Blind Ads
Most ads are blind. Not more than 2 per cent of the advertisers do so under their own names. You will be requested to write to a box number of the particular newspaper. Ninety-nine per cent of the ads will request that you mail a resume. Here are a couple of examples:
Send a complete resume detailing your personal education, employment history, and salary requirements. Box -, Wall Street Journal.
Never send your resume to an advertiser. Do not do so even though he requests you to. Do not do so even though almost every article and every book on job-finding advises you to do just this. Sending a resume is suicidal for getting an interview. It would be better for you to lose a possible interview than to mail your resume. You will make this up later through the greater number of interviews.
Over the years I have known people who have answered thousands of these ads. They mailed covering letters and enclosed resumes as requested. I can assure you from my years of experience that the percentage of those called in for interviews is very small. It is well below 1 per cent. This means loo letters to get just one interview.
I have been told by the personnel director of a large organization which advertises constantly that every ad brings in hundreds and sometimes thousands of replies. These get culled down to a relatively small number to be called in for interviews. If your answer to the ad doesn't single you out so that you stand apart as that one in a hundred or a thousand, you have little chance of being called in.
Therefore, when you answer an ad, simply send a letter similar to, or an adaptation of, your broadcast letter. The returns from such a letter show a phenomenal increase over the answers which include resumes. You will now get one interview for every four letters, or 25 per cent reaction. Sometimes you will get four replies from ten letters. In a recent job campaign, over a four-month period, out of a hundred ads answered this way, twenty-one resulted in inter views. Answering advertisements is actually more productive on a percentage basis than sending out broadcast letters.
Do Not Depend on Ads Alone
You may ask, therefore, why you should not answer ads exclusively. I would recommend this were it not for the fact that there are altogether too few ads. You do not get sufficient interview exposure, and the waiting time is too long between ads. You cannot afford the time, money, or the deterioration of your morale to wait for advertisers; hence, you must obtain most of your interviews by what I call the active and aggressive approach-broadcast letters. This is the reason I rate them of first importance in your job campaign.
Then, too, during periods of depression or recession, there is a decided falling off in the number of "Job Open" advertisements. Can you afford to wait out a depression? Broadcast letters, for some unaccountable reason, bring in as many interview invitations in bad as in good times. This is another reason why broadcast letters are of first importance.
There is also another important reason. Many worthwhile positions are for months in the embryonic or incubating stage in the mind of the boss. These are openings in the making. They are in the talking or "we must do something about this" stage. Perhaps his banker, public accounting firm, or management consultant has pointed out such a necessity, and may have even made prodding suggestions. Sometimes an executive is approaching compulsory retirement in a few years. A successor must be trained. These situations are often weeks and even months away from the action stage before someone finally decides to advertise, get in touch with employment agencies, or pass the word around to sources likely to produce the right person.
Time and again the broadcast letters have fallen on this kind of virgin territory and people have been called in for interviews. No one except the president and one or two others, sometimes not even the personnel department, knew that the management was considering adding to the staff or replacing someone with a stronger person. Often the actual job requirements have not been made definitive.
It is within this area that your broadcast letters count, so don't sit around and wait for advertisements to appear. It is action and continuous action that counts. It creates the momentum that brings in the job you really want.
When you see a job advertisement, you know there is an opening. Surely, no one would spend up to several hundred dollars advertising just for the fun of it. You also get a pretty fair inkling of the kind of job that is waiting. Sometimes the ad will outline definite functional experience wanted. This, then, is your opportunity. You now have a chance through your answering letter to show that you are the person they are seeking. Make your letter so outstanding that you will be that one in a hundred called in for the interview.
This is the time when most job-seekers will run for their pens and papers immediately and write a letter explaining what they think they can do for this employer. They attach their resumes, which undoubtedly are of the functional and subjective self-appraisement type.
The following letter was sent to the officer of a company which advertised under its own name instead of using a blind box number. Avoid making this kind of response:
Dear Sirs:
I have read your advertisement and enclose a resume as requested. Yours is an organization where I believe my full potential for business accomplishment could be achieved with outstanding performance satisfaction to you and to me. Types of work responsibilities in your field should make an unusual blending with my greatest interests and abilities.
After fifteen years of varied business experience, I have come to the realization that a combination of research and analytical writing with the objective of contributing to the wide distribution of worthwhile business and general information is the activity in which I can find my greatest satisfaction.
My graduation from-University gives you assurance that I am good material for eventual participation in administrative policy-making activities.
