Cover Letter Follow Up Letters

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
- Albert Einstein

The majority of job hunters keep doing the same thing over and over: sending resumes and standard cover letters to more and more employers hoping something magical is going to happen.

If you want different results you need to take different action.

The Powerful OneClick™ Cover Letters work: and they work even faster when their power is magnified with OneClick™ Follow Up Letters. Persistent follow up makes things happen that seem magical.
Persistent follow up communication works!

While most job hunters keep sending resumes very few follow up. From my personal surveys I have conducted for my own companies and others, less than one tenth of one percent of job seekers send even one follow up letter after sending a resume. That is less than one person out of a thousand!

I recently posted a job opening I had to test this again. The results were even worse. 921 job hunters emailed their resumes to me. After 3 months no one… in fact as of this day not even 1 person has ever followed up.

Most job hunters scan ads, surf the net, and fire off resumes like automatic weapons on a mosquito hunt. Then they wait for a response.

This is a position of minimal action and mistaken assumptions. The majority of job hunters make several deadly job hunting assumptions. They leave everything up to the odds that are already stacked against them.
Just because an employer has not responded after you submit your resume does not mean they are not interested in you.

The Five Deadly Assumptions Job Hunters Make

They assume the employer reads their resume.
They assume if they hear nothing they were rejected.
They assume when the employer has not contacted them after a few weeks the position was filled.
They assume that if they inquire about the position or status of their resume, they will be seen as needy, desperate, or annoy the employer.
They assume sending more resumes to more employers is the best answer.

Why are these assumptions often wrong?

The First Deadly Assumption: Assuming the Employer has Read Your Resume

Some employers do scan or read every resume that comes in. Many employers do not!
Why do many resumes never get read?
• Employers get loads of resumes and simply do not have time to read them all.
• Scores of cover letters do not compel employers to even read the resumes.

The Second Deadly Assumption: The Employer has not Contacted You So You Must Have Been Rejected

If the employer did not get to read your resume you were not rejected.
If the employer did not read your resume because of the quality of your cover letter you were not rejected based on your qualifications for the job. (An exception might be if the job position was for writer!)

The Third Deadly Assumption: The Employer Must Have Filled The Position Because You Have Not Heard Anything

Unless the employer tells you the position has been filled this might not be true. The fact is a great deal of advertised jobs are not filled a month after being posted. This can happen for many reasons including:

• The company has not been satisfied with the candidates interviewed (no one has knocked their socks off.)
• The company has been too busy to hire someone –(While sounding absurd this situation happens frequently.)

Also every company has turnover and the rate is often the highest during the first ninety days of employment. This is why many companies have a probationary period. Hiring is such a gamble many companies soon conclude that a new employee is not a good fit and must be dismissed or new employees discover the job, company, environment, boss, or coworkers undesirable and quit.

The job hunter who is consistently following up will often be in the forefront of an employer’s mind and get the first call for an interview for the repeat opening.

Deadly Assumption Four: If You Follow Up About the Status of Your Resume the Employer Will Think You are Needy, Desperate, or Annoying

Following up after sending a resume shows motivation, persistence, and inspiration. Only the wrong words in your follow up letters can be needy, desperate, or annoying.

Deadly Assumption Five: Sending More Resumes to More Employers is the Best Answer

When they finally get an interview they go home and wait for a call and wonder what happened when they don’t hear anything or get rejected.
You can beat the odds! You can change the numbers of this game to work in your favor.

When You Send Your Resume and Nothing Happens…
That’s Opportunity Knocking
…for You!

Should you follow up more than one time?
Did you ever get junk mail or spam from the same company more than one time? Unless you have no address or email your answer is no doubt an unequivocal “sure!”
Why do the same businesses relentlessly continue to send advertisements, spam, newsletters, announcements, and the latest offers same addresses time after time? Because persistence works!
This is why the right follow up letters work. And you can move ahead of the crowd by sending the right follow up letters at the right time!

A Persistent Job Candidate Sending OneClick™ Follow Up Letters is Hard to Ignore

Many times I myself have been the employer who’s attention was garnered by a persistent candidate. I admit I have scheduled an interview with candidates because they continually emailed me (at the right intervals.)

How to use the OneClick™ Follow Up Letters

Choose the right follow up letter for you.
Time the sending of your follow up letters.
Keep track of what cover letters and follow up letters you have sent to who and when.

Timing:

Send your first follow up letter within one week of sending your cover letter.
Send your second follow up letter one week later (two weeks after sending your cover letter.)
Send follow up letters every two weeks for four months (if you are still job hunting.)
Then send a follow up letter once a month as long as you are job hunting or still desire to work for that particular company.

Topics: Cover Letter Guide |