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Younger Job Seekers: 3 Reasons Why Your Application Will Be Put in the Circular File (a.k.a. Waste Basket)

January 27, 2009 by sparktalk 

By J.T. O’Donnell

Two years ago, when I first started hiring interns, an eager application came in my e-mail inbox. I was excited. The college junior wrote a nice note explaining how he had heard about my internship and then attached a cover letter and resume for me to review. I immediately opened the cover letter and was impressed. The formatting was proper and the sentences were relatively well-written. I actually consider myself more lenient with college applicants because I know they aren’t experienced in applying for jobs, so some of the word choices and tone didn’t bother me as they would other hiring managers. But then….

There it was, in the very last sentence – the deal breaker that put his resume sight unseen in the “I don’t think so pile.” He closed the letter by saying, “I’d really love the opportunity to work for Bank of America.” Hmmmm. Last time I checked, I was a online start up company, not one of the nation’s biggest banks. Clearly, he had re-used his cover letter on me but had failed to proof it. After two days, I e-mailed him the mistake he made and gave him a chance to make it up by meeting with me. He turned out to be a great candidate and did work for me for a semester. However, I can tell you right now, most employers aren’t that forgiving.

Here’s the deal: In this economy, hiring managers are literally getting 1000’s of applications within days (and in some cases, hours!) of posting them. So, they resort to weeding out tactics to help them pull together a short list of people to consider. One common technique is to simply throw any e-mail, resume or cover letter with a typo into the circular file (a.k.a. the waste basket). Another is to weed out any on fancy paper or with crazy formatting or designs. And, I’ve even heard of one hiring manager trashing anyone who starts their cover letter with, “I’m responding to your ad as seen in….” Is this fair? No. But guess what? Hiring isn’t fair. In fact, my colleague, the best-selling business author, Dale Dauten, says it best: “Hiring IS a process of discrimination.” So, why do you want to decrease your chances of getting hired even further by making mistakes that can get you removed from the process?

Here are 3 reasons why you won’t get considered for the job:

#1 – Sending out cover letters or resumes with typos and formatting errors.

SOLUTION: Have a second set of eyes (that you trust) look at your materials. Then, save them as pdf files so that when you send them their formatting doesn’t get screwed up in the event the hiring manager uses a different version of software to open your documents.

#2 – Being boring, self-absorbed or pretentious in your cover letter.

SOLUTION: Cover letters are NOT about you. They should be about the company you are applying to and why you think they run their business well. You should use examples from your personal experience to share why you are impressed by them – just be sure to use your own voice. Trying to use big words to sound professional is going to backfire. Be authentic, sincere and polite.

#3 – Using a multi-page resume out of college.

SOLUTION: Unless you started working full-time at age 13, you do not have enough experience to put on more than one page. Stick to the facts and list only quantifiable, relevant accomplishments.

There are actually a lot more DOs and DON’Ts when it comes to resumes and cover letters for students and recent grads. What would you suggest? Post your thoughts below…

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Filed Under: Career Advice (Articles), Resume & Cover Letter Design
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Comments

  • Hey,

    Great post. I made this very mistake (wrong company on my cover letter) as I was job hunting before graduation.

    I wasn't taking the time that I needed to in order to be truly successful. I was cutting corners on my cover letter and accidentally left a reference to a consulting company in the body of a cover letter to CPG company.

    I discovered the mistake 10 minutes after clicking "Send" on the email. Needless to say I didn't even get an interview.

    However, it did force me to re-evaluate the way I wrote my cover letters.

    Either way, great post. I'll be throwing a link your way shortly (from gradversity.com)

    Keep up the great work.

    Trevor
  • J.T. O'Donnell
    Thanks Trevor for sharing your story. I'm so glad you agree that it's important for people to know that we all survive these mistakes - they are such great lessons. I have my fair share horror stories of things I did wrong too. I look back and say, "Why didn't some one stop me?!"

    I'm glad to have learned about your site and look forward to reading more www.gradversity.com.
  • CK
    All good points to consider for anyone! One more thing I would add. Like you suggested above, it's not about you. Instead, look at it from the employers point of view - they hire people to; solve an problem, make money, save money, etc.. The question you beed to focus on is "what do YOU bring to the table" to the benefit of the employer? And why you over your competition?

    Achieving a long-term advantage takes some work and planning. To build a long-term advantage, you need to be better at something than your competitors are. And ideally, make your strength, your advantage, something that is difficult to copy. "Everybody wants to pick the low hang fruit." Get good at something that lets you pick the higher-hanging fruit - fruit that is difficult for your cometitors to reach. (from Sun Tzu)
  • J.T. O'Donnell
    Well said CK, it is about differentiating yourself. I love that you quoted Sun Tzu!

