e MAILING YOUR RESUME
The 'Do's …. and many 'Don't's!

The second best thing after being registered on an online recruitment portal (such as skill-link.com) is sending an electronic résumé. Surprisingly, a large number of Arab job seekers, specially from Egypt, commit a long list of mistakes when it comes to emailing potential employers. They seem to ignore the proper etiquette and forget some basic rules when sending their job applications by email.

These mistakes are in form, substance, attachment, every thing! Actually a small minority could be described as sending the "perfect" emailed job application!

In this article, we present our advice reflecting the tens of thousands of emailed resumes we have checked and more importantly the reaction of employers receiving them.

Before we proceed, let us first remember that "e Mail" means electronic mail… in other words, electronic or not… traditional mail etiquette is applicable.

Here are the 15 most common mistakes job seekers do:

Mistake #1: e Mail Account - business vs. personal
Would you ever send your job application (cover letter and CV) printed on your current employer's letter head and in your employer's envelopes, to be delivered by your employer's company car? The answer we always receive to these 3 questions is naturally: NO… it is therefore strange to find a large number of employed professionals sending a job application from their employer provided email account. It is exactly like doing the 3 things above you answered with a "No" to.

Never ever use your current employer's e-mail account (eg. sameh.f@globaltrading.com) for sending out your emailed CV. It is just like sending your hardcopy CV on your current employer's letter head! You'll leave your potential / targeted employer with the impression that you spend company time and resources on writing résumés and other non work-related activities. And if your current bosses find out, they won't be happy at all. You have no excuse for doing that. It is unethical, unprofessional and it reflects lack of judgement and poor taste.

To avoid the above, it will take you minutes to set up a free personal email account on Yahoo, Hotmail, Maktoob or others… Even better, acquire a decent email account for a small fee from an internet service provider such as LINKdotNET, MenaNet or Soficom, to ensure your box does not get filled quickly and rejects new messages.

Mistake #2: e Mail Account - silly vs. professional.
Many job seekers sending an emailed job application do so from a personal account that has a silly name. We often see applications received from prettywoman@ … ; elfetewa@… ; love4ever@…. Bisso76@… Nassnoussa81@…. We recommend you avoid silly names for your account, it does not look professional and may convey the wrong message about you. Again, it will not cost anything to establish an account dedicated to employment matters.

Mistake #3: e Mail Account - use just one with the same employer
In some emailed job applications, we find the sender requesting at the end of his/her message, the employer being addressed to use a certain email account to reply to, not the one from which the message was sent. This is usually a stupid move, also annoying. Do you think the employer / manager will remember that? People tend to always use the "reply" feature on an email they want to respond to. So, in the first instance, always send it from where you would like to replies to be received.

Mistake #4: Messages addressed to the whole world
Send individual, targeted messages to each contact rather than using the "To" or "cc" for mass e-mailing. It is completely unacceptable and unprofessional to approach potential employers or recruitment firms in a collective way. Letting all of your email recipients know you are sending it to others!

We are not telling you not to explore job opportunities with as many companies as you want .... but at least address a personalized email to each.... it will take an additional 20 seconds to copy & paste to a new email. An employer or a recruitment firm likes to think you are really interested in them..... if they find you are putting them on a cc: list they will feel you do not particularly care.... Also; you cannot expect them to treat your application confidentially when they can see for themselves that you are mass mailing it. This happens so frequently! and you have no excuse for doing it.

Mistake #5: eMail Subject line - the empty and the non descriptive
80% of job seekers using the email to send an application ignore the importance of the subject line. You should write a simple and informative sentence in the subject line of your email. It seems simple and logical but often ignored.

We see thousands of emailed CVs with the following in the message subject line: "My CV", "Looking for a job"; "Need a job ASAP", "Hi!" or even "Recruitment Request" (the last one demonstrates poor English, because the recruitment request should be from an employer and not the job seeker!). The worst one we see, is leaving the subject line completely empty.

All of these (and similar) subject lines demonstrate laziness and lack of courtesy. The average manager who receives emailed job applications would get dozens if not hundreds. How do you imagine he/she can easily take actions on them, or forward them later to the relevant person; or even try and retrieve one he/she saw and was interested in a few hours or days ago? A lot of job seekers act in a way that reflects they think theirs is the only CV emailed to the person in question!!!! Why not show some courtesy and user friendliness by having in your subject line: Experienced Secretary Seeking A Position; or Qualified Electrical Engineer Applying For A Maintenance Position; or CPA Looking For An Interesting Finance Role …. Wouldn't that be better?

Mistake #6: The eMail message - empty or meaningless
Numerous job seekers end up send a CV attached to an email and leaving the body of the email blank or with one or two uninformative sentences. Thus we see lots of "My CV is attached" ; "Resume enclose", "Seeking a suitable job" etc… All of this demonstrate lack of courtesy from the sender, limited interest or poor judgement. The body of the email is your cover letter, ignoring it is wrong. In other words, why do you expect the recipient will automatically click on the attachment?

When you send a hardcopy resume, it should always go with a cover letter (as we always advise); similarly, when sent by email, the message content is your CV's cover letter. Hence, we do not recommend you attach your cover letter as an attachment to the email message, it should be in the body of the message.

