This week I had a candidate tell me that she had applied everywhere in the market and there are “obviously no jobs” in the market. Indeed, she had sent out over 50 resumes, each addressed to the Hiring Partner. For clarification, they were literally addressed to “the Hiring Partner” – not to the actual hiring partner.
When someone doesn’t take the time to do even the smallest amount of research on the firm, their resume has no chance. A simple Google search (or even just reading the firm’s website) will oftentimes give you a clear answer of the name of the person to whom you should address your cover letter.
I have to imagine that firms that do not have an immediate need will take the generic cover letter and resume (and this candidate actually has a great resume) and file it appropriately in the trash. Even those firms that have an immediate need will likely pass on her because she hasn’t demonstrated a good attention to detail.
The lesson is this: do your homework. If you absolutely MUST send in a blind resume (and if you read this blog you know how we feel about that) then you have to make it persuasive. You can’t demonstrate your excellent skills when the first line of your cover letter shows that you didn’t care enough about the firm to poke around on their website.
Firms know when you are just “going through the motions” and sending resumes. The results are always lackluster.