If you are an active job seeker and subscribed to any career advice newsletters, you are familiar with one of the latest trends in job search – massive resume posting that allegedly enables your resume to get to more than 1,000 potential employers. Is it really effective? Shouldn’t every resume, let alone a cover letter be tailored in accordance with what an employer is looking for? What is that detail (or two) that makes your resume stand out in a crowd?

In today’s economic situation the competition gets incredibly high. It is only half of work to get your resume to a potential employer (or a huge number of them), the other half (and probably the most important one) is to raise an interest by the potential employer to your resume and make them call you for an interview. If you were a hiring manager, who receives tones of applications, what resume or cover letter would attract your attention? That one that starts with lifeless “dear madam/sir” or another one with your name, your title and your company’s name on it? Inevitably, the latter would make you think that the candidate is interested in applying particularly to your organization as he or she made the time to do some research and customize their resume accordingly. Thus, address your cover letter to a real person. Do your best to find out who that real person should be.

A positive thing in the massive resume distribution, though, is a chance to cover the biggest number of potential employers. And eventually, you may receive much more telephone calls and even invitations for an interview. But there is no guarantee that amongst those calls there will be the one you would be willing to proceed with. Can the massive distribution of resume eventually offset the careful reviewing of posted jobs on job boards or any opportunity that comes up otherwise, researching on the companies, customizing your resume, and applying to a specific position you really want to get?

There is also another thing that slightly undermines the idea of the massive resume distribution. Many organizations nowadays use their own applicant screening tools (software) and there is no way you can be seen by recruiters unless you access specific postings, fill out on-line application forms, and answer pre-screening questions. It does not mean that recruiters in such organizations do not accept paper-based resumes at all, but the thing is that they would hardly give them priority while screening.

Resume distributors allege that faxing 1,000 resumes to the right hiring managers can yield from 10 to 50 quality responses. We are not going to challenge this statement. Most likely, it is true. However, we must not overlook one detail. Having sent your resume to 1,000 potential employers, it is truly hard to predict where you get those 10 to 50 “quality responses” from. And what could be worse than not being prepared to receive a phone call from a company that you’ve submitted your resume to. Many HR professionals complain that it is always disappointing to catch someone off guard when calling them about their resume. Such phone calls tend to end up quickly without a following interview.

Even if you are an organized person and keep track of all companies you submitted your resume to (quite possible with modern technology), it is hard to recall immediately details of one particular job/company, if it is one of 1,000! Quite an opposite impression you will make, when you enthusiastically demonstrate your knowledge about the company after looking through the company’s website or other materials and even ask thoughtfully prepared questions. Remember: you will never get the second chance to make the first impression. Both HR professionals and hiring managers are more interested in candidates who are willing to apply particularly to their organization and know the organization well – not just looking for a job.

Also, there is another reason to question yourselves, whether quantity can really offset quality. And this reason is location. Can all 1,000 companies of interest to you be possibly located in a desirable area, unless you are willing to relocate?

Having said all this, we do not deny, however, some effectiveness of this resume submission method. It is actually a proven fact that the more companies receive your resume, the higher chance is that you would hear from some of them. Nevertheless, we would recommend being more discreet in sending out your resume. The good idea is to develop several rounds of resume application, starting with most desirable potential jobs and employers.

P.S. Several advantages of submitting resume by fax are discussed in “Resume Faxing” article.