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IT Job Tips – How to get into the “YES” Folder

Posted on January 8th, 2007 by Scott Skinger No Comments »

Tips form a Business Owner’s perspective!

In my last post, I mentioned that I was surprised by the lack of “basic professionalism” (see my definition below) that I came across as I was looking for a new employee to assist with Train Signal’s product development. I will touch on that here.

Background

scott_skinger1.jpgLet me start by saying that we are a laid back company; there is no dress code (within reason), we have flexible hours, often work from Starbucks, interviews are conducted in casual clothes, etc.

I bring this up because I don’t want to give you the wrong impression when I use the term “basic professionalism”. The lack of professionalism doesn’t offend me, it just quickly gets your resume moved into the “NO” folder in Outlook.

Recently, I placed an ad for a Network Support Specialist – IT Course Reviewer on several job boards and in the local newspaper. Resumes started pouring into my inbox.

Anytime I make a hire I follow a basic process to identify my top prospects. My first step is to review the initial correspondence I receive from you. This includes the email, text in the email, resume, cover letter and anything else you may send.

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ME and is a good indicator of what type of employee you will be. Are you detail-oriented? Are you polite? Do you take my company seriously?

My perception is that you will most likely interact with my customers and employees in the same fashion you are right now in your initial correspondence to me. Impress me. I am a stickler for customer service as most small business owners are (or should be).

For my most recent hire, I moved approximately 30 resumes into the “YES” folder and 200+ resumes into the “NO” folder before I started conducting my first round of phone interviews. Beyond being time consuming, this stage of the hiring process really isn’t that difficult because prospects eliminate themselves with their lack of “basic professionalism”. Don’t be one of them.


How do you get into the “YES” folder?

1. Spend 15 minutes before you send your resume and cover letter off and research my company. Look for little bits of information that you can use in your cover letter to demonstrate that you are truly interested in working for my company.

For the last hire, only 3 people mentioned our website or related to a specific element on our website. All 3 people made the “YES” folder.

2. Personally address your cover letter to the contact name given. If the hiring contact’s name is Scott, then you better use “Scott” and not “HR Manager”.

Try to add some personality to your cover letter and email. It is very obvious when someone just changes the name on their “form” letter. You have a much better chance of making the “YES” folder if you are personable.

3. Be very courteous and professional (full sentences, etc.) in all emails sent back and forth to the hiring contact. I actually weight “first impression” and “professionalism” very highly when I am making my final hiring decision.

4. Only about 10% of the people I interview bother to send a thank you. It does not personally upset me, personally, I couldn’t care less. But I DO CARE about how you might treat my customers. Set yourself apart.

5. Send me a Word attachment of your resume and cover letter; job sites can badly garble their format. I don’t intentionally hold this against you but if your information is hard to read and not organized this can’t be a good thing.

Let me sum this whole thing up for you …

TAKE YOUR TIME AND DO IT RIGHT. You will have much better results if you spend the same amount of time applying for 20 positions the right way versus sending 100 resumes without any personality or specific mention of my company.


 

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