For anyone who may ever look for a job or who has hired someone - (Callie [:^)] )

 LOL I can't imagine spelling your own name wrong.  But then again, I've been helping screen people where I work, and now I can believe it. 

There was one guy who sent in a cover letter with his resume, sounds like a good idea, right?  Well maybe it would have been if he'd remembered to capitalize "i" instead of leaving it lower case.  I counted, there were 9 un-capitalized i's.  I was amazed.  What was even more amazing was that one of the supervisors wanted to have him come in for the interview b/c he was "so impressed with his cover letter".  Really?  Did we look at the same thing?

Good help is extremely hard to find.  Good news is with all the experiences you've had above....you can cross their name off the "next level interview" list. 

calliecritturs

But what takes the cake??  When she signed the email -- she spelled her **own** name WRONG.  Nope, not kidding -- she has a double consonant in the middle of her last name and her finger was too heavy and she put THREE of that letter instead of TWO.

It happens.  As a person who spends 40 hours/week staring at a computer screen, I can tell you that it is too easy to make a typo and then miss it, especially if letters that are stick-like (i & L come to mind) are used.  They tend to blur together on a screen, depending upon the font. If you are using the 2 ring fingers, which are the weakest, it is easy to push one too many times or not hard enough.   There is also the dilemma of letters that appear one way on the screen, but really are not that at all.  My last name contains the letters r & n which are placed right next to each other.  I can't tell you the number of times people mistake the combination for the single letter m.  See:  rn.  It doesn't look all that different. 

Let's not forget that, aside from fonts, glare, etc., humans have a tendency to read things the way they should be written, so proofreading skills are a must.

Other errors aside, the applicant likely did not notice she misspelled her name because of one of the aforementioned reasons.  Does it make her dumb?  No.  Blind, maybe.  Careless, yes.

Gulp!  A very timely reminder of what to do and not to do on Friday!

sharismom

Other errors aside, the applicant likely did not notice she misspelled her name because of one of the aforementioned reasons.  Does it make her dumb?  No.  Blind, maybe.  Careless, yes.

Exactly -- but my point is when you're sending an email to a prospective employer proof before you press "send".  And actually, the thing that made this stick out so much was the letter in question was a "g" -- and "ggg" was way more noticable than say "lll" or even the "nn" in my name (that looks almost like an M instead of two N's).

And different types of jobs have different requirements -- and in this interview there's a lot of stress placed on how important accuracy is to this position.  Accuracy always trumps speed here -- because accuracy is to critical to what we do.  So it would be reasonable to assume it would be important to reflect that in your communication.

I'm just astonished at the common mistakes people make.    A bit like the guy who holds up 7-11 and shows the clerk his driver's license for the beer he bought.

We hired about 2 months ago and my college classes were focused more on HR (I work in IT) so I get really strict in that mode.  I disqualified almost half the applicants without even opening their files because they did not fill out the application correctly!  You are supposed to fill out the web form and attach a resume and cover letter but almost half the people skipped one or both.  That is SOP for applying for a job!  I would never apply and NOT include both (even if it didn't ask for it).

calliecritturs

Exactly -- but my point is when you're sending an email to a prospective employer proof before you press "send".  And actually, the thing that made this stick out so much was the letter in question was a "g" -- and "ggg" was way more noticable than say "lll" or even the "nn" in my name (that looks almost like an M instead of two N's).

And different types of jobs have different requirements -- and in this interview there's a lot of stress placed on how important accuracy is to this position.  Accuracy always trumps speed here -- because accuracy is to critical to what we do.  So it would be reasonable to assume it would be important to reflect that in your communication.

Thanks for explaining that.  As a person who works in accounts payable and has numerous admin assistant duties to boot, I already understand the importance of accuracy, no condescension necessary.

Does it make me dumb if I make errors?  No. I might make dumb mistakes, but who hasn't?  That is my point.

sharismom

Does it make me dumb if I make errors?

None of the pencils in my office have erasers left on them.  I'm just sayin . . . . . .

Deb W.

sharismom

Does it make me dumb if I make errors?

It definitely makes a job applicant LOOK dumb when applying for a job if they misspell their own name. Sure everyone makes mistakes, but when you applying for a job? A legal job that strongly requires the ability to proofread? You really cannot afford to make silly errors. Sure, everyone makes mistakes, that's fine. I (obviously) make mistakes, fix them, figure out ways to prevent the same thing from happening in the future and move on. Unfortunately, while applying for a job and making that first impression, making a mistake like spelling your own name wrong coupled with numerous grammatical errors throughout the follow up email - yes that would make someone appear quite dumb.

.stacer.

