Share and Help your Friends With Their Job Search!
Sending out resume after resume to job prospects is made easier by the use of email. Yet, emails can easily be ignored or sent directly to the spam folder if there is a poorly written subject line. For this reason, your job is to craft a nearly perfect email subject before sending your resume into email oblivion.
Is there such a thing as the “perfect” email subject line when job hunting?
It’s been estimated that there are some 144.8 billion business emails sent out daily around the world. That figure is compounded by the fact that human resource managers and recruiters get a huge volume of emails, as many as 100 a day for single job posting. You need to make your email subject line count so that your email doesn’t end up getting deleted before the recipient has had a chance to read through your qualifications.
Tips to Write an Outstanding Job Seeker Email Subject Line
There is a foolproof way to draft an email subject line as a job seeker that will produce positive results. Here are some steps you can take to write an eye-catching email subject line that will leave the hiring manager wanting to know more about you.
Get to the point, fast.
When you are getting down to the business of writing an email to express interest in a particular job or company, start out by knowing what your objective is. Make this known in both your email note and the subject line. HR people appreciate it when a candidate makes their point known immediately. An example could be “Technical Sales Professional Ready to Serve Your Clients”, which is direct but not pushy. Besides, you do not want to exceed 15 words in your email subject line.
Include the job title.
With the influx of emails coming in for every job advertisement, HR and recruitment folks often organize messages by each job title. Use this in your email subject line to help them auto-sort you into the right inbox folder. Note: It’s always a good practice to read through the job advertisement carefully for any special instructions as to what should be included in the email subject line (job ID, title, skills, etc.).
Add local search words.
If the company is only considering local candidates, you will grab their attention sooner if you include a local search word in your email subject line. This tells them you are established and ready to go to work for them long term – not some drifter. For example, if you are looking for a job in South Carolina, you could use “Low Country Native Seeking Long Term Employment as Sales Manager”.
Leave the sales pitch out.
If there’s one thing that will annoy a hiring manager faster than a fly on a horse’s back, it’s the use of sales pitches in an email subject line. In fact, this will increase the odds your email will end up on the spam list, which eliminates you from every future application. Just don’t do it.
Don’t brag or tell stories.
The email subject line is also the wrong space to elaborate on your greatness. It may seem like great fun to do this, but it will get your email ignored. Avoid saying things like “Best Person for the Job” or “If You Don’t Hire Me You Will Regret It”, that hiring managers have heard many times before.
Be professional, but clever.
As you write your job seeker email subject line, consider how you would like to read an email and what would prompt you to open one from a complete stranger? Use a professional stance at all times, but you can inject a little bit of cleverness too. HR people do like a good sense of humor.
Use capital letters for each word.
Marketing studies have shown that when email subject lines start each word with a capital letter, they tend to get opened more. Think of your subject line as an actual subject to a greater piece of content that tells your story. This is proper writing format for any email subject line, even for a job seeker.
In closing, as you write your email subject line as a job seeker, keep the above tips in mind. You can even test a few out on friends and family to see what they open, before sending off a real one to a hiring company.