Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the hidden job market?

A: The hidden job market represents over 75% of the available jobs that are never advertised or even placed with executive recruiting firms.  Targeted mail campaigns have proven to be one of the most effective ways at finding those hidden jobs.

Q: Why should I do a mailing when there is E-mail and Fax available?

A: While Faxing and E-mail are quicker, they are not as effective in presentation of your skills and most of the time gets ignored.  E-mail from unsolicited senders is usually treated as Junk Mail or Spam and is deleted.  Faxes are never received by the executive to whom you are trying to reach and is often sent to HR.  Direct mail is personalized to the top executive and you control the presentation of the documentation.

Q: Why after I place my order does it take one to two days for me to get the listing?

A: After you have identified your criteria for your list and submitted the order, we assign your account to an associate who goes through the data to insure we are sending you the most up-to-date information we have relative to executive name, company address and collateral data.

Q: What should I expect to receive?

A: Once your list has been verified and checked for quality we will send the data via E-mail to the account you registered with as an attachment in the format you selected (excel or Access).

Q: What do I do with the data file once I receive it?

A: We recommend you purchase high quality paper and business envelopes.  Your resume and cover letter should be ready for your campaign.  Using the Mail Merge function in your word processing software, follow the directions to link the files.  

Q: Should I mail all the letters at once?

A: Typically, our clients choose to send out 50 to 100 a day / week while others send out the whole list at once.  The decision is up to you.

Q: How long before I get results?

A:This varies on a client-by-client basis.  While Executive Job Quest does not guarantee results, based on our experience clients tend to get positive results within 7-10 days.

Q: I am an executive with over 20 years experience, how many letters should I send out?

A: Many factors contribute to the success of a campaign like the industry you are soliciting the salary you are targeting and the time of year.  While we do not believe in blind mass mail campaigns, a highly targeted mail campaign can yield excellent results fast.  If you are not sure of the number you should mail we recommend you contact us for assistance.

Q: Why Executive Job Quest?

A: We cannot offer testimony as to the quality of other company’s data accuracy, we update our informational database daily and rebuild the entire system several times a year.  We also use several suppliers to obtain our data so we offer a comprehensive database for you to select from. 

Q: Is this approach right for everyone?

A: It is designed to be most effective for executives, but has been a very powerful resource for managers and directors.  The key is making sure you select the right industries and size of company that defines the environment you work best within.

Q: What if I do a mail campaign and do not get great results – what do I do next?

A: While this rarely happens, over the years we have had a few clients who do not achieve the results they anticipated.  For them we offered our assistance in list selection for another campaign and the list was at a reduced fee.  Our client’s success defines our success.

Q: Why does my list contain duplicate records to the same executive / company?

A: Although they appear as duplicates, some companies have multiple listings.  One listing might be a holding company while others might be branch operations.  In any event this represents a small percentage of any list.  We always recommend that our clients go through the list and do a final review to identify the target companies they want to reach.  

Q: Can I use the data that I purchased for follow-up mailings?

A: Absolutely.  Use the data as a powerful resource to support your search campaign.  Per the terms and conditions, use of the data is limited to your personal use.

Q: Is there a time limit within which I must use the data?

A: No, however given the frequency of change within the business world, we recommend you start your mail campaign shortly after you receive the data.

Q: Are there better times of the year to do mailings?

A: Based on our many years of customer feedback and research mail campaigns done the week of and/or after a holiday get the lowest response rate.  For example, a campaign mailed the week before Christmas through the week just after New Year’s get the poorest results.

Q: If I do the mail campaign should I stop all my other search activities?

A: While targeted mail campaigns have proven to be extremely effective in accelerating a job search with excellent results, we always recommend that you continue to utilize all available resources.  

Q: I have identified my criteria but all I found was 300 companies – what should I do?

A: Unless you expand your criteria, by either expanding your geography and/or selecting additional SIC Codes, this approach will not work for you.  In today’s executive job market, given the competition, if you want to identify a great position fast you need to be more open regarding your selections.  With that said we are not recommending mail campaigns of 10,000+ letters. 

Q: Why is there a 500 record / list minimum?

A: Over the years we have tracked our client’s campaigns and have identified that a 500 letter mailing is the smallest that yielded any results. The effectiveness and results increase substantially with larger campaigns given the same background.  It’s all about having your resume in the right hands at the right time.  Remember IT’S NOT WHO YOU KNOW, BUT WHO KNOWS ABOUT YOU!