Answering Newspaper Ads
Go ahead and answer ads in the newspaper. Some people actually get jobs this way. The problem from your point of view is that it is such a low probability activity.
When companies
place ads in the newspapers, they often get huge responses. It is not uncommon to receive 400, 500, even
1,000 responses to a particular help wanted ad.
The person on the receiving end of that paper deluge has a problem. There is no way that 100's of people are
going to be interviewed. At best 5 to 10
people are going to be called in for an interview. So there sits your answer to the ad in the
pile of 100's of others. The odds of you
getting a call are very low. And it has
nothing to do with you. It is mostly out
of your control. So when people tell me
that they sent out 100's of copies of their resume in answer to ads and they
never got any response, I’m not surprised.
Nor, at this point, should you be.
It simply is a very low probability activity for the job hunter. But should you respond to newspaper ads? Yes, of course, you should. People get jobs that way. You might be one of them. The point is that you shouldn't base your
whole job search campaign on answering help wanted ads in the newspapers.
If you're going to
respond to ads, then you should at least do it correctly. Figure 1 shows a typical ad. Figure 2 shows a typical response. The first paragraph in the
letter give the date of the ad, the name of the newspaper, and the title
of the job that you're applying for. The
reason for this is that a company may be running many ads and, if you have
little chance of getting a response, you have no chance, if your letter gets in
the wrong pile. Next the letter spells
out point by point how your experience and qualification match the ones spelled
out in the ad. You may feel that a
particular requirement is not germane to the job at hand but the fact is that
your opinion doesn't count. If you feel
that putting these requirements in a table is a little heavy handed and doesn't
match your style, then by all means, express the thought in another way. If you make it easy for the person reviewing
the resumes and letters to include your letter, then maybe yours will land in
the interview pile rather than the trash pile.
Notice that the
phone number is included in the letter. There is nothing dumber that an answer to an
ad that doesn't prominently display the phone number. But I have seen it. A person who
otherwise would have been interviewed, wasn't because they didn't include their
phone number and the interviewer didn't know how to reach them by phone.
Don't respond with
a form letter. This is a negative that
could be used to put you letter aside.
Remember that the person doing the initial screening is looking for a
way to put each and every resume aside.
Any negative will do as an excuse in this stage of the process.
My natural
inclination is to say not to try to be cute in your letter to get
attention. However, this sometimes works
if you hit the right note with the screener.
The problem is that you have no way of knowing what the right note
is. It's out of your control.
Notice that the
request for salary history is not honored.
If it turns out that your salary is slightly above what is the salary
range for the job being offered, then you won't be interviewed. If you are interviewed, and they decide that
they want you, most companies can adjust their salary ranges to match your
experience.
Don't send in your
letter right away. Let a few days after
the ad appeared go by before you mail your letter. The reason for this is that on the receiving
end, you get the major response on the first day and then the number of letters
dwindles. When do you think your letter
has the best chance of being read; on the day when 600 letters arrive or on the
day the 5 letters arrive?
MANAGER,
MANUFACTURING for a small plant in SE. Must have 5-10 yrs.
exp. with plastic inj. molding. TQM and MRP exp desired. College deg.
required. Send resume and salary history
to
Figure
1 - Typical help wanted newspaper ad.
Dear Sir:
This is in response
to your ad in last Sunday's Morning Star
Newspaper for a Manufacturing Manager.
The following shows how my experience fits your requirements:
Your Requirements
My
Experience
5-10
years Experience as a I
have 8 years exp.
manufacturing manager.
Injection
Molding I
have 13 years exp.
MRP Helped
install MRP.
APICS
certified
TQM Started
quality circles
College degree BS in Industrial Eng.
As you can see, my
experience fits your requirements quite well.
Please call me,
Sincerely yours,
Figure
2 - Ad Response Letter.