Re: How do you respond to job ads?

[Elna Tymes <etymes -at- LTS -dot- COM>]

> At 10:38 AM 2/3/99 -0500, JGREY wrote:
>
> <<Of course, it's ironic that my e-mail decrying awkward line breaks has
> awkward line breaks in it.>>

And Jane Credland responded:

> What's even more ironic is that it didn't have awkward line breaks when it
> arrived in my mailbox.  We must have our line lengths set differently.  I
> was told many years ago that the standard for mailing lists is between 76
> and 80, so mine's set at 80.

All of which points up the reason why I consider it thoughtless and not
terribly well informed to request via email "writing samples" which will be
used to judge a candidate. There are a number of mail programs out there, and a
number of settings within each of those mail programs, and what the candidate
sends may wind up either not making it through the email filter or getting
unformatted or reformatted or lost or unreadable.  And yes, I know about PDF
files. Believe it or not, some mail filters don't allow PDF files through.

So what happens when a hiring manager gets what he/she thinks is garbage
attached to a candidate's resume? The usual conclusion is to dismiss that
candidate, without thinking through just why the sample didn't look good.

As a hiring manager, I NEVER ask for writing samples via email, unless I have
reason to believe that the samples will get through unscathed.  I can scan
samples when I interview the candidate.  Or if I really want samples up front,
they can be faxed or sent via snail mail.  More often these days, candidates
have some web page on which they have posted some samples.

I just wish hiring managers out there would realize that, in their rush to get
through a pile of resumes, sometimes the problem really IS with the messenger
(the email program) and not the message or sender.

Elna Tymes
Los Trancos Systems

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