Most companies who are hiring and run ads on an Internet job board or in the newspaper will probably say “no phone calls please” or something to that effect. Basically, they don’t want dozens if not hundreds of people calling them regarding a particular job especially these days when it’s so easy to attract hundreds of people who might be interested in the same job.
The issue of course is when you email your resume into a particular company, you’re taking your chances that it will actually be read by the person(s) receiving it while it’s amongst the possibly hundreds of other applicants.
If I saw a job posting that states the hiring manager’s name and even if there is no phone number – you can easily get that from the company’s website – I’d consider calling the hiring manager directly before emailing them my resume. This can be a good tactic if you’re pursuing a job that requires you to get on the phone with people and show initiative, like sales jobs or perhaps a public relations role for example.
Alternatively, I might email my resume and follow up the next morning to give the person a chance to read my resume. I did this when I was searching for a recruiter job and had seen a job posted online. When I got on the phone with the hiring manager, I got to answer a few of his questions up front and piqued his interest in my skillset. Plus, it turned out that we both knew a guy who had previously been my manager and had previously been a colleague of the hiring manager I was speaking with.
Guess what the hiring manager did the moment after he got off the phone with me?
He called this guy that we both knew and did a quick reference check on me, to see if I was worth hiring. I ended up getting the job.
Most managers don’t want to weed through hundreds of resumes if they can speak with a qualified person who took the initiative to call them directly. This is especially true if you’re applying for a job that requires phone skills, initiative, salesmanship and other qualities, qualities that you help to prove when you pick up the phone and call the manager instead of just emailing them and waiting for them to call you.
Sure, some managers won’t like the fact that you called them but with any luck, you’ll get a few minutes on the phone to figure out if they’re interested in you and if you’re really interested in them. It might save you the time of having to attend an interview to get the same questions answered in person.
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