I posted a job opening for a Technical Writer on a Friday.  The job posting stated, “Please email a Word version of your resume along with a cover letter including your salary requirement to my email address.”  Yes, I put the basic requirements in BOLD.

By Monday morning I had received close to 200 emails.  Of these emails:

• Better than half of them were NOT a Word document.  Since the majority of my clients request that I only submit resumes as Word documents, what should I do with these?  What I did was respond to more than 100 emails with a note stating that I am only able to work with a Word document, please resubmit. I know this seems trivial, but in a lot of cases, in-house recruiters don’t have time for this and just skip the email completely.
• Since this was an opportunity for a Technical Writer to write a compelling cover letter, I was disappointed to find that roughly 60% of the emails did not have a cover letter at all.  In fact, there’s nothing that turns me off more than a resume attached to an email with no note at all, no indication of what job is being applied for, or a cover letter riddled with typos, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, or a note that says “Here you go!”
•  Exactly, 197 out of 200 did NOT include even a vague reference to a salary requirement.  I know the general advice out there is that he who states a salary range first, loses.  But desperate times call for desperate measures.  Honesty might just get you noticed.

 The three candidates who actually sent me a cover letter with a salary requirement and a Word version of their resume are the first three I called.  Three people out of two hundred can follow directions!

I am working my way through the other 197 resumes, but if the job is filled before I get through them, well someone who can write a compelling cover letter and follow directions just got a job! 

Yes, one of those 197 candidates might be better qualified, have a more impressive resume, higher GPA, more impressive degree…but since they did not follow the directions in the job posting, it makes one wonder if they are able to follow work directions.

I hope this helps some job seekers understand why they may not be getting an interview.