# PSA to job applicants: Follow Instructions! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 16, 2009, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-to-job-applicants-follow-instructions/517734 "2009-11-16T03:17:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-to-job-applicants-follow-instructions/517734/41 "2009-11-19T18:53:46Z")
> [@Obsidian](#): > > Sales is a different animal, and is the only field where this is acceptable-- and might even be a plus if you can pull it off. Exactly. In sales, you _want_ aggressive sharks who don’t hesitate at trying to close a deal. Taking the initiative for a sales position is as much a demonstration of the necessary skills as submitting a writing example is for a copywriter position. It is not necessarily a desirable skill for other positions. Like I said in an earlier post, I do not have a sales mentality. In fact I usually try to stay as far away from sales as I possibly can. This is a bit of a hindrance in the job market, as it seems every other job is a sales job (and the rest are medical, freaking Phoenix). ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-to-job-applicants-follow-instructions/517734/42 "2009-11-19T19:10:51Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > The webpage’s form asks you to give the submission a title and specifies “do not use something generic like ‘high quality’, most customers will disregard those.” I know that phrase really, really well… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-to-job-applicants-follow-instructions/517734/43 "2009-11-19T19:43:10Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > What sort of screen process would you recommend? That the first level HR person read and consider every single resume that comes in? > > That’s what cover letters are for. > > If your cover letter consists ofand no one bites, that’s your fault. > > Looking at the applicant screening process, the OP’s position is rather unusual, in that an actual human is doing the first round of elimination. Most large companies I know of have three levels your resume must pass through before it lands on the hiring manager’s desk. > [ol] > [li]A computer screening program that will scan the cover letter for keywords. If your cover letter does not have the keywords, usually found in the job posting, it will not even get to be seen by a person.[/li][li]A person who has about thirty seconds per cover letter to determine whether an applicant _may_ be qualified for the posting.[/li][li]An HR manager who examines the resume to determine whether the applicant is qualified.[/li][/ol] > > The cover letter is the key. Let me recommend the [T-Letter](http://www.techwr-l.com/articles/employment/tletter). The author of that article recommends just sending the T-letter, and then making the company ask for you resume. I think that’s… (how to put this nicely) fucking nuts. I will testify that after sending out two resumes a day for eight months being just as descriptive as you seem tot be, I switched over to the T-letter, and got two interviews within two weeks. > > Good luck on getting a job. This T-letter idea is great! I don’t think it f’ing nuts at all but brilliant! Looking back, I’ve always done a version of this in my cover letter…I took what they wanted and made sure I covered it in the cover letter…the idea of doing it up-front like this in 2 columns with no resume could very well work! Plus, it helps them eliminating you from consideration for trivial/irrelevent/stupid reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-to-job-applicants-follow-instructions/517734/44 "2009-11-19T20:51:30Z")
> [@BlinkingDuck](#): > > This T-letter idea is great! I don’t think it f’ing nuts at all but brilliant! I’m afraid I wasn’t clear. The T-letter is great. I credit with the fact I’m currently employed. Sending in a T-Letter _without_ a resume, on the other hand… ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-to-job-applicants-follow-instructions/517734/45 "2009-11-19T22:03:10Z")
What does the T in “T-letter” stand for? ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-to-job-applicants-follow-instructions/517734/46 "2009-11-19T22:10:14Z")
