Friday, June 11, 2004

The easiest way to not get a job

Rules for the perfect ways to assure that you do not get a job that you are going after can be found on this post at Seth Godin's blog.  From the post:

Last month, I posted a bunch of notices looking to hire summer interns (yes, we're set, thanks). The ads asked people to send in a three page PDF, describing their background, their goals and giving applicants a chance to really stand out and make their case.

HALF the people sent in a resume. Just a resume.

"Here's my resume" was the total content of at least 20% of the cover notes I got.

Point in fact, the easiest way to ensure that you will not get a job you are applying for is to not read the instructions.  Further, if you are applying for a job with a person that weekly bears their ideas, thoughts, comments, way of thinking for free on a blog, you have an unlimited resource to tailor your resume to that person.  And if that person has published books, you should read them (if you can't afford them, go to the library - yes, libraries still exist; some of Seth's books are even available for free in PDF if you search hard enough).

Seth's looking for a free prize, hell that's the name of his newest book.  I'm imagining the people that were accepted for the job at least made the effort to present Seth with their free prize; if they didn't, they could have beat 50% of their competition just be following the instructions -- pretty good odds when you really consider it.

Be great!  Sell yourself!  Make that HR person that reads resumes say "WOW!" and run down the hall with your resume.  You can be great within the rules/instructions that are provided by a HR department.

No comments: