We get a lot of emails from job hunters here at TalentEgg on a daily basis.

Some misguided souls send their job applications as replies to our email blasts (don’t do that – click on whatever is in the blast and it will tell you how to apply), while others solicit our non-existent recruiting services (we’re not recruiters, we’re just information sharers).

And others … well, they just FAIL on so many levels by sending us a cookie-cutter email that they’ve clearly sent to a million other marketing and advertising firms.

This one takes the cake, though. Even if we were hiring right now, I don’t think we could get past the fact that this applicant not only sent us one of those dreaded cookie-cutter emails, but he made it obvious by putting every company’s email address in the To: field instead of the Bcc: field.

It’s great that you want a job, but so do so many other people. And some of them are willing to tailor their applications to each company to show they really went above and beyond for this job, and also to show off some of their creative and analytical skills.

When you’re applying for your next job, ask yourself: could this same application be sent to any other company?

If the answer is yes, then you should spend more time with it to customize it to the needs, culture and main goals of the company. You want the person reading the application to say, “Wow, I really want this person to work for us!” Not because you’re an awesome person, but because you’ve proven just in your application that you really want to be there,  you’re passionate about what the company is doing and you can produce excellent work on behalf of the company.