OMG so my account says I haven't blogged since March 20th. That was just too long ago. Sorry to be out of things but I do have one small (lame) excuse: my computer is broken (hopefully only the charger) and so I have no Internet/MS Word access at my house right now. It's a lame excuse cause I could have just written the blog down with pen and paper ("what's that?") and then typed it up on a friend's computer or something. But hey, Earth Day is coming up so I'm going to stay green and not kill trees just to blog. LOL
Okay, now on to this week's serious point....
Every summer my job highers interns (this year unpaid interns). Last week my boss gave the department a copy of all the résumés and cover letters (electronically of course..no trees killed I promise) and asked us to evaluate the candidates. I have found this to be one of the most frustrating tasks I have had in a long time. Sadly, this is not because everyone is so great it's impossible to choose. It's not just that the applications are less than par. People illustrate the most idiotic things on their résumé and then expect to get hired. Lets go to the examples:
One person wrote this as their first two sentences of their cover letter:
"As a firm believer in the restorative power of the arts, I realize how artistic expression can be a vehicle for social justice. Therefore, I want to spend my life creating and facilitating an environment for theatre to flourish."
Do they realize this is an application for a Customer Service internship not an argumentative essay on the importance of music in school? Did they teach you the concept of over elevated language at your private college? *sigh*
I understand that I work for a performing arts organization but I seriously think these people do not read the description of the job they are applying to. If I have to read one more cover letter about "my love of performing, organizing shows, programming events...etc" I'm going to scream. Obviously, these people have no idea what customer service really means. But perhaps this is because they have no customer service experience. Oh no, wait, it gets better; Many of these people have no work experience AT ALL! One girl succeeded her cover letter with a piece of paper with the heading "Resume" (under her contact info) followed by a 1 & 1/2 page list of her vocal repertoire. That was it. No job history, no skills; just that she sang Puccini's "O mio babbino caro" and played "Maggie" in her high school production of "A Chorus Line." Genius!
Now this is what frustrates me more than anything else in the world. So many children go through high school and college without ever getting one ounce of job experience under their belt. They spend their school semesters and Summers partying or going abroad while ignoring the persevering work force. I know it's an unpaid internship but I refuse to let it slide that you've spent 4 years of high school and at least half of your time in college and never once held a job or even volunteered. A good employer wants people who can multitask and carry a lot on your plate at once. If you can't handle 15 credit hours of school AND a part time job than maybe you're not cut out to handle 5 customers screaming at you at once each about various unforeseen problems.
In this bad economy, the job market is more competitive than ever. Consequently, this means you have to work that much harder to make your résumé/cover letter picture perfect. I can't stand seeing 2 page résumés, cover letters with excessive/unnecessary commas, that useless "objective," and poorly written sentences like "...because I strongly feel to always support the arts." Please don't tell me you have a "career aspiration" of Art Administrations and yet you are a sophomore majoring in Architecture. As robots say "this does not compute."
They say your résumé is your calling card. If this is true, don't expect to get a call from me anytime soon. I think your application made my head explode. I'm going to take a Tylenol, I have a headache.
