By Joe Redshaw
Is it better to email or phone when contacting a person in the company?
It often depends on your role. I would always tell a salesperson to just pick up the phone and call. That is what they are supposed to do. Most others I would say start with an e-mail, but state in the e-mail that if you don’t hear from them in a few days, you will reach out by phone (that way the person may be more inclined to reply).
How do you identify who the right contact person is when you are applying?
You may not be able to. Often in the job description it states who the position reports to (their title). Go to LinkedIn and search for that company and that title to try to determine who it is. If it doesn’t work and you get the wrong person they will almost always forward it along to the correct person, but you may never know that. So then if you don’t get feedback, you can call the person you sent the resume to and say you sent it a “few days ago”. If they are not the right person they will tell you (and if they don’t tell you who the correct person is voluntarily, ask them). Then once you have the correct person you can follow up with them and/or send your resume.
About Joe Redshaw
Joe Redshaw is the Corporate Recruiter for Gomez, the Web Performance Division of Compuware. He has been a recruiter for almost 10 years and has experience on the agency and corporate side. Joe has screened thousands of candidates and has agreed to provide NEJS his perspective on HR/Recruiter practices.
