The 2-Hour Job Search, Second Edition by Steve Dalton

Author:Steve Dalton [Dalton, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale
Published: 2020-04-20T16:00:00+00:00

How will they know who I am if I don’t tell them my background?

Remember, we are relying on social norms here. The more we try to justify our request for a contact’s time, the greater the risk of shifting them away from easier social norms to harder market norms.

That being said, some history is helpful. However, that history should not be an attached resume! I don’t know about you, but I tend not to open email attachments from strangers.

In high school while first learning to drive, I came up with something I now call the Boot Theory that may prove instructive here, and it goes like this: don’t look at anything on the side of the road while driving. If you do, it’s very likely you’ll see an animal who met an untimely end, and you will be sad. However, if you’re lucky and you see a nonanimal object on the side of the road—for example, a discarded boot (true on multiple occasions, thus the name)—you won’t feel better. It’s not a classic lose-lose situation—it’s more like a lose-meh situation—but regardless, no good comes from looking at the side of the road while driving.

Opening attachments from strangers is also a lose-meh situation. Opening a job seeker’s email attachment may not give you a computer virus, but it certainly won’t improve your day.

The only good time to send a resume is after one is requested—never before. Sending an unrequested resume subverts the stated intent of your email (learning) and signals both desperation and a lack of social grace. If contacts want to know more about you, they will ask or look you up on LinkedIn.

However, especially if you have a common name, I do recommend having a signature file at the end of your email that lists your contact information, including the shortcut to your LinkedIn page, which you can customize on LinkedIn’s settings page. There are nearly five thousand people named Kevin Lee on LinkedIn. Thus, if you’re named Kevin Lee, the chance your contact will be able to find your profile quickly without a direct link is slim. A LinkedIn shortcut in your signature file is subtle enough that it will be spotted by those seeking more information about you but safely ignored by those who don’t, ensuring you win either way.

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