25Seven

Spell Check-Mate

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.

Rules for Career Careening & Crashing

Part 2 in an ongoing series of rules regarding how to make it difficult to land a career at Seven Cycles.

The "I loved bikes as a kid" Rule

You might think that saying, “I loved bikes as a kid” would be a good idea when you’re looking to work in the bike industry.  You like bikes; we like bikes; we have something in common.  A good start to an interview process, right?  Sure; it can be.  So how can this be a rule for not having a career at Seven?

You have to read the fine print of this rule—or at least read between the lines of the rule.  ‘Loved’ is past tense and—unless the next words in your cover letter are, “and I love bikes even more now”—it means that your desire to be intimate with bikes fizzled out long ago.

Loving bikes as a kid is cool.  The fact that you haven't done anything with bikes in the past 15-years kind of means that you probably didn't love bikes all that much and might be thinking that by throwing the noun ‘bike’ in your cover letter you are good to go—a shoe in for the bike geeks at Seven.  Well, guess what; pretty much everyone tells us they loved bikes as a kid.  It doesn't really help.  In fact, it doesn't really even matter to me; I didn't love bikes as a kid.

Employment At Seven Cycles, The Hard Way

It feels to me that we are always recruiting at Seven Cycles:  always looking for good employees.  

Our process is very well defined and refined.  We've tried just about every conceivable method of recruiting and I feel like we are always coming up with new ways to search for the right candidates for each job.

One of the steps in the process that has not changed much over the past decade is the expectation of a written resume.  Now, we obviously don't require a resume for all positions--most of our production roles would be examples.  Regardless, the vast majority of applicants supply a written resume.  The initial interaction we have with each applicant is usually an emailed resume.  Makes sense; no big deal.  Agreed.

First Impressions

Now if I didn't know better I would assume that most people in the job market would know that the resume and cover letter are the first impression you make on a prospective employer.  And that first impressions are relatively important.  It turns out that my assumptions about all this are wrong.