by Career Ambassador, Mark Persinger ’18

First impressions are important. Regardless of how unfair it may seem, people will make spot judgments about you from their first interaction. It’s human nature. Those judgments, whether right or wrong, will create a large part of their perception of you for a long time to come until they get to know you better.

Therefore, it is very important to make a good first impression to a potential employer when you are job searching. Your interactions with a recruiter can make or break your ability to get an interview. This also extends to your follow-up email after your initial introduction.

Follow-up via an email after an interaction at a job fair or other event is the first step in working towards getting an interview. It is also still part of an employer’s initial impression of you so keep it professional.

Here are some tips:

• Keep it short and straight to the point. Their time is valuable. Also, a shorter, well focused, message is going to be responded to more quickly than a longer, wordy message that takes time to process and interpret.
• Keep it formal. Always start off your email with a formal greeting using their full name. This is a sign of respect and professionalism.
• Set yourself apart. If this is your first time talking to this recruiter or even if you’ve talked to them before include some more information about yourself. Especially any skills or certifications that are relevant to the position you are trying to interview for. Recruiters talk to many people over a coarse of a week. Bringing up a past conversation you had with them can help spark their memory to help them put a face to the name if it has been a significant period of time since your last interaction.
• Include more than one type of contact information. This makes you more accessible and if your schedule conflict, you can always do an interview over the phone. It gives your potential employer more options.
• Attach your resume as a PDF. You can save the word document version of your resume as a PDF by choosing Save As and PDF as the new file type. Use a standard format. The example below shows the cadet’s first name, last name, document type, and date. You can also use your name, document type, and the organization for which you are applying as your format as well.
• End with a formal salutation and sign with your full name. Once again, professionalism.

Here is an example: