Hey, how are you doing? Sorry you can’t get through….. Hello there jobseeker, yes you, scrolling through the internet, applying for jobs which interest you. I’m sure you have applied for multiple roles with different companies and your recruitment consultant. Before you send your resume out to the corners of the earth, please make sure you have an appropriate voice mail set up. This can be crucial for you when it comes to landing your new role. Why? Here are few things to consider.

1. You will be receiving calls from numbers you don’t recognise, so you may be hesitant to answer them and so the caller will hear your voicemail message.

Ok we all are guilty of this, our phone starts vibrating and we look down at our glowing screens and see the caller I.D as anonymous, we are in the middle of doing something, or perhaps not wanting to speak to a random stranger, so we let it ring out. If you are actively in the job market, I suggest you always answer that call. But if your caller then hears your voicemail message, it’s this first impression which recruiters or potential employers experience and first impressions, count. A lot.

2. What type of voicemail do you have, is it personalised? Is it one where you just say your name followed by a beep? Perhaps it’s the 10 second version which is converted to text.

How many types of voicemails are there? Well quite a few apparently and I have experienced them all. The best one by far is where the robot is not involved and I hear a small sample of the type of person you are and your character, the one where you say “Hi you have reached … sorry I can’t take your call, please leave your name and number and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can *Beep Tone*” . If that’s your phone message, then you sir/madam, are a legend. If you have the annoying 10 second message voicemail, where I feel I need to rap like Eminem (in his prime) to convey your message, then I suggest you change it. You may not be getting that crucial message the person calling you is trying to convey, or perhaps the machine converts the number incorrectly, ending a potential opportunity, right there and then.

3. Now that you have set up everything….CHECK YOUR VOICEMAIL MESSAGES!

Now this, my friends, is so blatantly obvious in the context of conducting your job search, but you will be so surprised by the amount of people who don’t do this. There have been times where I have left two or three voicemails for a job seeker and they don’t reply, but as soon as I send an SMS, I get a response within the day. Why can’t I always send an SMS you ask? Well it doesn’t hold the same weight as a phone conversation and it’s not instantaneous, also it doesn’t convey tone. Plus it just adds an extra step in the process. There have been times where applicants have responded to a voicemail a few days after, but by then it’s too late, the job has been filled and they are back to square one. So please, listen to your voicemail daily and respond to all messages, even if that opportunity isn’t right you, this time, there may be another one, that is. All it takes is a simple phone conversation with the recruitment consultant. So there you have it, some very obvious yet overlooked things to consider while setting up your voicemail, which will help you land that perfect role.