Bill Belknap and Helene Seiler, in the excellent book For Executives Only, describe a case study in which a client wrote a targeted letter to a hiring decision-maker after already having sent one in response to a job posting for the same job. The authors write:
She tracked down who the hiring manager was and wrote him directly. The hiring manager was impressed enough to ask HR to pull her resume out of the stack, and she was interviewed within a few days.
The candidate began her targeted letter by noting that she had applied for the position through the employer’s Web site. Her next paragraph expressed her understanding of the key requirement of the position. Then, she included a bulleted section recapping significant, relevant career accomplishments. She concluded with a proactive paragraph asking for an interview and noting that she would call the recipient’s assistant to schedule an appointment.
