Friday, October 16, 2009

The Importance of Capitalization

Dear People Looking for Work:

Use capital letters. And proper punctuation. And correct spelling. I don't think I can emphasize this enough. Which is RIDICULOUS! Because you're a grown up and I'm assuming you have made it beyond Kindergarten and know the difference between a big letter and a small letter and when the appropriate time to use them is.

When I get your resume and it's entirely in lower case I throw it away. If you don't spell your previous job titles correctly, I throw it away. If you use the phrase, "I seen," I throw it away. When I give you a typing test and you tell me that the reason why you only scored 20 wpm is because you forgot to use capitalization I don't even bother looking through your application. I throw it away.

When you don't use capitalization I imagine you're a 14 year old girl stuck in a remedial English class texting me a resume your boyfriend helped you prepare. It's okay that if at one point you were 14 and stuck in remedial English, I would never hold that against you. But if you're over 18 you should know by now that your name needs to be capitalized.
If I get one more email that reads, "i seen your ad heres my resume call me," I'm going to spit. And I hate spitting.

Regards,

Rachel

7 comments:

Angela said...

That would drive me BONKERS.

Camille said...

"I seen" makes me cringe!

The Katzbox said...

How do you keep from taking Prozac...or Zoloft...or any one of a number of anti-anxiety meds? You are my new hero...or sheroe...

Bronwyn James said...

What is happening to our race? I don't understand how so many people have lived 18+ years and gained so little common sense. Sigh. People.

The Katzbox said...

I'm afraid that people simply speak their "voice"....and that is frightening....it's one thing to do it casually among friends, but in a business setting? When your livlihood depends on it?...Really? I keep coming back to this because it's so disturbing...and the spitting part is funny...the word "spit" is funny.

I may blog on funny words..."spit" is one...as is "weasel"...

Stephanie said...

Do you think people would actually change if they knew that this is how you weed out the first round? Or do people actually get jobs with these resumes at places that don't care as much?

I'm perplexed!

Rach said...

Thank you, Rachel, for saying something I have been thinking for a long time. It amazes me to read classified ads that I am sure are written by a grownup with a college education that are completely unintelligible. No puncuation, no capitalization, apostraphes in the most inappropriate places, and shortcut words that only avid texters understand. Even if it's a great deal, I hesitate to call, because I'm not sure if what they're selling is an elliptical or a motor boat.