LetterAgent
Mail physical letters by just asking your AI assistant.
Yes, you can still fax a resume to an employer, but only when the employer invites it or lists a fax number for applications. Most hiring now runs through online portals, so a faxed resume works best as a follow-up to a real contact, not as a cold application to a general office number.
A fax helps in a narrow set of cases. Small firms, clinics, trades shops, and local businesses sometimes still keep a fax machine at the front desk and read what lands on it the same day. A hiring manager who asked you to fax a resume, or a contact who gave you their direct fax number after a conversation, is also a good case. In those spots, a fax puts a paper copy in front of a person who already expects it, and that beats an email that sinks in an inbox.
A fax hurts when it replaces the real application. Large employers route hiring through applicant tracking systems, and a resume that never enters that system may never be seen by the recruiter, even if a fax machine accepted it. Some firms also treat unsolicited faxes as junk and discard them. If a job posting lists an online application link and no fax number, use the link. Fax only as a supplement, and only to a person who asked for it.
Fax machines print in black and white at modest resolution, so design choices that look sharp on screen can turn to mud on paper. Use a plain font at a readable size, wide margins, and no color, shading, tables, or columns. A single column layout reads best, because a fax machine can split a two-column layout in odd places. Bold headings survive well, but light gray text, thin lines, and small icons often vanish.
Keep the resume to one or two pages. A faxed resume has no clickable links, so spell out anything the reader needs: a portfolio address in full, a phone number, and an email address, each on its own line. Remove photos, logos, and QR codes, since they add bulk and print poorly. Test the result if you can: fax a copy to yourself or print it in black and white first, and fix anything that turns unreadable before you send it to an employer.
| Resume element | Fax-friendly choice |
|---|---|
| Font and size | Plain font, readable size, no tiny footnotes |
| Layout | Single column, wide margins, no tables or text boxes |
| Color and shading | Black text on white only, no gray shading |
| Links | Full web addresses and contact details spelled out |
| Photos and graphics | Leave them out, they print poorly by fax |
| Length | One or two pages, cover note on a separate first page |
Yes, and keep it short. A cover page with the hiring manager name, the job title, your name and contact details, and two or three sentences about why you fit the role does the job. It also serves a practical purpose: if the resume pages and the cover page separate in a fax tray, the cover page tells the reader who sent the pages and for which job. Put the page count on the cover sheet so a missing page is obvious at once.
Do not repeat the whole resume in the cover note. A long cover note pushes the resume to later pages and risks the reader stopping early. One short paragraph on fit, plus a line saying you also applied through the online portal when that is true, is enough. If you did not apply online, say so plainly and give the reason, such as the hiring manager asking for a fax.
Wait a couple of business days, then follow up with the person you faxed, not with a general office line. A short call or email works: confirm the fax arrived complete, ask whether they need anything else, and restate your interest in one sentence. Keep the confirmation page from the fax, with the number, date, and page count, so you can answer a "we never got it" reply with facts instead of guessing.
If the employer says faxes go to a shared tray and no one tracks them, ask whether you should also send the resume by email or through the portal. That question is not pushy; it shows you want the application in the system that actually gets read. If the answer is no, and the fax route is the only route offered, trust it and move on to the next application rather than sending the same resume three times.
Leave off anything sensitive that a shared fax tray exposes: your full home address, date of birth, Social Insurance Number or Social Security Number, and references with their phone numbers. A city and province or state, a phone number, and an email address are enough for first contact. References can be offered on request, which is the standard practice anyway. A fax that sits in an open tray is far less private than an email to a named recruiter, so treat every line on it as public to the office.
LetterAgent fax is available in testing for US and Canadian fax numbers, with a per-fax quote, page count verified, your approval of the exact total, and a one-time Stripe payment. A resume fax is a low-risk use of a testing service, since the stakes are a missed application rather than a missed medicine or legal deadline. Still, confirm the employer fax number first, and follow up with the hiring contact so a testing hiccup does not silently kill the application.
Ready to fax it? Fax with LetterAgent: describe it to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price, and it is sent.
LetterAgent is a working name. Prices include print, postage, and our service fee. US prices in USD, Canadian prices in CAD (Canadian prices exclude applicable sales tax, added at checkout). Currently in private testing.
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