What shall I put in email subject box when looking for work?

[Holymoly321]

I'm looking to return to world of worknafter five year break to bring up dc's. I'll be sending speculative cv's to companies via email and justvwondered what I should put in the subject box. Any thoughts? I was thinking of putting 'job opportunity enquiry' - what do people think? Aldo is it better to send email cv or hard copy or both?

Sorry for typos- blooming iPad!

I tend to just put 'enquiry' in the subject line and then get to the point quickly in the body of the email. I've not bothered with a hard copy up till now, but I'll be interested to see what others have to say as I've only got a 50% hit rate for replies!

Interesting chutney. Anyone else have other thoughts?

I was at an event recently where one speaker was promoting the idea of sending things hard copy. He said that emails often go to a general 'info@' mailbox, whereas a letter may be physically opened by the MD's PA (or whoever you are emailing to) and then passed physically to the most relevant person.

People get so overwhelmed with emails that they only open and read the most important. It takes quite a lot of interest to open a speculative email with an attachment from an unknown sender, so you would need to wow the reader in the first 2 lines of your email. Even something quite interesting can easily disappear off the front page of the email list very quickly. As hard copy mail becomes rarer, people become more inclined to at least glance at it.

The advice was to send a hard copy, follow up with an email containing same info (and ref the hard copy) and then follow up with a phone call.

Thanks Venus, that's useful info. Had already sent email, but next time Will send hard copy then email.

Having recently got a job through the speculative route after 5 years as a SAHM - and boy was I glad to get a job! - a hard copy followed up by an email worked for me.

I found I had a much more favourable response (an acknowledgement of my letter/CV at the very least) when sending hard copies. I'm sure people just deleted my emails. It's a lot easier to hit "delete" than to ignore a piece of paper, I think.

The only downside is the cost of good quality paper, ink and stamps - it adds up quickly, especially when you're out of work. Luckily it paid off for me.

Very best of luck, OP - I hope you get some success soon.

Hi wild, have bought the paper so am going to go for it! Congrats on the job, hope it's all going well for you! Can I ask what you said in the follow up email?

Hi incognito,

Thanks for the congrats - it is going well thanks, although not sure how secure the job will be in the medium term given the nature of the industry. But so far, so good!

I left it a week or so after sending in my letter to give them time to read and consider it, etc. Then wrote email saying something like "I recently sent you my CV with a covering letter (copy CV attached) and would be happy to meet with you to discuss any possible vacancies you may have".

I did this for many firms in my local area (in an industry I had worked in before DC) and phoned before sending the letters to find out who to address them to and the relevant email addresses.

I have to say I had several acknowledgements (some by letter, some by email) but only one definite, positive invitation to interview. However, you only need one!

Good luck! It is time-consuming and a bit soul-destroying when you don't get anything positive for a while but worth it I think before trying the agencies. All the best.