Job Rejection Letter Response

[Chin Diesel]

I saw this earlier this week.

An applicant gets rejected for an editing job for a media company and finds the rejection letter grammatically flawed. For fun she decides to send the rejection letter back with the grammar mistakes corrected. Of course, Murphy's Law applies. Her corrected response includes grammar mistakes too (See her "C" response).

Probably safe to assume her name was circulated amongst HR personnel in the geographic area and the field of employment.

http://www.inquisitr.com/1742162/gr...returns-job-rejection-email-with-corrections/

I am consistently amazed/bewildered at the poor grammar and formatting I see on resumes and cover letters. Basic stuff such as mixed fonts within a paragraph, inconsistent spacing on cover letters, switching bullet formats on resumes, etc.

For anyone nearing graduation or searching for jobs, please do yourself a favor and have your resume proofread by someone else. Also, if you post your resume online via an electronic format, utilize the check resume options before posting it.

Finally take the ten minutes necessary to customize your resume to the job posting. If you waste space by listing an objective, make it specific to each job posting. I wouldn't even bother with the objective, employers know your objective. It's to get the job.

Off the soapbox.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Lol the objective portion is always so absurd.

 

[SubbaBub]

The objective or summary is the most important part of a resume. Ignore it at your own peril.

This is assuming you aren't looking for an entry level job in a non-revenue generating department.

Cover letter is number 2, unless you are a referral. In which case it's number 1. Unsolicited resumes and responses top public postings get a summary read and if it's decent then the rest gets read. At least by me.

If you really want a job, you will tailor everything to the job to which you are applying.

 

[whaler11]

I guess the people I've hired are lucky. I cast a wide net and interview anyone who seems a legitimate candidate in their resume.

I don't think I've ever read a cover letter or reacted to a post-interview email.

In any leadership position I always go in knowing who I'm targeting. I'm willing to trade the upside of an external for the higher probabality they wash out.

 

[upstater]

If any of you have children, have a look at their Common Core approved homework and tests. We're coming across a lot of ungrammatical nonsense.

Here are two from this week:

The 3rd grade is taking a field trip to the zoo. There are 14 students and 2 seats on each bus. How many buses does the school need to take the students to the zoo?

Which of these could be called moist: 1. Rock 2. Cloth 3. Metal 4. Tears

 

[Carl Spackler]

It's going to be a long offseason.

 

[Chin Diesel]

The objective or summary is the most important part of a resume. Ignore it at your own peril.

This is assuming you aren't looking for an entry level job in a non-revenue generating department.

Cover letter is number 2, unless you are a referral. In which case it's number 1. Unsolicited resumes and responses top public postings get a summary read and if it's decent then the rest gets read. At least by me.

If you really want a job, you will tailor everything to the job to which you are applying.

There's a huge difference between an objective and a skill summary.

A summary is essential. It should be the written version of your 30 second handshake introduction. It should be personalized to the job and should be the hook that gets the reviewer interested enough to review the resume.

From my perspective a cover letter hasn't ever helped someone but it can kill an applicant. For me, I expect a cover letter to be perfect and relevant. If you can't get that right, you're in to the no hire pile.

 

[whaler11]

If any of you have children, have a look at their Common Core approved homework and tests. We're coming across a lot of ungrammatical nonsense.

Here are two from this week:

The 3rd grade is taking a field trip to the zoo. There are 14 students and 2 seats on each bus. How many buses does the school need to take the students to the zoo?

Which of these could be called moist: 1. Rock 2. Cloth 3. Metal 4. Tears

I guess I'll take the bait. What's the grammatical error in the first question?

 

[whaler11]

It's going to be a long offseason.

It will be but it's way better when the pedantic items are off topic.

 

[SubbaBub]

There's a huge difference between an objective and a skill summary.

A summary is essential. It should be the written version of your 30 second handshake introduction. It should be personalized to the job and should be the hook that gets the reviewer interested enough to review the resume.

From my perspective a cover letter hasn't ever helped someone but it can kill an applicant. For me, I expect a cover letter to be perfect and relevant. If you can't get that right, you're in to the no hire pile.

Summary is more than just a skill set. It includes what you are looking for in a new position. Hiring is all about fit. It is your first opportunity to show you can be a good fit.

Once you are at it long enough, you start to see patterns with applicants and the results upon hiring. While not everything, having a poorly written resume is not a good way to make a first impression. Depending on the competition/need, it could be your last.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Summary is more than just a skill set. It includes what you are looking for in a new position. Hiring is all about fit. It is your first opportunity to show you can be a good fit.

Once you are at it long enough, you start to see patterns with applicants and the results upon hiring. While not everything, having a poorly written resume is not a good way to make a first impression. Depending on the competition/need, it could be your last.

Agree on all of that.

The trigger for this thread was me having to look at some resumes for positions we were looking to fill internally. My manager gave me a stack to look at since they'd be working for me.



On one of the resumes the summary had all sorts of great information about the applicant. The last words of the summary were "as well as the company". Nice. You want the job because you want the responsibility, the personal growth. Oh by the way you may also help us. Next.

 

[whaler11]

Agree on all of that.

The trigger for this thread was me having to look at some resumes for positions we were looking to fill internally. My manager gave me a stack to look at since they'd be working for me.



