The Five Questions That Get You Hired Off One Message

Ten people answered. They read four of them.

Post a job on a weekday and the answers stack up fast. The employer is reading them on a phone, at night, deciding tomorrow's crew. They are not comparing careers. They are looking for the person who is clearly going to be there at 7.

Every message that does not answer that question in the first line gets skipped, and most of them do not answer it at all.

One: can you be there

Say the day, the time, and the place back to them. "I can be there Thursday at 7 in Overland Park."

It sounds too simple to matter. It is the single most common thing missing from the messages that do not get answered.

Two: have you done this kind of work

One sentence, with a number in it. Four months of concrete. Two years of warehouse nights. One season on a landscaping crew.

If you have not done exactly this, say the nearest thing and be straight about it. Employers hire honest beginners constantly. They do not hire people they catch guessing.

Three: what are you bringing

This is the line almost nobody writes, and it is the one that moves you up the list. Boots, gloves, hand tools, a truck, a license.

Every one of those is a problem the employer no longer has to solve at 6 in the morning.

Four: do you have a question

Ask one real thing the post did not cover. Where should I park. What time do you want people on site. Anything you want me to bring.

A question gives them something easy to reply to, and a reply is how a message becomes a job. Do not ask about pay if the pay is in the post.

Five: does it read like a person

Six lines, plain words, no capitals shouting, and not the same paragraph you sent to nine other jobs. Employers can tell, and it is the fastest way to be passed over.

Put those five together and it looks like this. "Hi, I can be there Thursday at 7 in Overland Park. I have done four months of concrete on driveways and two years of general labor. I have my own boots, gloves, and hand tools, and a truck. Where do you want me to park?"

That message takes ninety seconds to write and it beats a resume on this kind of work every time.