We're on the hiring merry-go-round again, and I still struggle with the sad fact that most young people just don't get it.
This is a brilliant opportunity for someone... we'll give them a car, pay them an allowance, wind them up and off they go. All we care about after that is performance. They can work whatever hours they like, they can work from home, and they work mostly unsupervised. They just have to pay their way or we're not interested in having them stick around.
Here's an example of one of the applications I received today...
i wish to apply for the pasition you have advertised on the jobsearch website job ID: xxxxxxxxxx This position would be excellent for me has i am tafe learing make-up and beauty. i am a very self-motivated,enthusiastic and have great communication skills. i believe that this position would be ecxellent for me. yours sincerely
That's EXACTLY as it arrived (other than the italics, of course).
I can overlook those pesky capitals, and though I struggle with it, I can even overlook the spelling. What I can't overlook is the assertion that the position would be good for her.
Um... I don't really care whether you think the job would be good for you or not. All I care about is whether you'll be good in the job, and sadly, in your application, there's no mention of that at all.
(In the unlikely even the applicant actually reads this blog, I invite her to re-apply, and do it properly.)
5 comments:
Wow. Not only are you offering a plum position, but you are also very tolerant in your application review. These people should be jumping all over this!
When I was in law school (not that long ago, by the way, I was a late bloomer), it was drilled into us that our resumes and letters COULD NOT have even one typo. One typo would cost us a job. It may not for someone with years of proven experience, but for fresh new JD's, one typo makes the difference between the "call for interview" pile and the shredder.
I can tell you that if I have to look at resumes for our firm, one typo is already a bad sign and the person is unlikely to get a second chance. While we all make mistakes and there are typos in pleadings etc. occasionally, it is not too much to ask (at least of attorneys) to have no mistakes on a resume and letter. It's one resume, and one letter.
And what does "i am tafe learing" mean?
What an idiot. People like that are the ones that drive ten under the speed limit in the fast lane. I think this person needs to go back to digging ditches. (I'm not usually that harsh but if your company will set someone up with all that cool stuff then "i am tafe learing" doesn't really cut it in my opinion.)
That's what is considered a job application these days? Jeebers christos in a bucket.
Back in the day when I culled job applicants for positions I was considered very harsh, you didn't get a look in if the bloody thing wasn't typed, good spelling, grammar etc. It also had to be clean and have no lunacy marks (i.e. lots of bolds, font changes, colours bla bla).
And you had to show how you could DO the job, experience etc. Yep, fussy was my middle name.
TAFE ...stands for 'Technical and Further Education'... the state run college you go to when the course you're doing doesn't deliver an undergrad degree... like "Hairdressing", "Beauty Therapy" or "Bricklaying".
The common use here would be "Going to TAFE". "i am tafe learing..." was probably meant to say "I am at TAFE learning...". (Note that the word "studying" isn't something you'd apply to TAFE, as that would imply some level of homework and out-of classroom application.
And so far, that has been the best of the applications. *SIGH*
Back in the day when I worked at restaurants, when things were slow I would flip through the submitted applications. There was a section on the application requesting three references other than family members or friends. That last part was bolded and italicized. I would throw out most of the applications because they would identify the references as a family member or friend. I actually got into trouble for this because (1) I had no stated authority for throwing away applications (I tried to explain that working with such an idiot who could not follow simple, bolded, italicized directions would impact me severely) and (2) they had no applicants left because the ones who filled the form out correctly all got better jobs. Go figure.
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