Emailing CV vs Visiting Company?

n1guy

I got my current job 9 years ago now by sending in a speculative CV.  I’ll admit 99% I didn’t even get an acknowledgement from so I hit it lucky.

So due to an upcoming redundancy and crappy job market (unless you want to be a care assistant) I’m thinking of doing this again.  But I’ve wondered would I have more success going to the company and handing it in vs just emailing it or at the end of the day does it even really matter? I’m guessing it’s more just about luck at the right time anyway.

MorningcoffeeIV

Email it. That way it gets to the right person, rather than having it sit on a random desk somewhere for six months. 

Doshwaster

Depends on the size of the company. If it's a small business then it might make a good impression to drop off a CV at reception. For a major corporate it would just get lost or filed in the recycling bin so best to email it or use their application website

DullGreyGuy

It'll depend heavily on what level you operate at, industry, size of business, how geographically mobile you are etc.

A company with distributed hiring or a small business you may make an impression on the right person by being there in person. Many companies have centralised recruitment and so the chances of a paper CV getting from a random store/office/site to the HR office and being put into the system is fairly slim. 

You could always do both though... drop the CV in person and follow it up with a digital copy by email. 

TBagpuss

I would e-mail it. 
If the company you are looking at has a website, check that to see if there is any information about recruiting or who handles it, however, I would say that in all but the smallest and most  old fashioned businesses dropping it n in person is unlikely to be helpful - not least because it's the sort of thing which people get advised to do by older relatives who think it shows 'gumption', so there's a real risk that it comes across as you being out of touch with  normal business practices 

Exodi

I'd defintely email it - and if you want to win extra professionalism points, email it as a pdf instead of a word document.

It's very unlikely you'll get an on the spot immediate meeting with the hiring manager, so seems like a lot of work to travel somewhere for the 3 seconds of "can I hand this in? thank you".

Personally, I much prefer digital documents - if I wanted to share a candidates CV between departments, it's less work for me having to scan it.

DullGreyGuy

Exodi said:

I'd defintely email it - and if you want to win extra professionalism points, email it as a pdf instead of a word document.

Wouldnt say its particularly more professional but does avoid the outside chance of wrong formatting because of different versions of software etc.

Personally would send it by Word, especially if its going to a HR department or agency. For a start the later will want to strip off your personal contact details and add their branding so that they control the messaging and avoid being cut out of the deal. For in company application there is an increasing movement to reduce racism/unconscious bias and removing names / places of education etc is done as a part to ensure that at least the first stage selection is based on skill/experience not that the interview wouldnt know how to pronounce Ljubomir Srpski 

Yes PDFs can be edited with the right software but most dont have that. PDFs can be imported to Word to be edited but at a much higher risk of formatting issues than if you sent it an ancient version of Word to start with etc.

kinger101

Agree with the e-mail comments.  I've previously appointed someone who sent a speculative CV. After previously being skeptical about whether such an approach would ever work from my own personal perspective. 

I didn't get sent to me directly, as they didn't know I was the right person when they sent it in. But it's easier for someone to forward an e-mail.  Dropping a paper CV off at reception is likely to mean it goes nowhere.  Not out of malice, but the person working the reception desk has 101 things they need to do.

The PDF version is also a good idea.  A nicely formatted CV can end up a mess if it's opened on a different version of Word.


  

n1guy

kinger101 said:

Agree with the e-mail comments.  I've previously appointed someone who sent a speculative CV. Having previously being skeptical about whether such an approach would ever work from my own personal perspective. 

I didn't get sent to me directly, as they didn't know I was the right person when they sent it in. But it's easier for someone to forward an e-mail.  Dropping a paper CV off at reception is likely to mean it goes nowhere.  Not out of malice, but the person working the reception desk has 101 things they need to do.

The PDF version is also a good idea.  A nicely formatted CV can end up a mess if it's opened on a different version of Word.


  

Well it did work for me to get the job I’m getting made redundant from but it was rare to get any form of reply so you could never even be sure if they even received the email, it may even have gone straight to spam. I must have sent about 50, think I got 1 reply and luckily I got that job.