Mistake #7: The eMail message - too informal
Some job seekers tend to be too informal with potential employers and recruiters, as if they were exchanging messages with a close friend. This is wrong and should be avoided, namely the use of:

• emoticons such as J or L ;
• small letters throughout the text and not using capital letters when required (eg. writing 'I' not in capital foramt).
• using all capital letters throughout the message. It is as if they are yelling!
• spelling words the way they sound (eg. "thru" instead of "through" or "ur" instead of "your")
• informal abbreviations (eg. 4U, thnx etc…)
• animated pictures and email illustrated stationary (eg. a blue background with a sun, palm trees and sailing boats… we are not joking, they do happen).

All of these informal ways of communication must not take place in an emailed job application.

Mistake #8: The Message content - ignoring this is THE cover letter
With regards to the body of the email message to which the CV is attached, we observed that many applicants ignore basic writing principles and courtesy rules that would apply to a cover letter (whether hard copy or emailed). Here are some guidelines to remember:

• Avoid blank messages with just the CV attached - as previously discussed. This is like sending a hard copy CV in an envelope without a cover letter.
• Avoid very lengthy messages. Remember, the recipient gets a lot of emails, and his/her span of attention is relatively short on the net; so avoid lengthy messages. Just enough to attract his attention and to give a flavor of who/what you are.
• Avoid spelling and grammar mistakes in your text. To start with, spell check your message. If your email software does not have a spell checking capability, then copy the text on a word document, spell check and return it back! Also read it twice before sending it, to spot errors that were not caught by the spell checker.
• Whenever possible, try and make your message personalized: Dear Mr. xxxx or Ms. yyy. Never ever say Dear Mr. without a last name. (it is incorrect and it sounds cheap); on the other hand, if you do not have a name, then the correct thing to say is Dear Sir/Madam or Dear Sirs.
• Try in your message to mention once the name of the company you are addressing, it shows it is not a mass mail type of message.
• Do not use "artificial" words commonly found in job application emails (or letters); such as: "respectable", "great company" etc..
• Avoid having to explain how you got to know of the company… who cares? We see a lot of "While surfing I saw your web site" or "I was told by a friend about..". This could reflect poorly on your interest in the employer; and does not add any value.

Mistake #9: Sounding desperate
At any price, avoid sounding desperate or dying to find a job. Even if you are, no one wants to hire a desperate person. So do not use in the body of your message sentences like: "I am seeking any job you may have" or I need a job ASAP (as soon as possible)!

Also, avoid in the subject lines similar statements, such as: "I need a JOBBBBBBBBBB!" or "Please just give me a chance"

Mistake #10: The eMail - with multiple forwards
Nothing is more annoying to an employer or recruitment manager than receiving an emailed job application in a message that still carries evidence of having been forwarded from another message. Even worse when the CV is attached to a message that itself is sent as an attachment to the job application email. So instead of the recipient being able to click directly on a word attachment, he/she has to open one or more messages (forwarded as attachments) before finding that precious CV). Do not do that!

Mistake #11: The Message - heavy attachments
In emails, size matters! Some job seekers send emailed applications with very heavy attachment that take for ever to download, meanwhile blocking the "In Box" of the manager they are sending it to.

Therefore you should avoid attachments of certificates, recommendation letters, inserting logos of IT certifications etc… These are not needed at this stage and are of little use. The only exception would be if you would like to include your personal photo. In that case, aside from choosing a really nice one (men: wear a white shirt and a tie, ideally a suit); make sure it is not a heavy file. It really irritates people to receive slow downloads because of numerous/heavy attachments.

Whatever you do, avoid what 2% of job seekers do, that is emailing scanned CVs as opposed to attaching them as word format. Scanned CV are both heavy, look odd and do not allow the receiving manager to save them easily or edit any information they contain.

Mistake #12: Unfriendly formats for message attachments
Some job seekers forget the recipient of their emailed job applications may not be an IT guru or with the time to go out of his/her way to open their CV. Hence, we advise you to avoid sending CVs in Zipped files or in acrobat format (.pdf). Keep the document format simple, "Word" is universally accepted. There isn't a single person on earth who really needs to zip his/her CV or use acrobat. A CV as long as 3 or 4 pages will not be more than 50k. As long as inserting heavy graphics is avoided.

While on the subject of attachments, there is a small minority of job seekers that send their CVs in Excel or PowerPoint formats….. Please do not do that.

Needless to say, avoid sending viruses infected attachments!

Mistake #13: One eMail - multiple CVs attached!
Some job seekers - for unclear reasons - decide to collectively send their CVs together, in other words they would send the potential employer or recruitment manager 2, 3 and sometimes 4 or 5 different CVs as attachments to one single message. This is one of the weirdest things we witness. It has no logical explanation! They are neither saving money nor real effort. It takes 30 seconds to send an email with an attachment. So why do they do this? no clue. It just reflects very poorly on them and their "reasoning". It also increases the chances of all CVs being ignored.

Mistake #14: eMail distraction - password protected.
A number of job seekers, maintain a password on their resume word document. Probably because it is stored on their PC at work, and they would not like anyone to see it. The problem is, removing the password is occasionally forgotten. Not every recruiter will send you back an email requesting you to remove the password. He/she may simply delete your application.

We even witness cases where the applicant is so arrogant, that he / she knows the password is there, and they include it in the body of the text, for the recipient to copy it and have access to the attachment. Those senders have a real logic problem.

Mistake #15: eMail distraction - no attachments.
You may follow all our advice and do like 3% of those who apply for jobs using the email, and that is simply forgetting to attach your CV!!! Double check what you are sending.

While the above advice, sounds obvious and more of common sense, you will be surprised of the number of emailed job applications that break some or all of the above stated rules.

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