Author Topic: Slush Pile! (Read 1974 times)

pooka · « **on:** May 05, 2008, 11:15:44 AM »

I'm amazed at how many people are not attaching a cover letter though specifically invited to show their spelling and grammar skills in such. I think I've only gotten 3 with cover letters out of 10, and one was a ludicrous bit of boilerplate sprinkled with "your company".

One of the prettiest resumes I've seen so far appears to be an MS Word template, though a lot of the resumes are in line in the email.

Neutros the Radioactive Dragon · « **Reply #1 on:** May 05, 2008, 11:21:56 AM »

Are they treating their e-mail as a cover letter?

Jonathon · « **Reply #2 on:** May 05, 2008, 11:30:11 AM »

That's what I usually did—the body of the email was the cover letter, and the resume was either attached or in the email after the cover letter portion, depending on what the job listing asked for.

pooka · « **Reply #3 on:** May 05, 2008, 11:55:50 AM »

I haven't had a cover letter as a separate file yet. I've actually been giving people letter grades. C is for some effort at a cover letter, B is for more than a few lines. I've had one A- and an A+, who we might not be able to afford.

If the cover letter is well-composed, I can forgive it being in an email.

Most of these packets-- this avatar sums up my feelings.

Porter · « **Reply #4 on:** May 05, 2008, 11:58:41 AM »

They make you constipated?

pooka · « **Reply #5 on:** May 05, 2008, 12:18:01 PM »

It depends. How much violent wincing until that effect sets in?

pooka · « **Reply #6 on:** May 06, 2008, 07:01:45 AM »

If your email address has "sex" in it, get a different one for the resume. Just a thought. This person graduated high school in 2007, but even so--

I had good intentions early on of replying to people, and I guess anyone who writes again and asks, I may tell them. I may even invite people in a form e-mail.

Jonathon · « **Reply #7 on:** May 06, 2008, 12:22:28 PM »

I just got to look at the first stack of resumes for the upcoming openings here. There was one that was really promising and four that were not. One of the biggest problems seems to be that we advertise this as an editing job, when really it's not, so we get resumes from journalists and tech writers and magazine editors. Production artist is a better title, and it would probably cut down on the number of not-really-relevant resumes we get.

pooka · « **Reply #8 on:** May 06, 2008, 02:43:08 PM »

So they don't realize it's actual editing and not writing management, I guess.

Jonathon · « **Reply #9 on:** May 06, 2008, 02:46:03 PM »

Like I said, it's not really even editing. There's proofreading and source checking of quotes, but that's the extent of the editing-like activities. There's virtually no writing. It's mostly layout work, but no creative work, hence my use of the term production artist.

pooka · « **Reply #10 on:** May 07, 2008, 05:36:12 AM »

But in the same way many language people dislike math, there are art people who are grammar and spelling phobic. Though certainly one can deal with that in the job description.

pooka · « **Reply #11 on:** May 09, 2008, 06:22:46 AM »

I'd narrowed the initial group of 41 down to 9, then I logged into the Department of Labor to cancel my ad there, and found they had another 20+ resumes there. Gone through them. I've gotten to that point where I feel relieved when I find a reason to eliminate someone.

And there's those people I would have eliminated had I seen them now, but because they were in the first 20, I waved them into the phone interview phase.

... aaaand none of those people have replied.

I rather suspect that because I sent it as a mass email with blind ccs, it went into their junk folders. Well, I guess this is my personal variation on tossing half the pile because you don't want to hire anyone unlucky. If that right person is in the State website group, they will be inspired to check their junk folder.

There was one lady who I saw both from craigslist and the state website. I'm pulling for her.