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&lt;p&gt;It&#39;s really frustrating applying to jobs on the internet. You spend a lot of time poring over your cover letter, reworking your resume, Googling the right person to address your application to (and making sure you&#39;ve got their name right), and then waiting days, weeks, and even months for a response that often never comes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That&#39;s why we have really mixed feelings about the 3,000-word &quot;advice&quot; email that one company sent its 900+ rejected job applicants.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Openly acknowledging that they&#39;ve already picked the 50 or so candidates who made the second round of the hiring process, the company nonetheless sent a long letter of &quot;helpful&quot; tips to everyone who applied.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Framed as a point-by-point list of &#39;should&#39;ves,&#39; the email comes across more as a venting session of a fatigued hiring manager than an honest act of goodwill to jobseekers. Which is hard for us to get behind, since we&#39;re very firmly in the corner of a job seeker here.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I mean, put yourself in the applicants shoes here. Gawker wrote that one recipient saw the email subject line (&quot;&lt;span&gt;You applied for a position at my clean tech news site&quot;) and&lt;/span&gt; thought he&#39;d made the second round--&quot;but then I realized I&#39;d been Bcc&#39;d, along with 900 others, on my own rejection letter.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That was way harsh, Tai.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Still, there&#39;s a lot to be learned from hearing from someone who just sifted through a huge pile of resumes. The advice that the author of the email offers is likely stuff you&#39;ve heard a million times, but it&#39;s exactly because we&#39;ve heard it so much that we tend to try to bend the rules a little in our own searches.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bad idea.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here&#39;s a few choice excerpts from the letter--click over to &lt;a href=&quot;http://gawker.com/5896584/heres-how-to-condescend-to-900-job-applicants-with-a-3000+word-rejection-letter?popular=true&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Gawker&lt;/a&gt; to read the email in full:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;- &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Don&#39;t brag about not doing things you&#39;re not supposed to do.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As Shea, the hiring manager, writes, &quot;There is no reason to ever tell a prospective employer that you won&#39;t do something you shouldn&#39;t do.&quot; Point taken. If you have to tell an employer you don&#39;t have anger management issues or you use spell check, they&#39;re going to wonder why you don&#39;t know these things are the bare minimum.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;- &quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Don&#39;t talk yourself into being filtered out.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As Shea notes, &quot;An application email is not the place for over-zealous humble self-awareness.&quot; (He also notes, later in the email, that it&#39;s also not the place for your stand up routine, which we must agree with).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Though it&#39;s not a good idea to be an &lt;a href=&quot;/blog/resumes-cover-letters/10-cover-letter-mistakes-to-avoid-courtesy-of-one-very-bad-cover-letter/&quot;&gt;egomaniac&lt;/a&gt;, don&#39;t waste space talking about qualifications you don&#39;t have. Tell the company what you &lt;em&gt;can&lt;/em&gt; do, then, as Shea advises, let your work speak for itself.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;- &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Don&#39;t tell me how great this job would be for you.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Employers are assuming that, if you&#39;re applying, you want the job. They won&#39;t be swayed by any mentions of financial difficulties, or your difficult job hunt.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;-&lt;strong&gt; &quot;Do read the ad and do exactly what it asks.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This particular company&#39;s job posting gave specific numeric requirements for work samples, social media links, and length for a qualifications summary. Then, as Shea notes, one person sent 11 clips instead of 3-5.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It sounds like a no brainer, but seriously, follow directions in a job posting. It&#39;s the easiest way to prove that you&#39;re consciencious--especially when, as this Shea notes, the company says that &quot;attention to detail&quot; is important. D&#39;oh.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;- &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Don&#39;t start every sentence in your application with &#39;I&#39;,&quot; &lt;/strong&gt;and &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Don&#39;t send me your picture.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These separate critiques are part of the same problem: getting so caught up in trying to prove how great you are that you forget to focus on what the company needs and how you can provide it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That&#39;s really all a hiring manager needs to know.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;--Cathy Vandewater, Vault.com&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Read More:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gawker.com/5896584/heres-how-to-condescend-to-900-job-applicants-with-a-3000+word-rejection-letter?popular=true&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Here’s How to Condescend to 900 Job Applicants With a 3,000-Word Rejection Letter&lt;/a&gt; (Gawker) &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/resumes-cover-letters/10-cover-letter-mistakes-to-avoid-courtesy-of-one-very-bad-cover-letter/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;10 Cover Letter Mistakes to Avoid&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/resumes-cover-letters/10-cover-letter-mistakes-to-avoid-courtesy-of-one-very-bad-cover-letter/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;How to Deal With Job Search Anxiety&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Cathy Vandewater

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