Sending a job application email can be tricky. Recruiters and hiring managers receive hundreds of emails a day. How can you stand out in your email? Here are four tips you can use to attract the right attention to your job application email.
- Meaningful Subject Line – If the subject line reads “Position Title + Years of Experience + Industry Experience + Education”, the receiver may be more interested in opening and reading it especially if it’s impressive. For Example “Application for Product Manager + 10 year of experience + Stanford EE, Wharton MBA.” Focus on 6 -10 words that highlights your best qualifications. This kind of subject line will attract attention and encourage the email receiver to open your job application email as soon as possible.
- Warm Referral – The best opening line in an email would be “persona X recommended that I contact you regarding this position.” This mean the receiver knows person X and that person is implicitly endorsing you for this position. So before you send in a job application email, see if you can find a warm connection to that company or hiring manager. A warm introduction is still the best way to apply to a job
- List 4 to 5 bullets why you are a good candidate – In the email, don’t just say I am applying to position X and attached is my resume. Summarize why they should care and get a jump on looking at your attached resume. It’s a like a shorten version of a cover letter (no need to also attach a cover letter). The best way is to use bullets as people can read it faster and keep it short (1-2 sentences each) describing why you think you are a great fit for this job. Look at the job description and use their terminology or synonyms to cover all the areas where you have experience.
- Call to follow up – email is not always reliable. You could end up in the spam folder or overlooked just because the receiver is swamped. If you don’t hear anything in a week, call to follow up to see the status of your job application.
If you do these 4 things for your job application email, at least you know you did everything you can to stand out. The rest is up to circumstance and timing. For more job search tips, see my other 60+ articles on job search. I have articles for how to find job, how to write a resume, interview tips, networking tips, and salary negotiations. Best wishes on your job search. I am always in your corner.
Lei
Martin, thanks for sharing your real life experience and add more color to this post. Great point!
Applicants at my job site were required to apply online. The only person who saw the online version of the application was the recruiter in Human Resources. As the hiring manager I only got to see the resumes which were sent to me once per week. The recruiter in HR would screen the online applications based on the job description. I would say that it is important to pay attention to the posted job description. Secondly, you should modify your resume to address the job description. I can’t tell you how many resumes I read that gave me the impression… Read more »