Posting a handwritten letter direct to an employer will help your job application stand out, recruitment CEO says

• It can be hard making your application stand out from the competition when applying for a job.

• But sending a handwritten letter direct to an employer could strengthen your case, James Reed says.

It's hard to make your job application stand out from the competition – but sending a handwritten letter direct to your prospective employer could help, according to a top recruiter.

James Reed, CEO of The Reed Group, one of the UK's largest recruitment companies, told Insider that ultimately, the aim of any job application is to grab an employer's attention.

While some candidates are turning to "new ways" of getting attention, like TikTok and LinkedIn, the "old ways" can be just as effective, Reed said.

He suggested posting a handwritten letter or résumé to a potential employer because they tend to get "so few things through the post these days." He added: "It works, because I don't get many and mainly they're bills, so if nothing else, I'll look at it."

"If it's an organization that you really want to work for and you can find a clever way of getting their attention and making that known to them, why not?" he said. "It might fly, it might explode, but I'm a big supporter of innovation and trying new things."

Reed spoke to the Insider about wider changes within the economy and what it means for recruitment. Amid the labor shortage, some recruiters may widen their net by softening their stance on career gaps, Reed said.

Recruiters can tell when you're not really interested in the role or company, Reed said. "What doesn't work, in my experience, is when it's obvious that you're just applying to lots of jobs — you're sort of you're firing off applications all over the place."

Before applying for any role, it's worth doing your research, Reed said: thinking about how to get an employer's attention and finding out which people to contact at the company. "You can research companies much more easily than you used to be able to," he said.