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April 25, 2012 10:03 AM

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Why sloppiness is killing your job search

By: Suzanne Lucas

(iStockphoto)

(MoneyWatch) I do edit the letters that come to me. Mostly I shorten them. I try not to change word choice or do something that would take away from the writer's original voice. I will, generally, clean up small grammar errors, as heaven knows we can't afford to have editors following us around all the time. (But, boy that would be a great job market for those unemployed English majors.)

I received this email this morning:

in my life ive only had one job. that job was th at i was manager of a small business owned by my parents. does that count as experience. lets say i apply for a job as an hr assistantwould a job working as a manager/cashier for my parents be considered relevant experience.

I left this email as is because it shows a critical error that I see happening more and more often -- adopting super casual writing styles for all types of writing. This is something which must stop if you ever hope to get a job in the real world. Grown ups find the lack of capital letters combined with the sloppiness completely grating. And let's face it, grown ups do the hiring.

I want every person to solemnly swear on a stack of grammar text books that they will never send another email without capital letters. Use Firefox and you get a built-in spell checker that will automatically tell you when you've made glaring errors. I'm not asking for perfection -- small mistakes are normal. But general sloppiness is not appropriate.

I can hear the protests now -- this person isn't asking YOU for a job, so why does it matter? Because it's precisely this type of behavior that comes back and bites you. When you send a carefully crafted email to a recruiter and, joy of joys, actually get a response, if you're in the habit of being sloppy you may respond as above.

There are some people out there who can get a job despite bad grammar and the lack of a shift key, but you are not one of them. Those people are the geniuses who have such unique skill sets that it is a job seekers' market for them.

This is not you. You are normal. You need all the help you can get. And when you reach out to someone in the business world -- be it an advice columnist, a recruiter or an expert whose brain you'd like to pick -- you need to use standard writing techniques.

And, in answer to the question -- yes, working for the family business counts. Treat it like you would any job. You don't need to mention that your boss was your mother/father/aunt. If it comes up, be honest. But, being related doesn't mean you weren't working.

Have a workplace dilemma? Type up your question, run it through a spell checker, make sure there are sufficient capital letters and send it to EvilHRLady@gmail.com.

Suzanne Lucas
>> View all articles
Suzanne Lucas spent 10 years in corporate Human Resources. She's hired, fired, and analyzed the numbers for several major companies. She founded the Carnival of HR, a bi-weekly gathering of HR blogs, and her writings have been used in HR certification and management training courses across the country.
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by SUZAMBA April 25, 2012 9:04 PM EDT: This is the results of our society? Children, as well as adults fail to write, much less speak proper English. It seems to be a "THING" of the past, or so I'm told by many? All you have to do is look around and listen, it's horrible. I'm told, "Were old school?"; Reply to this comment


by allaboutwork April 25, 2012 4:54 PM EDT: Thank you for saying this. It needs to be heard.
Fiona McQuarrie
http://www.allaboutwork.org; Reply to this comment


by ds3434 April 25, 2012 3:16 PM EDT: I'm going to be honest here--more than once I have had difficulty determining if a cover letter/email/resume was sloppy or the product of someone whose native language is not English. Any tips on how to address the second group without offending or being charged with discrimination?; Reply to this comment


by lelnet April 25, 2012 2:59 PM EDT: "Many think that whatever goes in 'real life' is fine for the job hunt."

No, that's not the real problem. The real problem is that there are people in this society so dense and so sheltered and so coddled that they imagine this sort of thing is acceptable in "real life".

If one of my _friends_ sent me that email, I wouldn't consider them my friend much longer. Let alone someone looking for work.; Reply to this comment


by jkemm April 25, 2012 2:31 PM EDT: Excellent points. As a former college English teacher, I applaud any attempt to help clarify the sloppiness in any kind of writing today. I have a 4th grader, and I'm seeing that she is getting a good start in writing. Already she has a grasp of punctuation, grammar, and the need to revise her essays for class, not only the grammar or spelling but also word choices and the need for details. An article like this definitely points out a critical need if one would like to succeed.; Reply to this comment


by hessmj April 25, 2012 1:53 PM EDT: Great piece, Suzanne, and a subject very close to my heart. Many of my public speaking appearances are at colleges and most are on this very topic (in fact I did a career day keynote at a university last week, and touched on this quite a bit). Unfortunately, many students -- and for that matter many people already in the working world -- either are unprepared, don't realize how important it is, or don't care.

Many think that whatever goes in "real life" is fine for the job hunt. And like you, I have drawers full of entertaining, but sad, examples of grammatically horrid letters, text/thumb-speak, and on and on.

I always tell the students I speak to that the job hunt is *exactly* like a blind date: the cover letter/e-mail is the first contact and determines whether it goes anywhere from there. The resume is the phone call or IM chat or e-mail exchange that tells you more, the interview is the date and the job is the relationship. Each step leads to the other, so if that first letter is junk, even the best resume may never get read.

It's a fiercely competitive market and the good communicators have an increasingly strong advantage.

Thanks again for a great post.

Michael Hess
(Fellow CBS Columnist)
"Business With Class"; Reply to this comment

by cannuc April 25, 2012 1:26 PM EDT

No matter how much we protest or try in vain to put our finger in the **** hole. All we can really do is grin and bear it. We can not stop the evolution of language. Todays english is irrecoqnizable to 1800's folks, very much like our language will be called arcaic to those in the year 2155...As an example of change look up the word "Allodial" it no longer appears in the printed dictionaries.

Reply to this comment


by class_factotum April 25, 2012 3:15 PM EDT: Unfortunately, the language in that note is unrecognizable to me, an English speaker in 2012.


by rrbarnes April 25, 2012 12:42 PM EDT: Amen!! I had to pour through a stack of scholarship applications that were sent in by high school students for a scholarship offered by my employer. I could NOT believe what I read. It was very similar to the example email you showed in your article! Seriously?! Do these kids think this is acceptable in business? But it doesn't end there! I've seen horribly obvious errors even on CBSnews.com. Are high school and college teachers actually passing students with these substandard writing skills? Do news agencies not want to hire editors anymore?; Reply to this comment


by pbaird2 April 25, 2012 11:57 AM EDT: It is so very sad that Americans have allowed the English language to be almost completely disregarded. I am constantly amazed at the grammatical errors committed by news reporters, business executives and other supposedly learned people. The lack of proofing and editing of online news articles is bewildering. We must insist our young people are taught the practical but accurate use of our language to prevent them from appearing ignorant as adults. There is a considerable difference between casual writing and conversation and the writing/conversation which should be utilized when the dialogue is not among close friends or family. Obviously, the explosion of texting has created a great deal of this "efficiency" of language. Words are much more valuable than the cost of data transmission.; Reply to this comment

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