Huh, this could explain a lot. I have been looking for work for 7 months. Mostly through job boards, but all have been online. State, federal, city, county jobs, state job employment agency, you name it, I get on it every day. They all require me to fill out some asinine application form as well as upload my resume. WTF is a resume for if nobody even looks at it? I used to write a detailed cover lette (about 3-4 paragraphs), but after not getting any bites, and taking the advice of my last job (which was in an HR), I cut it down to one paragraph (or two small ones). Still no bite. I was spending so much time custom making cover letters and generic ones weren’t cutting it, so I just stopped with the cover letters. I got two interviews with no cover letters (zero with cover letters). Take that as you would. I’m still not employed though. I think I might link to my website once I get some evidence it does something other than look pretty. (most of the development is back end admin type stuff, I can’t just let anybody log in and mess it up). ETA: Love the idea of a t-letter. I’m gonna set one up now. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-to-job-applicants-follow-instructions/517734/47 "2009-11-19T22:16:03Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > What does the T in “T-letter” stand for? It comes from the lines you draw when setting one up by hand. One horizontal line to separate the headers of the columns from the content, then a vertical line down the middle to divide it into two columns. I actually remember doing something similar now in my freshman business classes, though I can’t remember what the objective there was. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-to-job-applicants-follow-instructions/517734/48 "2009-11-19T22:19:27Z")
> [@Obsidian](#): > > If someone can’t be bothered to type anything beyond “here’s my resume”, then obviously they aren’t as interested as the people who did bother to write something in the damn email. They may not be as interested because they have to apply at 200 places a week, which is just as annoying as having to screen 200 resumes. Also, even if they aren’t interested enough to put a meaningless cover letter, they might be the best candidate for the job (I know a lot of places don’t even read them, hence the other strategies for getting people to see your resume, like a “[value proposition](http://www.jobbait.com/valueprop.htm)”) ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-to-job-applicants-follow-instructions/517734/49 "2009-11-19T22:31:16Z")
The T-Letter wouldn’t help me at all. Since I hire people to work on my team as Dev or QA, I’d first be looking at your resume for your attention to detail. Any resume I get with poor formatting or poor spelling gets chucked immediately. Plus, I very much need to see what languages you’ve programmed in, as in all of them, not just the ones in the job posting. A natural progression with pieces missing, or listing experience with technologies that have been replaced w/o also listing experience with the technology that replaced it, are both telling. Finally, since (believe it or not) software development is a relatively small industry, one in which I’ve been employed since 1992, I will know quite a bit about you based on what companies you worked for, when, and for how long. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-to-job-applicants-follow-instructions/517734/50 "2009-11-19T22:40:47Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > The T-Letter wouldn’t help me at all. > > Since I hire people to work on my team as Dev or QA, I’d first be looking at your resume for your attention to detail. Any resume I get with poor formatting or poor spelling gets chucked immediately. What format do you prefer? Just out of curiosity. I have a pretty generic one, I’ll PM it to you if you are interested (I have it in web format actually). I’m 32 but am pretty new to resumes, as I worked in Warehouse/production before college and was largely unnecessary. Also, I noticed before that the format I chose didn’t have supervisor or contact info for the jobs, and was wondering if that was why I didn’t get replies. I added it to the resume, but I have no idea on what kind of reception that is going to get. (also, do you only put pertinent experience to the job you are applying for?) ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-to-job-applicants-follow-instructions/517734/51 "2009-11-19T23:32:39Z")
> [@Epimetheus](#): > > What format do you prefer? Just out of curiosity. I have a pretty generic one, I’ll PM it to you if you are interested (I have it in web format actually). I’m 32 but am pretty new to resumes, as I worked in Warehouse/production before college and was largely unnecessary. Makes no difference to me. By the time they get to me from HR or wherever, it’s a hard copy. By formatting I mean are there obvious spacebars instead of a tab or hard right-margin, or a hanging bullet, or curious uses of different fonts for no discernable reason, or silly point-size changes between lines, or strange uses of text formatting, or poor paragraph spacing…basically if you couldn’t use your own damn resume app successfully enough to show me you know what you’re doing, why would I waste my time asking you to write / test _my_ app? And on a related note, one of my favorite “cover letters” from [Daily WTF](http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The-Designers-Cover-Letter,-Temporary-Web-Siter,-and-Scaring-off-Female-Candidates.aspx). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-to-job-applicants-follow-instructions/517734.md?page=2)