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Glenford Smith | Two fatal slip-ups of jobseekers

Published:Wednesday | September 25, 2019 | 12:00 AM

As a jobseeker, there are two fatal mistakes that you don’t want to make. The first is the overuse of the personal pronoun ‘I’. The second is to do a generic résumé and cover letter, photocopy or print several copies and mail it off to various companies or their principals.

There are first-time jobseekers or people who do not know these basics. Don’t feel bad or embarrassed if this includes you. We all were once at this stage, myself included. The Career section is here to help you get comfortable with the job-hunting process.

Recently, a friend who is the chief executive officer of a company showed me a cover letter with seven paragraphs, five of which started with ‘I’. The letter was obviously written to make the writer look good. And it did that, if the reader was looking for someone with glowing credentials.

The problem is, the reader of your job application letter has very little interest in how good you were at school. Neither do they care about how cool it was for you to have won Miss University of the West Indies. These become interesting only when they have been convinced that you are intimately aware of their major problem and you demonstrate the readiness to solve it.

The overuse of ‘I’ is an indicator of a person who is highly self-absorbed and self-centred. You may not be like that at all. But you’ll be taken as an arrogant person who cares only for ‘I’. Nobody wants to work with such a person. Your employer wants to know that you’re a team player who puts the company above yourself.

The generic résumé is the second classic mistake of some jobseekers. And your employer can tell if yours is such a proverbial mile away.

The lack of company-specific reference is a dead giveaway, especially in the higher brackets of jobseeking. For instance, you not only need to know what problems are likely to crop up in a computer network, generally; you put yourself in the lead by showing a familiarity with your employer’s computers and the specifics of the problems they are having.

The cover letter must be addressed to a specific individual. That shows a degree of familiarity with the company.

When you are writing your résumé or cover letter, your aim should not be to include all of what you think is your best assets. Read that again. Rather, your goal should be to tailor your application to the particular company. Include the parts of your résumé strategically to create alignment and interest.

Don’t get me wrong. The generic résumé can be used as a good guide in writing your résumé and cover letter, especially if you’re just starting out. But under no circumstance should you just copy it and send it off to a bunch of employers.

An employer can spot such a generic résumé or cover letter easily. If that happens, you may be left wondering why you have heard nothing from the company. That may be because your résumé and cover letter were thrown in the rubbish bin.

Glenford Smith is president of CareerBiz Coach and author of From Problems to Power and Profile of Excellence.

careerbizcoach@gmail.com