Fastest Way to Find a Job - Tip 22 Resume Blasts

Resume Blasts

I included resume blasts on my Fastest Way to Find a Job Series not because I like them, but because some job seekers think these are the way to go, and I have a better alternative.

Resume blasts used to be the hot, hot thing back in 1999 and before. When I got my first job back in the early 90’s, I sent out 1000 resumes to hiring managers in my field all over the country….lots of envelope stuffing and stamp-licking. My ambitious peers were doing the same. And then that moved from snail mail to email, complete with services to do it for you. All those people who were doing resume blasts were making a lot of money from providing that service with the lists they had created… although they weren’t getting people very many jobs. Not that they told you that. And now they’re getting people even fewer jobs…because they send emails.

I get the theory: the job search is a numbers game, so you should send your resume out to as many people as you possibly can. (I used that theory myself, back when I didn’t know any better.) SOMEONE is going to have a job opening to talk to you about. That’s the idea behind resume blasts.

But here’s the problem, especially now: No one’s getting email they don’t want. Spam filters take care of that, and you wasted all that effort on something that hits the spam folder rather than the inbox. Plus, now you’re married to that service and give the impression of a spamming mass marketer. It’s not the same as if you wrote that person a personal message.

So I’m negative to resume blasts, but I am positive to contacting hiring managers directly. Why is that different? When you contact hiring managers directly, you are personalizing your message for them. You don’t send it as a resume blast, because it won’t get seen. If it’s not personalized, it will be dismissed because of how “form letter” it looks.

The truth is, the job search is a numbers game…but you have to play it differently than you used to. You have to play smarter, not harder. You have to find enough hiring managers in your field and contact them to give yourself the opportunities you need in today’s market. Most jobs aren’t posted, anyway, so the only way you’ll know about them is if you ask. The key is to find them and send them not a generic resume, but a personalized message that sells you as a potential solution for their problems. That’s the fastest way to find a job.