May I have the opportunity to see you or someone of your organization at a place and time convenient to you to discuss the possibility of my entering your company? An affirmative reply will be very much appreciated. Very truly yours,
The company official who received this letter mailed it to me with the following comments:
This letter seems to me to violate all principles of tact and diplomacy. Does this man really think that he can step in and run our business on a very short notice? Does this man think our business exists solely as a place where he can "realize his full potential for business accomplishment"? Does this man think that his interest and progress constitute the hub around which the universe revolves?
I hope none of you will write a letter anything like this-not after what I have stressed in the previous chapters. I want to add two comments to the ones outlined above.
I. When the answering letter says, Type of work. . . should make an unusual blending with my greatest interests and abilities," my reaction is "Nuts, who cares about the blending of his greatest interests and abilities?" 2. Neither a college degree a master's degree, nor a Ph.D. gives an employer the assurance that you are of management or executive caliber. It takes more than scholastic excellence to do that. If you are just out of school, an employer may give you a chance to prove yourself. After that, you will be measured by your performance.
The close of the letter is what I call the "tin cup" or "pan handling" approach. Never use such words as "May I have the opportunity . . ." It sounds too much like "Brother, can you spare a dime?" Also, never say, "An affirmative reply will be greatly appreciated."
When you see a "position open" advertisement which comes within the scope of your experience, someone has been good enough to set up a target for you to shoot at. A very small percentage of ads may fit your qualifications perfectly. There will perhaps be some little requirement which you feel excludes you. This could be age, education, salary, or experience in a different industry. Do not presume, therefore, that it is of no use for you to answer that ad. Don't take it for granted that you will be ruled out. Let the prospective employer make that decision. If he doesn't want you, he will say "No" or refuse to answer.
I wish I were able to recount the number of people who wind up with a job in a company after answering an ad which they thought was not quite in their line or was out of their reach. They had decided in advance for some flimsy reason that the ad excluded them. Job descriptions generally are so broad that it is impossible for any individual to meet all the specifications. There nearly always has to be a compromise. Don't forget that even the person who is finally chosen for the job will not have all the qualifications; so answer those ads and give you an extra chance at an interview.
Answering ads is like competing in a turkey shoot. There is a long line in back of you and each person is waiting for a turn to shoot at the target. Advertisements in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and other papers are read over the entire United States. Is it any wonder then that advertisers may receive 500 or even 1,000 answers? In this kind of competition, it would seem that you have an almost impossible task, when you write a letter that will result in your being selected as one of the persons to be interviewed.
When you answer an ad, you are always subjected to this kind of competition. This is much heavier competition than you get from a broadcast letter, where you may be the only one who has written about a certain job.
With an advertisement in front of you, "you are now on target." Remember, you get only one shot and no more. Therefore, your answer had better be good. Your letter must be specific. It should leave a sharp, concrete image. It should make the same clear, singular impression that a rifle shot leaves in a target. Do not let your letter be like a blast from a shot gun, which would leave a blurred image. In this situation, it is difficult, I know, to refrain from including in the letter your entire experience and background. Perhaps you hope that one small pellet from the blast might make a hit.
Time and again someone will say to me, "I thought I might be called in for something else when he read about my broad over-all experience." This is not impossible but highly improbable. In reality things don't work out that way. The advertisement that asks for a specialist demands specific experience. If the advertiser wanted a jack-of-all-trades, he would say so.
You are now ready to write the letter. It should conform to the "miracle" formula explained in the chapter on letter writing. The context should be so interesting and compelling that, after the opening paragraph, the reader will want to finish the letter and decide then and there that he cannot afford not to see you. Many advertisements are worded in a very general way. In instances like these, it is possible to use your regular broadcast letter when you answer, without altering it in any way. Simply address the letter to the box number or to the address in the ad. And, I repeat, do not include your resume. Next, there are the ads which outline certain functional experience requirements. It is most important that you spell out each function mentioned in the ad. Now, take out your resume, an all-important factor in helping you to answer ads.
I called your resume your personal Sears catalog out of which you can draw the necessary deeds or "for instances." It is not necessary that you list your accomplishments in the same chronological order that they were performed. Instead, follow the functional requirements outlined in the ad, with one concrete "for instance" after another. Include some measurements or figures for each, if you can possibly do so. Your opening sentence should be of the same "make them sit up and take notice" variety I suggested for your broadcast letter. In fact, wherever possible use the one you finally worked out so carefully for the broadcast letter.
