It's Hiring Season!--Gripe of the Day

[melodrama]

So it's hiring season!  That joyous time of year when my theatre company prepares to swell its ranks with legions of tech people who will spend their summers making theatre. 

Ads were posted in various trade publications and websites before we left for holiday break.  I came back on Wednesday to 862 e-mails (of course, only 47 were resumes, the rest spam--but still)  In March there is an insane long weekend theatre conference where we'll interview about 200 people in 2 and a half days, but most of our resume submissions come through e-mail.  Although BossMan's name is the offical contact person, I'm the one who actually checks the e-mail box and sorts the resumes.  Since the majority of our potential seasonal employees are college students, I run into a lot of cover letters, e-mails and terrible resumes that make me cringe.

I know that etiquette and professionalism discourage me from smacking stupid interviewees--or at least sending them scathing reply e-mails--it can be difficult to hold myself back.  Which leads me to:

GRIPE OF THE DAY!

I understand that you're applying to many different companies.  It's not so very difficult to write a standard cover letter and just change a few key bits of information for each company you send it to.  If you feel that it's just too much trouble to send 10 different e-mails and you need to send one bulk e-mail to 10 companies, at least use the blind copy function of your e-mail so I can't see all the other places you're applying!


I kid you not, I got a resume today from a girl and there were 10 other companies in the cc line.  Her e-mail read:

"To Whom it May Concern,  I would like to be an Electrician for Your Company.  I think my Electrician skills would make me a valuable asset to Your Company."  ...and so forth.

Not only does this show me that she couldn't care less about my company in particular, but if I can see she's applying to my company and also Really Well Known Company A,  I know that she's either skilled enough to get hired at Company A--in which case she has no business applying to my much much smaller company--or she has no idea how prestigious Company A is--in which case she's probably not skilled enough to work at either place.

So there's the Gripe of the Day.  Please stay tuned for future dispatches from the land of hiring mayhem!

[Rose2Bear]

Makes you wonder how much she really knows about technology if she can't figure out the BCC.

I would THINK someone who knows how to do complex electrician work wouuld also know at least the simple functions of a computer as well, isn't a lot of electrician work with computers?

Maybe I'm completely wrong about that, but in any case, she definetly shows a lazy streak which isn't desierable in a potential employee.

[melodrama]

That's my take also, Rose.  That she is probably aware of the option to blind copy but either it didn't occur to her (and others--she's hardly the only one who has done this) that she should use it, or she just didn't care enough to bother.

[Betsy]

That's my take also, Rose.  That she is probably aware of the option to blind copy but either it didn't occur to her (and others--she's hardly the only one who has done this) that she should use it, or she just didn't care enough to bother.

My soon to be dh teaches computer classes (very basic ones) at a community college. He tells all of his students not to use bcc for resumes or inquiry letters to companies because the companies will assume that if the potential employee is using bcc that they were just using one email for more than one company. Which also isnt good. He does tell his students that they should send individual emails to each company even if it is just copy and pasted from one to the next. Which your person seems to have failed to do.

Now the one time that I cc'd several people on one distribution of my resume was when I was looking in-house for a full time position upgrade from my internship. I dont know if it is redeeming if the various hiring people are all in the same company (and if they would bother to look all had access to my resume on the intranet), but my boss suggusted it and it took less time away from my real work to do it that way.

[NOVA Lady]

  Since the majority of our potential seasonal employees are college students, I run into a lot of cover letters, e-mails and terrible resumes that make me cringe.

I agree with all your frustrations, as I am also responsible for the hiring in my company. I run into a ton of resumes and cover letters that make me wonder about people and its not because they're college students. It takes all kinds

Sorry, its just a little pet peeve of mine, not all young folks are oblivious to social practices and business etiquette.

[melodrama]

its not because they're college students. It takes all kinds

You're right, of course...it's not just the college students, and it's certainly not ALL of the college students.  It's much more a factor of overall laziness than age.

[TaylorMade]

I would THINK someone who knows how to do complex electrician work wouuld also know at least the simple functions of a computer as well, isn't a lot of electrician work with computers?

Maybe I'm completely wrong about that, but in any case, she definetly shows a lazy streak which isn't desierable in a potential employee.

Well, one of my very good friends is an electrician and just this last month figured out how to add an attachment to an email.

If you think about it, when was the last time an electrician came to your house and pulled out a PC to do their work on   (maybe a hand-held power tester thingy, but not an actual PC)

[moongirl105]

I agree with awckiesc.  My late father was a self-employed electrician, and I did all of the computer work for his business.  He didn't even know how to turn it on!

[Virg]

MrsDroege wrote:

"My soon to be dh teaches computer classes (very basic ones) at a community college. He tells all of his students not to use bcc for resumes or inquiry letters to companies because the companies will assume that if the potential employee is using bcc that they were just using one email for more than one company."

I don't mean to sound insulting, but ?!?  How does a company know if you BCCed another company?  I certainly see the sense in not CCing other companies for exactly that reason (as shown by the original poster), but BCC is "blind".

Virg

[Slartibartfast]

they don't know you sent it to other copies, but they see you sent it to *them* as a BCC, so they can assume there were other recipients too.  This sounds like a good lesson, IMHO.

[Rose2Bear]

I would THINK someone who knows how to do complex electrician work wouuld also know at least the simple functions of a computer as well, isn't a lot of electrician work with computers?

Maybe I'm completely wrong about that, but in any case, she definetly shows a lazy streak which isn't desierable in a potential employee.

Well, one of my very good friends is an electrician and just this last month figured out how to add an attachment to an email.

If you think about it, when was the last time an electrician came to your house and pulled out a PC to do their work on   (maybe a hand-held power tester thingy, but not an actual PC)

I guess I was sort of thinking becasue it is for a theatre, a lot of that stuff might be computer-based. I could very wel be wrong, I dont know much about the theatre, but I sort of thought computers and lighting etc go hand in hand, plus I got the feeling from the OP that the girl was younger (college aged) and most younger people know at least the basics of the computer.   But of course, there are always the exceptions.

[blue_bunny_paz]

I agree it's very bad form. I mean, how difficult is it to copy and paste an email? If someone can't be bothered to press "send" a few extra times I really would doubt their commitment.
It could be an innocent mistake, like they didn't realise how they would be perceived, but it's certainly not very professional and what else would they not know how to do?

[Virg]

Slartibartfast wrote:

"they don't know you sent it to other copies, but they see you sent it to *them* as a BCC, so they can assume there were other recipients too."

My apologies.  When I read about MrsDroege's husband teaching computer classes, I assumed he taught classes to computer science students, not the general student body.  CS people can be expected to know how to configure a mail server to BCC stuff by marking it "To:" but the general public generally doesn't have access to do this.  That makes her husband's advice reasonable in general, so I'll eat my words on this.

Virg

[Betsy]

DH teaches the one computer class that all the students have to take at a very small for-profit college. Most of the students are in the two year nursing program. Its just the basics like: How to plug in your computer, how to open word, how to manage your files so that you dont have a million files on your desktop

Edited because I dont read all following responses b/4 making my post.