    You are a great contributor to this site and I'm so glad you come and comment regularly. When am I going to convince you to write a guest post!?!?

    info@careerealism.com if/when you are interested!
  • Greg
    Yes, I agree with you JT. CK, you consistently provide knowledgeable comments in response to JT's posts so I'd enjoy reading an entire article written by you.
  • These are all great tips. Part of an outstanding resume is its presentation and polish. The next best way an undergraduate can boost his or her resume is by seeking an internship. Check out the blog of staffing agency, Hollister, Inc. to find out about the value of an internship for entry-level candidates. http://tinyurl.com/aj63uw
  • Thanks Trevor for sharing your story. I'm so glad you agree that it's important for people to know that we all survive these mistakes. The next best way an undergraduate can boost his or her resume is by seeking an internship
  • Thanks for this. I think that this will definitely help me find work.
  • Andrew Hennessy
    Often times college students do use one cover letter then just substitute in the comepany's to make it "personalized". As JT stated before, this is not the way to go about doing this.

    Personalizing each cover letter requires actual research about the company you are applying to and using that in the cover letter to show the company you have actually done work to learn about them. Doing this will help separate you from other candidates. Great article!
  • Kristen J.
    What about relevant experience. As an aspiring journalist, is it bad to start back at the high school newspaper, in turn having two pages or should I do a functional since I do have the experience.
  • Nancy
    I have never understood the need for a resume that takes up multiple pages unless you have a long list of published works, awards, or degrees. I think that the are necessary, but not nearly as necessary as they are prevalent. If your career is progressing as it should, your old work experiences shouldn't be relevant because it has led to greater, more complex responsibilities in your recent work.

    I was actually updating my resume yesterday and cutting out many of the details that seemed terribly important several years ago. While those things mattered when it came time to find the next job, the skills from that next job built upon them and made them, well, assumed.

    For example, the fact that I use to run financial reports didn't seem very important when at the next job I was managing data on millions of dollars of sales per month from a international sales force through a multidimensional database system.
  • Kathy Craney
    Excellent advice!
  • Good advice here - I have found that I'm much more successful when being more personable in cover-letters and initial emails. The more cold and emotionless you are, the less chance you'll have at being noticed. At our generations young age - the old adage of 'let your experience speak for itself' won't always ring true, because, in short, we are very limited in our experience. Finding other ways to shine and stand out are what will separate you from the rest.
  • Yes! Thank you so much, that is spot on, exactly what I tell my job hunters. It's a crowded market, and there's no room for sloppiness.

    Love the comment about hiring not being a fair process - those who understand it's a 'skilled game', and play it properly, have far more chance of success than those who assume their natural brilliance will just shine through...
  • I wrote a blog entry on that on something similar on May 11th. See http://elias-acg.blogspot.com, if you'd like. Essentially I agree with the "discrimination" comment - job seekers need to remove ANY non-skill related reason for an employer to discard their resume. One quick example is ringbacks and unprofessional voice mail messages - those tend to turn people off pretty quickly.
  • Great advice!
    What about companies that are using computer programs to weed out applicants before the HR person ever sees them? Is there a way to format resumes so that they don't get passed over before even making it to a human?
  • Camille Franklin
    As a career coach, I disagree with #2. I think cover letters should be about the candiate and what they have the offer the company. Yes, they should show a knowledge of the company in the cover letter but it should not be all about what the company does. They know what they do. I have heard from countless recruiters and hiring managers that they don't want the candidate to regurgitate what the company does.

    Other than that, I completely agree with the advice in this post and enjoy following CAREERREALISM.
  • This was hard for me to believe, but I recently heard a hiring manager on a talk radio show say he's receiving resumes with text message abbreviations in them! His example: using u instead of you. He also warned candidates against using text message abbreviations in emails.

    Some things Baby Boomers (like me) think would be incredibly dumb and defy common sense might seem perfectly fine to young grads who grew up using their thumbs to communicate. ;-)
  • markdavidempremiado
    totally agree. want a professional resume? visit cover letter

  • This is so true. I have a jobs site Jobs For 13 Year Olds. These guys are constantly complaining (in my comments box) that they apply for so many jobs and most the time they do not even get a reply. It is quite sad because they are all so keen to make a good impression. Great article anyway. 2 thumbs up from me.
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