Those First Lines...

... best not make them blurred. Your first contact with a company or a recruitment agent will often be through email, either to apply for a job or enquire about vacancies. Remember, even if you're not applying for a role in your first email - you will still create those vital (and hard to shift) first impressions from this very first contact. So, assuming you've already created a nice professional looking email address, let's look at some examples of emails I have received. Imagine YOU are a recruiter and see what you make of them... (remember these are the complete emails - all the words I received are there - no bits missing...)

"got ne jobs"

".........." (with a CV attached and no subject line)

"Dear Mr Susan* do you have any jobs available in your company? thanks"

"hi, looking for jobs in south area, cheers xoxoxo"

"applying for job"

"is job aval?"

"I want job wokring 2pm-4pm mon tues wed and sat only, not office thanks"

So what did you think? I would love to say these are not typical examples of the daily communications we receive  - but they very much are. I won't say they were disregarded purely on the basis of these emails, but the first impressions formed because of these was not hugely positive. My issue is not literacy (or difficulties with it), because the odd typo (although distracting) is not indicative of a lack of trying. The emails above however, scream 'lazy' to a prospective employer. These people couldn't even take the time to write full sentences, or even find a name to address the email to. Some don't even bother writing ANYTHING in the email body and just attach a CV, and with my psychic powers somehow I am expected to know which job they are applying for.

The final example above is an issue because recruiters are not a bespoke job creation service. Chances are they will not have any jobs like this and it would better to start off a conversation with them indicating you are looking for a flexible role and that you are willing to compromise etc to enable a dialogue which might actually get you somewhere. Treating recruiters like a build-a-job service will stop you in your tracks if you don't appear to be willing to discuss it (even if you actually aren't able to budge at the moment).

Also, informal additions such as kisses and hugs should really be avoided, "many thanks" "kind regards" "sincerely" are all sufficient.

Just take a little bit of time to find out the name of the person you are emailing and get the title right. It's always helpful to pop the job title in the subject line as well. Then take a few minutes just to say which job you are applying for/want to know more about and then sign off in a polite manner - double check words are spelt correctly and don't use slang. Simple as that, it only takes a few minutes to ensure your first contact with someone is respectful, polite and professional :)

*not actual name