11/13/2002 -- Regular readers of this column know I like to write letters to various groups. I've picked on IT recruiters (see my Open Letter to IT Headhunters), and I put tongue in cheek for my Open Letter to the Customer. Well, all you IT pros out there who are looking for a job, here's two different letters that I'd like you to consider:

Letter #1
Dear IT Job Candidate:

Thank you for your interest in this exciting IT position here at MegaCorp. After reviewing your resume, chatting with you on the phone and/or meeting you for an interview, I would like to make some points.

1. I know this position doesn't require a whole lot of clerical or administrative skills, but I would have thought you'd at least know how to run spell check, you being a skilled IT professional and all. Your resume had so many spelling and grammatical errors, I was tempted to break out my red pencil!

2. I guess you must think I don't get to use my brain much in my job. That's the only reason I can come up with as to why your resume is so convoluted and hard to follow. Wanted to really make me think, didn't you?

3. Thank you for trying to get me out of an important meeting the other day. I almost missed my 3:30 staff meeting, but after waiting until 3:20 for you to call me for our 3:00 phone interview, I decided to go to the meeting after all.

4. Thanks, too, for making me laugh. I mean, you were joking when you said how much you thought you were worth for this position, right?

5. I know technological expertise is quite specialized these days, but I'm assuming you know how to program a cell phone to silent mode. On the other hand, it was kind of interesting to hear about your dinner plans when you took that call in the middle of our interview.

6. And speaking of our interview, I want to thank you for setting a decidedly unprofessional tone. Between your overly casual outfit, use of "colorful" language, and lack of business essentials (a notebook, something to write with, etc.), you really made me feel like I was not at work.

7. Finally, it was good of you to provide me the opportunity to demonstrate my company knowledge. The fact that you knew basically nothing about MegaCorpwho our customers are, where our branch locations are, or even what we dopretty much tells me how much you really want to work for this company.

Based on these items, I regret to inform you that we will not be considering you for this position here at MegaCorp.

Sincerely,

MegaCorp Hiring Manager

Letter #2
Dear IT Job Candidate:

Thank you for your interest in this exciting IT position here at MegaCorp. After reviewing your resume, chatting with you on the phone and meeting you for an interview, I'm pleased to offer you the position! But first, some things I'd like to point out:

1. I truly appreciated the clean, easy to read format of your resume. Your experience was easy to follow, and I especially liked how you clearly summarized your skillsin fact, our HR system flagged your resume for this position because it matched several keywords to what you included in your skills summary. Providing highlights of actual projects you accomplished was a nice touch as well (I was most impressed with the volunteer network upgrade project you did for your church).

2. Thank you for the email follow-up to our phone conversation. Things have been so crazy around here I'm sure I would've forgotten about our interview had I not been reminded by your email. Thanks, too, for coming early and completing all the HR paperwork before our scheduled meeting time. It was nice to be able to devote our entire meeting time to chatting about you and the position.

3. Speaking of the interview, I was quite surprised to see how much you knew about our company. I can tell that you did your homework on us. I know that you must really feel good about working for MegaCorp.

4. I know we haven't talked about compensation yet, but I do want to say that your technical skills, professionalism, and non-technical expertise are very encouraging. I'm confident that we can arrive at a salary figure that is agreeable.

I look forward to a long, profitable employment relationship with you!

Sincerely,

MegaCorp HiringManager

Send Me a Letter&
Of course, no one ever receives letters like these. In the first scenario, the hiring manager would just dump the file and the applicant wouldn't hear anything at all. In the second situation, the company would send out a formal offer letter, full of legalese. But these letters do reflect what various hiring managers are thinking in these scenarios.

Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to make the hiring manager's job of filling this position as easy to do as possible. Seven easy tips:

1. Get as many people as you can to read your resume and then give your their honest feedback.
   
2. Make sure your resume is absolutely perfect. I mean perfect! No spelling errors. No mistakes on dates, or job titles, or company locations, etc. No grammar errors. Also make sure it's formatted properly. Try not to use lots of tables or complex, Word-exclusive formatting.
   
3. Make your resume specific to each position you are applying for. Read the job description, and adjust your resume to emphasize everything about you and your experience that is particularly relevant to the position. BUT NEVER, NEVER, LIE about anything. NEVER!
   
4. Always include a cover letter (or e-mail) with your resume. In the cover letter, take one or two paragraphs (no more) to describe why you would be right for the position.
   
5. Research the company (you do know how to use the Internet, right?). Find out everything you can.
   
6. Always dress in standard, corporate business attire, unless specifically told otherwise (by either the hiring manager or an appropriate HR person). I don't know of any IT position that was NOT offered to a candidate because he was overdressed.
7. Being on time means being early. I recommend 15 minutes. But don't be much earlier than that.

Clichéd? Perhaps. Obvious? Well, it should be! Are YOU doing all these things? I hope so!

Questions? Comments? Post your thoughts below!