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Here's one email that is very popular in my inbox.

The story goes like this....

"I submitted my resume at the site of , but other than a thank you email, never heard back. I have a lot of good skills and a solid education, why did I not hear back..."

The main reason...

The resume wasn't even read.

Let me explain... all major and mid-sized companies have built career sections on their Websites.

It often tells you about how great their company is, and how wonderful it is to work there. They encourage you to submit your resume and send you a note back thanking you.

This all sounds wonderful... until you realize that after submitting your resume they never actually contact you.
But you can perhaps see why. They want to manage incoming resumes as cost-effectively as possible, even if it means potentially missing out on some great candidates.

So instead of employing people to read resumes, at best, they usually have an internal recruiter or recruiters search the database based on keywords. If your resume comes up on the first page of the search results, great... if not, unlucky.

That's why a better way to do it is to reach decision makers directly. By doing so, the chances of your resume being read by the right person are greatly increased.

So, in addition to looking on the career section, take a look at the company's news stories, or press releases. Here you will typically find the names of key people that you can contact directly.

You are looking to send your resume to the person that you would report into, or to the person above that. So, a sales manager would typically target the sales director.

In addition, the business section of your local library is full of information on companies and the names of people within those companies. A good librarian can be invaluable in saving you time.