all get from people wanting to work for our ‘esteemed organisations.’ I had one from a petrochemical engineer the other day wanting to work for my Esteemed Organisation…I have no idea what as as I run a rec-to-rec firm!
Michel said:
Sep 25, 09 at 10:35 amI do not agree !
You should help him because his mail is inappropriate and full of mistakes ! this is just human response.
If these appliants were “perfect”, they would not need to call you for help.
Furthermore, the available jobs for the youngsters do not deserve a full screening. Everybody knows that young people do need to learn everything.
And a lot of people (not especially you), would be jobless.
Let’s be realistic instead of trying to show our authority to young and weak fellows.
Laurent Brouat said:
Sep 25, 09 at 1:39 pmActually Michel I helped him explaining everything you mentionned…but as I said I am not a recruiter, so I can’t find him a job straight away. When you craft a message, you need to understand who you send it to, asking for a job to someone you don’t know and someone who is not a recruiter, is not the best strategy to land a job
George Emsden said:
Sep 26, 09 at 8:48 amLaurent
Life can be very brutal and it is certainly more brutal than when I started work.
One of the saddest things in the UK is that the education system has dropped its standards e.g. 45% to get an A grade. Makes people think that everything is easy and not well equipped to survive or thrive in today’s interesting job market.
Paul MacKenzie-Cummins said:
Sep 26, 09 at 11:24 amI’m a careers advice and guidance writer for the likes of Monster, CareerBuilder et al as well as handling the PR for a number of recruitment consultancies and the feedback I get is their frustration at the poor standard of applications they deal with. The candidate may have the most impressive work experience and qualifications to boot but, if they fail at the very first hurdle (i.e. the application stage) their hunt for the right job will progress as fast as a snail in mud. As others have already said, candidates need to consider the person they are contacting and tailor their application accordingly; if all they are doing is taking the scatter-gun approach then they need to change their game plan…and fast. I agree with Michel (his spelling not mine) that we should do what we can to help job seekers, after all there is an art to doing it and doing it right. We all work in this sector and WE know what we are looking for on an application but, the same cannot be said for job seekers. So let’s not be so critical and instead be on hand to re-educate people on how best to promote themselves to potential employers.
Deborah Morris said:
Sep 26, 09 at 4:27 pmHi Laurent
I agree. I am a consultant in HR and as part of my offer I will talk to someone for 45 minutes for free to ascertain if I am the person they need to help support thier business however I get calls from business owners who say,’can you tell me in the 45 minutes exactly how to sack someone because I don’t want to pay for advice’.
If they went about it in a more collaborative way I would probably help!!
Raj said:
Sep 28, 09 at 11:14 amI Completely disagree to an extent, why cry so much, and write, just delete the mail. But don’t forget the prospective applicants are your bread and butter.
Laurent Brouat said:
Sep 28, 09 at 2:58 pmBut if I “just delete the mail”, how could this person know that she is harming her reputation and wasting her time? Today everybody is deleting hundreds of unsolicited emails without any remorse…but sometimes it is good to get a feedback to understand exactly what you are doing
Thierry LAURENT said:
Sep 28, 09 at 6:09 pmI totally agree with the post, and Michel has it right also.
In fact, I run a company that can employ very specific profiles in industry, and most applicants might fit at least SOME of the requirements – but they need to fill ONE: research who you’re writing to, if only by politeness. If I have to teach basic behavior to those people who apply “blind” for a marketing and sales position, how am I going to be able to teach them sales and marketing then ?? They show their lack of sense and therefore ability for the job they rpetend to be applying for…
Michel, the only limit to your approach (which I’ve tried – and been thanked for by some of the people I replied to) is we don’t have the time to answer all those young and less young “spammer-like” applicants. In fact, our companies do not pay us for that.
I’ve pestered by HR Dept people to ask them to answer ALL applications they receive, out of… politeness and human concern, precisely. I’ve now stopped – they’d need to spend their days on it.
I agree with Laurent fully: train those people from school, and on blogs, brutally if needed. The world is brutal out there…
julien bois said:
Sep 30, 09 at 1:51 pmI get the same type of emails all the time. However I do not think it is much different from the 1990′s where unqualified people would respond to ads in the paper. Desperation, it seems, leads people to throw their resumes at the wall and see which one sticks. Unfortunate but I do not think it can be attributable to a particular generation.
On the positive side, in spite of the evident loss in productivity, I have connected with people who were “out of focus” for me but ended up being instrumental in my network.
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Randall Craig said:
Oct 14, 09 at 12:03 pmIn addition, these types of letters are incredible time wasters for the searcher too. Think of the progress this person would have made if they applied their time to research and networking instead.
See http://www.personalbalancesheet.com/news/archives/2008Sept9-Your-boss-doesnt-care.html and http://www.personalbalancesheet.com/news/archives/2006Apr18-Perfect-Candidate.html for my take on the concept.
Regards,
Randall Craig
Author of “Leaving the Mother Ship”, “The Working Resume”, and “Personal Balance Sheet”
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