Following is an ad and an answering letter. You will note that the ad lists seven functional requirements-more than one usually finds in an ad:
MARKETING RESEARCH ARE YOU SEEKING REAL CHALLENGE -
For creating ways of expanding current marketing efforts evaluating distribution methods and channels analyzing competitive marketing policies and practices determining market potentials for new products studying territorial potentials and profitability conducting actual field experiments with new marketing techniques recommending broad marketing policy thru personal contact with top management?
We are a diversification-minded Philadelphia company with sales of a half-billion dollars thru both retail and industrial channels. If you have a creative marketing mind, experience in the above areas, and probably an MBA degree, we would like to talk to you about becoming manager of the special projects division of our Market Research and Planning Department. Send your complete resume and an indication of salary requirements in confidence to H-84, P.O. Box 2066, Philadelphia. Our present staff knows of this ad. We are an equal opportunity employer.
This is an excellent example of an applicant's letter in reply to such an ad:
Gentlemen:
I have initiated and managed all your seven Marketing Research Projects as an operating executive and as a consultant, producing the following results:
Turned a long-term loss in the first profit for a 30-year-old line of 100 sea foods;
Established a profitable market in industry and 7 new channels for a 75-year-old household chemical firm; Laid out a five-year program to increase sales by $19 million for an aluminum producer; Programmed sales expansions from under I2 million to over $8 million, realized by two national brand manufacturers; I specialized in Marketing and Research at - Graduate School of Business after graduation from - College. My compensation ideas check out as competitive.
I will be glad to go over the direct applications of my experience to your opportunities in a meeting with you personally.
I call your particular attention to the opening paragraph and the four examples which follow. The opening paragraph sounds like a man with great qualifications and ability who is then willing to follow up his positive approach with specific "for instances." Note that he neither mentions nor includes a resume. He did not state a salary requirement. The result of this letter was that he was called to New York for an appointment. Apparently the "for instances" were too compelling to be tossed into the wastebasket. Try to write a similar letter, so that you will be the "one in a thousand" who will be called in for an interview.
The following ad was answered by another man. He was told during the course of his interview that the employer had received 1,500 replies. The very first screening resulted in 1,400 of the 1,500 being tossed into the wastebasket. This left only 100, or about 6 per cent, of men who had answered the ad to be interviewed. Out of these 100 only 10 were called in for final, intensive interviews and tests, and out of these 10 three were left to compete for the job opening. Here is the ad and the answer that resulted in this man's being selected for an interview.
We are looking for Executive Talent to provide the management nucleus for a new multi-million dollar organization. The positions are of prime responsibility at Vice-Presidential level without standing opportunity for continual growth.
Our Mid-West client is the largest manufacturer of its products in an expanding industry. It is organizing a wholly-owned subsidiary to manufacture and market a related product line based on major advances in design and production methods.
We need several executives with minimum prior earnings of How to Get Interviews Through Advertisers 20,000 per year. These men must be able to function with a group that will welcome the challenge of devising new and unconventional management methods. We want broad rather than specialized experience, with emphasis on Manufacturing, Marketing, or Finance.
Send complete resume with salary requirements
This is the reply:
Dear Sir;
Since you are seeking executives with broad management experience in manufacturing, marketing, and finance, you may be interested in some of my qualifications.
As President and General Manager of a medium-sized manufacturing company, I doubled the output and net worth within three years.
- Developed a new sales organization and marketing program which brought in two years backlog of new business. Won for the company its largest engineering contract in 7 years against industry-wide competition.
- Secured $2 million new equity capital from numerous private sources.
- Completed a 14 million engineering development of the company's principal product.
- As Director of Finance of a large multi-plant manufacturing company, I developed profit plans and conducted financial negotiations for $200 million of sub-contracts. In one year, I turned a 7-year-loss-history into a profit.
- Originated an increment cost analysis, and then carried out negotiations which prevented the termination of $50 million of contracts, saved 13 million in net income.
- As Senior Associate of a leading New York firm of consulting engineers, I planned a manufacturing program involving 10,000 employees. Prevented the loss of millions of dollars' worth of contracts which had been hopelessly behind schedule.
- Increased consolidated net profit 25 per cent of a large industrial company through cost reductions and improved efficiency.
- I am a graduate of the-School where I majored in Financial Management. Am also technically trained with an engineering degree and several years of engineering practice.
Sincerely yours,
Let us review this letter briefly. Note that he mentions specifically each function asked for in the ad: 1) Broad management in manufacturing, marketing, and finance; 2) Engineering design; 3) Production methods; 4) Devised new management methods. He mentions each of these with a quantitative "for instance."
