This is part 3 in an ongoing series of rules regarding how to make it difficult to land a career at Seven Cycles.
The "I'm a Great Writer; No Need to Spell Check" Rule
I’m not sure if there could be a more basic rule for not getting a job at Seven Cycles--except this rule. There are few strategies that grind an application to a halt faster than multiple typos. It’s so basic that it is difficult to believe how many resumes we receive that read like homework transcribed by a first grader who was really looking forward to finishing as fast as possible and getting outside to play before the sun went down.
Now, I’m not talking about grammar, syntax, or sophisticated sentence structure; I’m talking about plain old correct spelling.
I can certainly appreciate that proper spelling is difficult. I sometimes have spelling errors in my blog posts—thanks for point them out. That’s what happens at 11pm after 14-hours of work and severe sleep deprivation. Fortunately, these posts aren’t part of my resume so I cut myself some slack. Although, Seven might s-can me at any moment—particularly because of these posts—so maybe this really is my resume…
Anyway, I know it’s tough to invest the time to spell well; what with spell check and all. And yes, spell check is overrated, but that doesn't mean it's not worth running. I know it takes a lot of work to re-read a resume a few times—or maybe even once—to catch all the errors—or even most of the errors. Is it really worth all that effort? After all, it’s only a resume; it’s not as if it is a representation of the applicant. It’s certainly not an indication of how professional someone might be at work, or how a person does—or doesn’t—care about even getting a job. Heck, it’s just the first impression—the person will have plenty of time to show charm at some point, maybe.
Apparently some people think it’s a much better use of resume development time to choose a creative font, reshuffle the layout of the page, add a cryptic photo, or figure out how to pad work experience and capability a bit more.
Heck, why not make it more fun by seeing how many spelling errors can be included while maintaining some level of readability? Maybe the creative applicant could make it look like it was written as an SMS from a mobile phone—where the number 4 is broken. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time it appeared that an applicant did that.
By the
way, this rule goes doubly for college grads that majored in English or
journalism. These two majors have, on
average, the worst spelling of all.
So, if you know someone that’s thinking about applying for a career at Seven Cycles and that person wants the resume to really standout—and doesn’t really want to work here—make sure the applicant ignores the cumbersome spell check; or maybe just uses a typewriter in disrepair.
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