Archive for June, 2006

I’ve just been working my way through a stack of emails for a range of positions we have open here at LogLogic. It got me thinking that I could probably help all you job seekers out with a few pointers on the things that drive us nuts:

1. Don’t ask questions prior to sending a resume. For instance, “before I send my resume over, is this a newly created position?”. It is unlikely you will get a response and those that do have a resume in the pipe now have a lead on you.
2. If you aren’t clearly qualified, don’t pretend to be and don’t apply. Your application is a basic indicator of intelligence and comprehension. If a recruiter says “five years of technology sales experience required” they mean five years and technology and sales. Not five years and real estate and coordinator. We might be closed minded but we know what we want.
3. Don’t just attach your resume. Give the five most relevant bullets in the body of the email and specifically flag time with relevant companies. Anything more than 2-3 paragraphs won’t get read. If you don’t think we will have the vaguest idea who your employer was, give us one line on them.
4. In delivering your resume, use the format specified in the ad and if nothing is specified put the body of the resume in the email and attach a .pdf. Avoid word.doc attachments if you can.
5. Name your resume with your name. myresume_2_draft.doc doesn’t look professional and will get lost in the filing process.
6. I know it is tricky but when applying using personal email try to use a professional address. It is hard to take an email from “sexydog@gmail.com seriously – if it even makes it through our spam filter.
7. Avoid puffery in your language. Nothing works better than good, plain English. This kind of thing won’t work… “I know very clearly & absolutely before to submit my submissional application for the post-recruited requirements… I will prove my supreme liase abilities, hugely Graymatters-accessible triumphancies… & my superiorated talentedness to do my job at excellent.” Ummm, really.
8. Check spelling!

As I said, this stuff drives us nuts. We will take the time to look at your resume despite what seem to be best attempts to cause us not to do so. But at the end of the day you want to be ahead on points before you walk in the door.

Good luck. There are wonderful opportunities out there. Don’t start behind the pack with a lousy application.

Technorati : HR, PR

Maurice Saatchi has a piece in today’s FT titled “The strange death of modern advertising“. He observes that “At the age of only 50, advertising was cut down in its prime. Advertising holding companies used to boast about their share of the advertising market. Now they are proud of how much of their business is not in advertising. How did this happen?”

It is happening because creativity declined just when it should have exploded. Instead of treating consumers with respect advertisers chose to assault us with and endless tirade of irrelevant and shallow ads. And the media – the medium (for the most part) lost our respect.

He goes on to touch on message clutter. Marketers made this mess for themselves by zig-zagging on messages.

Each brand can only own one word. Each word can only be owned by one brand. Take great care before you pick your word. It is going to be the god of your brand.

Try this simple test on your own company’s products or services.

Pick a brand. Any brand.

Maurice offers a pragmatic solution – “one word equity”. I couldn’t agree more. “In this new business model, companies seek to build one word equity – to define the one characteristic they most want instantly associated with their brand around the world, and then own it. That is one-word equity.”

This act of distillation and focus should be a priority for every communicator. It might not solve the problems advertising has, but it would certainly improve communications effectiveness.

Technorati : Advertising, PR