OK, maybe I'm too old-fashioned. Or maybe it's just a sign of not only the times, but also of the industry we're in. And I don't mean the adult industry, but a technology-based industry.
But I've noticed over the course of the last few years while hiring new people that so many of the resumes I see are so poorly put together. The cover letters, most of all, are horrible as well. Most have typos or poor grammar, missing punctuation, or are just extremely short - as in "hey saw ur job post heres my resume thx call me".
Is it just because, being an internet-based business, we hire lots of tech-type people who are used to the informal nature of IMs, emails and forums/boards such as this one? Granted, a programmer should just be able to write code extremely well, not necessarily essays and cover letters.
But when I see a cover letter like that I just assume they raced through monster.com clicking on every posting they figured looked good, hoping a couple would result in a response, and didn't actually read or pay much attention to any.
Moreover, when I see resumes and cover letters like that I just can't help but think the person doesn't care enough about the job, or at the very least care enough about projecting and giving off this impression of thoughtfulness, thoroughness and responsibility. I think "slacker" and pass them by. A good cover letter grabs my attention more than their list of qualifications.
So... am I just outdated? Should I get over it? How about you guys? In jobs you've applied for in the past, did you stick to the traditional rules regarding resume format, cover letter format and so forth? I know when I applied for jobs I'd write individual cover letters for each application, specifically addressing what the posting asked for. I'd even modify resumes to specifically address that job (so my accomplishments or objectives would be specific to that job). If I applied for 50 jobs that day, I'd have written 50 cover letters and 50 resumes and put lots of effort in to each. Not just written "hey heres my resume" and hit "submit".
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