Job hunt tips - What do you include in the email?

So what's in your email other than the attached resume? What's your actual written message like? What's the etiquette? What are the dos and don'ts?

A cover letter that is a summary of your resume and written specifically to the company you are applying to.

You have any favourite examples of good cover letters? Yeah, that sounds like a weird question.

Cover letter. The format is fairly standard. Tailor to the company/position you are applying for.

If you know who the hiring manager is, address email to him/her (same thing with the cover letter). I agree that you should tailor each application to the specific company and position.

It really depends on the type of job you are applying to, if it's a high end corporate office job, do a cover letter, especially if you have something important to say. If you are just replying to want ads, it's annoying and a waste of paper. I just hired a general office assistant last month and I received 800 resumes over the course of a week, I didn't look at a single cover letter and anyone that had any sort of defect or irregularity in their resume didn't get a second look.

If you write a cover letter, make sure you know who you are writing it to, call the business and talk to the receptionist, find out who you should be addressing it to, that way they will actually read it.

@kidavenger: I'd say always include a coverletter, regardless of who you're applying to. Best foot forward.

What file type do you guys send your resume in? For some reason, I'm paranoid that the formatting will go crappy for me if I send it as a document, so I've been sending them as PDFs, but now I'm paranoid about them not being able to open PDFs.

Mine basically says I'm not qualified and you shouldn't hire me. I'm currently unemployed. Do I rethink my strategy? No.

@wrighteous86:

What are these defects and irregularities? Are you an HR duder?

Try to find the name of the HR guy or whoever is hiring for that position and include it in your cover letter. I would say it's important to be specific.

@aegon: I'm not in HR, I was just hiring an assistant for myself.

I should clarify the cover letter thing first, all my resumes came in by email, 90% of the emails had nothing in them other than attachments, if they used the body of the actual email as a cover letter, then I read it, but the majority of applicants sent in a blank email with two attachments, one for a cover letter, the other for the resume; I can't see any reason why anyone would ever open that cover letter, if you are putting stuff in the cover letter that you are excluding from your resume; you are making a mistake.

I don't think cover letters are as important now as they were 15-20 years ago because everyone does one and they rarely ever have anything of value in them, people use them as an intro to their resume now, they should be used to make a connection with the reader that may not be appropriate in the resume; like a reason why you want to work at that specific company.

If you are mailing in your resume, do a cover letter, if you are emailing a resume make the body of the email your cover letter.

Spelling mistakes was a big one for me, that and people that had a history of not staying at a job for more than a year went directly in the trash.

Just on those two criteria 800 resumes turned into 30 and I have someone very good working for me now.

@aegon: Hmm, I have my previous cover letters but they are all pretty darn specific to who I am and what I do.

As @kidavenger said, my cover letters are actually the body of the email to which I attached my resume. Additionally all of my resumes are also customized to the position I was apply to but that might be only relevant when you reach the higher levels of experience.

Tell them you are a certified Giant Bomb duder, works every time.

True Story

You should always include a well formatted Excel spreadsheet listing every single one of your flaws

Dick pics.