Note also that the advertisement specified "send a complete resume and salary requirements." Both these items were purposely ignored in the answering letter.
Nevertheless, the letter resulted in this man being selected out of 1,500 who answered the ad.
I would like to stress again that it is most important that you answer all functional requirements. Do not merely answer them, but restate each function.
You may be up against someone who has been delegated to do the original screening. The screener may have been given an outline to guide him in selecting which answers to keep and which he can afford to throw away. Therefore, if your letter answers all the requirements, you will probably be in for the first round of interviews. Often the screener does this so mechanically that he may not realize he is doing it.
It is good salesmanship (and should be regarded as such) on your part to restate each one of the functional requirements mentioned in the ad. Every salesman has been taught that it is absolutely necessary to let the prospect know that he under stands his questions and objections. Otherwise the prospective buyer may build up a negative reaction and feel that the sales man is trying to gloss over the answers to the questions because he has no specific answers. Therefore, a good salesman answers by first repeating the question in the buyer's own words. So when you answer an ad in the same way, you are just applying common-sense salesmanship.
The man who answered this ad kept a close tab on his replies. He told me that when he answers an ad which has a specific requirement, such as financial vice-president, he gets a 15 per cent interview reply to his letters. When he answers ads that state broad general requirements, necessitating answers that are not so specific, his interview requests drop to 8 per cent. This bears out my previous statement-the more specific you are in your answer, the greater will be the number of interviews you secure. The following letter is another good example of being specific about your specialty:
Gentlemen:
I originated rental of light equipment in this area. Prior to this, my market analysis guided an industrial leasing company in a 100% growth.
Are you looking for a man who can produce your share of sales in the rental and leasing markets? If you are, you may be interested in some of my experiences.
A general renting company I pioneered here does a volume equal to that of much older companies of similar size.
With a large leasing company, I discovered a potential $30 million market. The market study I wrote was instrumental in obtaining the long-term money needed.
The trend to leasing was demonstrated in a booklet written by me. Mailings of the booklet quintupled leads and resulted in over $i million in purchase lease-back business.
I graduated from the-Business School in Management in 1950 and from--College in Science in 1948. I would be happy to give you more information in a personal interview.
Very truly yours,
The above letter was used by this man both as a broadcast letter and as his answer to advertisements without any alterations. Here is what he wrote me:
This letter was mailed to about 200 presidents. Half of these were repeat mailings and drew 6 per cent interviews. This letter, when used to answer ads, was almost 100 per cent effective.
Would you like to know the results of this man's campaign? He took a job with a large international leasing corporation as Eastern sales manager. He expects to be the national sales manager in a few months. I quote again from his letter; "Declined two positions and am still being sought after by two major companies."
I hope these examples have shown you how to answer advertisements. Now get to work on your letter,
- Use your regular broadcast letter, making use of the box number of the newspaper as the address.
- Use the broadcast letter except for the second paragraph where you refer to the ad and the position.
- Take the ad apart. For each functional requirement, mention a concrete deed with some numerical measurement.
- Never mention salary. It would be better for you to leave that for the interview.
Recently, I talked over the phone to a management consultant of Stamford, Connecticut. He uses newspaper ads to a great extent to attract applicants for jobs he is trying to fill. He said this: "I receive hundreds of letters and resumes in answer to my newspaper advertisements. I am shocked and it breaks my heart to have to toss most of them in the waste-basket. I am sure there must be many excellent men in my discards, but I haven't the time to find this out. Their letters are too vague to be of any help to me."
Now go to it. Answer every ad that seems to come within your sphere. Your letters will get better and more concise and to the point as you go along.
After you have answered advertisements you should receive requests for interviews. Some come in immediately; others will be delayed depending on the number who answered the advertisement.
If you have not received an answer to a job that seemed perfect for your experience, try the following two or three weeks later. Mail a copy of your letter to the same box number of the same paper with a covering letter somewhat as follows,
Dear Sir;
I answered your ad of-date in the-paper. I felt reasonably sure that I had most of the qualifications you wanted. Perhaps my letter did not reach you. I am, therefore, taking the liberty of enclosing a Xeroxed copy. I doubt that you can ascertain my qualifications and personality very well from a written page. May I suggest again a personal interview at your convenience?
Sincerely, Sarah Hunter
The above has been tried by quite a number of people and has proven to be very effective. There may have been so many answers that yours may have been overlooked. Give them another chance.
