Guest Author - Kristen Welcome

Imagine this: you’ve spent hours fixing and polishing your resume and cover letter until they shine. You’ve spent days poring over job leads to find just the right position to apply for—and the perfect position requires that you apply by email. You check and double-check the email address and send it off with your fingers crossed. When you don’t hear back, you assume that your resume was rejected in favor of more qualified applicants. What you don’t know, however, is that nobody ever saw your resume, because a spam filter blocked it before it was ever viewed with human eyes. It was automatically deleted without notification to you or the intended recipient.

Could this happen to you? It absolutely could…and there’s a chance it already has.

Spam filters usually operate by searching for “spammy” words in email messages and attachments, such as the word “free.” Spam filters can also block any email with an attachment that does not come from a known, accepted address. Here are a few tips to make sure your materials aren’t blocked by a filter.

1. Enlist the help of a computer-savvy friend.

We’ve all got at least one—the friend who has all the tech toys before anybody else. Call and ask her to make sure her spam filter is on and that you are temporarily removed from her “accepted” list. Then send your resume materials to her and see if your materials are blocked by her filter. If they are, they probably would not make it past a corporation’s filter, either. Go through your resume and cover letter and remove any words or phrases that are commonly seen in spam.

2. Don’t use attachments.

Unless a job posting specifically calls for a resume or cover letter to be attached to your email, paste it into the body of your email instead. This will decrease the risk that a filter will block your resume just because your email has an attachment.

3. Follow up with a phone call.

After a couple of weeks, if you have not heard anything from the intended recipient, follow up with a phone call. If your resume was not received by email, offer to send it by fax or regular mail—and do so right away.

Technology provides a quick and easy way to get your resume out quickly, but it’s important not to get lazy and rely on technology alone. By making sure that your emails are received by the intended hiring manager, you’ll eliminate the chance that you might miss a great job opportunity—just because your resume was not received.