Is it a bad idea to hand deliver my CV to a company on spec? [duplicate]

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

Recent events caused me to terminate my employment with my (now previous) employer. I am searching for technical work in my field (programming), with the understanding that if something does not materialize quickly I will need to search for a temporary job, in say food service.

I have submitted 9-10 applications which are directly in line with my career trajectory, and now I want to maximize my chances of landing an interview. My question is this: will it be perceived in a negative light if I show up at these same companies tomorrow and drop off a resume in person? My intention is to make a good impression which will hopefully catalyze interest in my application.

I know that moves like this lower your position at the negotiating table. I'm not too worried about this because I was being paid so far below market value at my previous position that even if these companies underpay me I will still be in an improved situation .

My concern is that I don't want to come off as rude. I won't linger too long, I am just planning on having a brief conversation with whoever answers the door and asking for them to pass along a physical copy of my resume.

manpreet 2 years ago

Don't do this!

This is a terrible idea - It's not the 1950s any more.. unless you're looking for retail or service industry roles unscheduled walk-ins are rude, disruptive and incredibly annoying. At best you're showing yourself as someone who is completely out of touch with professional norms or a bit weird and at worst you're just going to get binned off straight away. Personally I'd go straight for a combination of the two.

If the company has an open position that you match with then they'll be wondering why the heck you didn't just apply using the normal channels and if they don't they aren't going to create one just because some random stranger walked in off the street.

Even if (and it's a very big if) you pass your resume to the receptionist and they intend to pass it on to the appropriate hiring manager it may take some time to get there (if at all - misc bits of paper get mislaid depressingly easily in many offices), or be jumbled in with various other unrelated bits. If it does make it to the hiring manager then the most context they are going to get is a "some random person dropped this in".

Then they have one random hard copy resume to integrate into the rest of the candidates who applied in the normal way - which is most likely electronic and that's generally an irritation. A small one to be sure but do you really want any feelings of irritation associated with your application, no matter how small?