This might be a silly question, but here goes: is it better to apply for a job opening via e-mail or regular mail (snail)? I see some companies give their regular address and also an email to send the job application to. I would think most people these days apply via email and having that in mind if one applied via regular mail, would that not help them stand out from the pile of other applications? What I mean is, if an HR department in a company A received 50 e-mail applications and 1 snail one, they might say to themselves, 'wow, this guy/girl put in more effort into applying. We will give him/her better consideration'. Am I onto something here or am I over-analyzing this?

99% of the application, in my experience, depends on the physical appearance, just as 99% of the interview depends on your personal/character appearance (not on what diplomas you may have). The quality of the paper, the overall look of the portfolio, the appearance and wording of the cover letter (for God's sake, be sure to have flawless orthography!).
Take a week for writing your application if you must, let it read by independent people, and don't be cheap on the materials. Even if it costs you 20 bucks alltogether, it's a one-time investment, and it's a good one.
And, just as important, don't be agnostic. Know what you apply for, and refer to it, make sure they understand that you know what you apply for and why.

I've only ever written a single application for each job that I wanted in my life, I've had an interview each time, and I went home with the job I wanted every time. At the same time, I have friends who are more qualified than I am by their school/university grades, but who fail to get a single job after writing a dozen applications.

Personally, I deem it somewhat hard to make a good appearance with an email, as it lacks the physical medium.
On top of that, you never know if a human will ever look at your email at all. It might just end in the spam folder, too.
A physical application, on the other hand, is guaranteed to be reviewed by at least one human person -- the secretary.

This is like flipping a coin. Most HR people use email and sort applications that way. Makes it easier to print out a resume and to generally manage you within their system. Using snail mail will introduce an extra step for them(scanning what you sent in) if they have an electronic system.

So, in some companies, this extra step could annoy them, or it could give your app some extra attention.

From what I've heard from most HR reps, and my own personal experience, they get tons of apps. If an app makes their job take longer, it gets tossed in the trash. One thing I've found is that employees don't appreciate anything that makes them have to work more. This is why I would avoid mail if they listed an email address.

A much more effective method for getting noticed is to make sure your list of skills matches as closely as possible the list of required skills for the job. Our recruiters almost always pass these type of resumes on to us for consideration for an interview. Remember, an HR person may not know much about the field, so they are looking for keywords that were given them by us, the developers.

>> is it better to apply for a job opening via e-mail or regular mail (snail)? They might say to themselves, 'wow, this guy/girl put in more effort into applying. We will give him/her better consideration'.


Don't do that.

You are giving them a reason to throw out your application. And usually they will take advantage of that reason and throw it in the trash.

The whole purpose of HR departments is to reject as many candidates as possible. Part of the hiring process is to eliminate the pile of bad applications and reduce it to a very small stack of the best applications.

Failure to follow simple instructions puts you in the "bad" category.

Check the company web site for information about how to apply for jobs. Most companies either prefer electronic submission or require it.

If their web site says to use email, then use email. If it says to use an online form, then use the online form. If it says to use traditional postal mail, use it.

email

We prefer email.

I had good luck with email. Just don't send out massive quantities of the same resume to 100 employers. Take the time, as someone said earlier, to customize it for the job you are applying too.

Sounds like the consensus is to use e-mail, which actually makes my life easier (no going to the post office).

Thanks all.