On one of the resumes the summary had all sorts of great information about the applicant. The last words of the summary were "as well as the company". Nice. You want the job because you want the responsibility, the personal growth. Oh by the way you may also help us. Next.

If you were hiring people internally why would you read their resumes?

 

[Chin Diesel]

If you were hiring people internally why would you read their resumes?

They still have to apply for the job. I guess it's a quirk of the company, but everyone knows it. I had to do it to get my current job at the company. These are jobs that show up on the company's job site but not visible to general job seekers surfing the company's job site.

 

[whaler11]

They still have to apply for the job. I guess it's a quirk of the company, but everyone knows it. I had to do it to get my current job at the company. These are jobs that show up on the company's job site but not visible to general job seekers surfing the company's job site.

Yes I get applying. I don't get why you'd judge them on their resume and not their track record.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I guess I'll take the bait. What's the grammatical error in the first question?

It wasn't a grammatical error, it was a nonsensical question given the original stem. What would your answer be to this question?

Q: The 3rd grade is taking a field trip to the zoo. There are 14 students and 2 seats on each bus. How many buses does the school need to take the students to the zoo?

A:__________________________

 

[Chin Diesel]

Yes I get applying. I don't get why you'd judge them on their resume and not their track record.

It's a combination of both. The jobs we were looking to fill were essentially taking employees from blue collar hourly in to white collar salary jobs. Anyone applying knows the implications of the promotions. Part of the deal is you know you have to submit a resume. We had a good idea of what we were expecting to see. We were shocked at how poorly some people explained their achievements. All of the applicants that made it through the resume screening software have bachelor's degrees at a minimum and 10+ years experience in the field.

We had one part of the hiring process. Parse the resumes and verify qualifications. My manager had the other half of talking to their existing manager for performance and he also has access to their employee files for performance reviews.

I'm grateful that I was able to start a new career last year. I'm fully aware of the anxieties of the hiring process and the time and effort it takes to get in to the interview room. Call me an but I get offended when people take opportunities for granted or with a laissez faire attitude towards promotion opportunities.

 

[whaler11]

It wasn't a grammatical error, it was a nonsensical question given the original stem. What would your answer be to this question?

Q: The 3rd grade is taking a field trip to the zoo. There are 14 students and 2 seats on each bus. How many buses does the school need to take the students to the zoo?

A:__________________________

Upstater used the very exact word ungrammatical...

I'm no grammar expert so let me know if I'm missing something.

Since I'm a UConn fan I'm not great at counting by 7 but I'm pretty sure 14 divided by 2 is 7.

If the point is that a vehicle with two seats isn't usually classified as a bus... ok.

 

[upstater]

I guess I'll take the bait. What's the grammatical error in the first question?

Compound subject disagreement. The way the middle sentence is written, the meaning is: There are 14 students on each bus. But that's not what the writer meant.

 

[whaler11]

It's a combination of both. The jobs we were looking to fill were essentially taking employees from blue collar hourly in to white collar salary jobs. Anyone applying knows the implications of the promotions. Part of the deal is you know you have to submit a resume. We had a good idea of what we were expecting to see. We were shocked at how poorly some people explained their achievements. All of the applicants that made it through the resume screening software have bachelor's degrees at a minimum and 10+ years experience in the field.

We had one part of the hiring process. Parse the resumes and verify qualifications. My manager had the other half of talking to their existing manager for performance and he also has access to their employee files for performance reviews.

I'm grateful that I was able to start a new career last year. I'm fully aware of the anxieties of the hiring process and the time and effort it takes to get in to the interview room. Call me an but I get offended when people take opportunities for granted or with a laissez faire attitude towards promotion opportunities.

Blue collar to white collar explains the logic. I was just asking why you wouldn't just judge them on their work.

 

[upstater]

It wasn't a grammatical error, it was a nonsensical question given the original stem. What would your answer be to this question?

Q: The 3rd grade is taking a field trip to the zoo. There are 14 students and 2 seats on each bus. How many buses does the school need to take the students to the zoo?

A:__________________________

It's ungrammatical in the sense that the writer doesn't seem to realize that compound subjects both use the same verb in a sentence. He wanted to write, "There are 14 students total, and there are 2 seats on each bus." Instead, he made a grammatical error.

 

[whaler11]

Compound subject disagreement. The way the middle sentence is written, the meaning is: There are 14 students on each bus. But that's not what the writer meant.

Yeah sure if you read it!

 

[whaler11]

It's ungrammatical in the sense that the writer doesn't seem to realize that compound subjects both use the same verb in a sentence. He wanted to write, "There are 14 students total, and there are 2 seats on each bus." Instead, he made a grammatical error.

Have you ever considered they are preparing kids for reading into what people ask for at work?

 

[whaler11]

It's ungrammatical in the sense that the writer doesn't seem to realize that compound subjects both use the same verb in a sentence. He wanted to write, "There are 14 students total, and there are 2 seats on each bus." Instead, he made a grammatical error.

How do you know it was a he?

 

[upstater]

Have you ever considered they are preparing kids for reading into what people ask for at work?

Not getting you. People ask for nonsense at work? And what kind of work? If a lawyer had written that, it would spawn 17 more lawsuits.

 

[whaler11]

Not getting you. People ask for nonsense at work? And what kind of work? If a lawyer had written that, it would spawn 17 more lawsuits.

It was a joke about reading into one's bosses' wishes. They are often vague.