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Slightly connected to this--though I agree with you, Carolyn--I
wanted to relate a story about cover letters. Many years ago at one
job where I had a couple dozen writers working for me, I had been
talking to someone at the local STC chapter who wanted to work for
me. A few months later, I had a slot and said "Now's the time! Send
your paper in." He did, with a cover letter, that opened with the
line (including the bold as I've shown it):
"Dear John:
Enclosed, please find my resume for consideration for a position as a
Tecnical Writer."
I stopped reading right there. He's a great guy, but, yuh know, I
just ~couldn't~.
I showed it around to a bunch of the staph. They thought that that
was pretty good, too. I phoned him that afternoon and explained that
I was terribly, terribly sorry but I just couldn't hire him right
then but that I wanted him to reapply. He was much chagrined but he
understood.
The rimshot on this is that I called an old friend who was the Tech
Pubs Mgr at our direct competitor and related the story (without
names, of course). Lisa told me about one that she'd gotten a few
years before for an editing slot that contained the immortal line
"And, in addition, my poofreading skills are excellent." That letter
went up on their departmental bulletin board for a couple years for
all to admire. :)
Yours truly,
John Hedtke
Author/Consultant/Contract Writer
www.hedtke.com <-- website
Region 7 Director, STC
541-685-5000 (office landline)
541-554-2189 (cell)
john -at- hedtke -dot- com (primary email)
johnhedtke -at- aol -dot- com (secondary email)
At 10:54 AM 11/5/2007, cupton -at- syclone -dot- net wrote:
>I received a resume and cover letter (unsolicited) from a young woman
>requesting a job in wildlife rehabilitation. (I do the emails for the
>humane society.) One of her many attributes is being a skilled "typer."
>She is a high school graduate who has managed a phone store for more than
>three years, and there were dozens of grammatical, punctuation, and
>spelling errors in her resume and the cover letter. We are failing our
>kids.
>
>Carolyn
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