It definitely makes a job applicant LOOK dumb when applying for a job if they misspell their own name. Sure everyone makes mistakes, but when you applying for a job? A legal job that strongly requires the ability to proofread? You really cannot afford to make silly errors. Sure, everyone makes mistakes, that's fine. I (obviously) make mistakes, fix them, figure out ways to prevent the same thing from happening in the future and move on. Unfortunately, while applying for a job and making that first impression, making a mistake like spelling your own name wrong coupled with numerous grammatical errors throughout the follow up email - yes that would make someone appear quite dumb.

Again, I don't need all this explanation.  All I am saying is the applicant may not be dumb, merely careless. 

We have had some funny resumes come through our office, but the funny one I think of, is from Derek's work, he was to interview prospective delivery drivers, and he showed me the resume of one of the women who applied, the FIRST thing I notice on it, is her email:   crazy_lover69@... really???  On a resume! lol!!  Derek didn't notice it until I pointed it out lol we got a good laugh out of it

I don't think making a typo makes someone dumb, even if it is in their own name.  I type fast, which is understandable because I type all day, but often I find myself having to correct my name, when I type it in say an email, because i often type Kauren instead of Lauren lol  I have caught myself numerous times doing that.  I don't think I'm dumb lol but who knows anymore lol

sharismom

Thanks for explaining that.  As a person who works in accounts payable and has numerous admin assistant duties to boot, I already understand the importance of accuracy, no condescension necessary.

Does it make me dumb if I make errors?  No. I might make dumb mistakes, but who hasn't?  That is my point.

Tina - I didn't mean to be condescending.  Truly -- not *all* jobs require a high level of accuracy. Some jobs may require accuracy of one kind over another, and *none* of us are every completely infallible (oh how I wish I could be such even for one day!)

In this case proofing one's own work is more important than other stuff (and I've already proven to myself this morning that *I* can't add two and two and get four! *sigh*).  

This lady's background is in a more customer service position where enthusiasm probably counted for more than it would here.   But she did herself damage with her hasty email, and did the opposite of what she was trying to do in renewing our interest.

Some jobs put pressure on people to "multi-task" (man, any job description for a secretary so often uses "must be able to multi-task" as a euphemism for "Must be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound" that it's scarey) or work very very fast -- but people tend to assume that ALL jobs want/need that.

I just wish she'd listened a bit more in the interview to pick up on what was critical to this job, but she missed it. 

Nor did I mean this woman was unintelligent -- she's smart.  She also was a really nice person, however she did make some really dumb mistakes, and it cost her -- not so much for the particular mistake, but simply because she showed she wasn't careful what she typed before she pressed "send". 

But in this day and age you can't really tell people what they've done wrong either.  You have to send them an email that says something generic and non-critical like "we've decided to go in a different direction" or else wait weeks longer to reply to her to say "the position has been filled". 

Lots of people are still desperate to find work -- thankfully we haven't had to lay anyone off; but in the past when I've been unemployed & "stuck in a rut" of not finding a job I've often wished I could truly get feedback from an interviewer to tell me what the heck I did wrong?    What Lies said above is important -- if you don't follow the basic requests in the ad or whatever has been asked of you when you send in your resume, then you've wasted your own time.  I also think it's really interesting that she's devised that oh-so-simple way to simply weed out a huge share of resumes she's not going to consider because they simply didn't follow directions.  It's a valid idea.

I just feel badly because when people need jobs as badly as they do, they don't realize how easily they've shot themselves in the foot with one silly email.  Making yourself **look** dumb doesn't mean you are ... but it's costly if you can prevent it.

iluvjamison

None of the pencils in my office have erasers left on them.  I'm just sayin . . . . . .

I buy the office supplies -- erasers by the gross.  White out & Correction tape for the typewriter (yes, we still have to use one), and package tape for MY MOUTH sometimes  (that's after I drag my own foot back OUT of my mouth!!) 

I've interviewed dozens of people over the years I've been at this job.  I've seen it all as far as strange interviews.  I will always hire a sincerely enthusiastic person willing to be trained in our methods over someone who looks good on paper.  We can train someone to do the job if they have the basic technical skills but you can't train people to want to work and succeed. 

When I interviewed for this job at age 19, I lied through my teeth about my office skills because I knew there wasn't anything I couldn't learn if I applied myself.  The bottom line for us is, you never really know what someone will be like on the job until you hire them.  If they aren't going to be a good fit for our company, it becomes obvious very quickly and we show them the door.  We've been hoping to add another tech but so far we've gotten nothing but guys who want to convince us what good salesmen they are.  That's all fine but we're hiring technicians who can fix air conditioners, not someone who can sell them.   

My favorite interviews are when the guy brings the whole family along.   

Tina, I totally get your point, btw.  :)