post by Stephanie Nelson
Like most people, I’m a part several groups on Facebook. One is quite large, membership-wise, and is a great group for networking or asking for help. One is focused on matching job hunters with available jobs. Both of these groups have seen an uptick lately in folks asking for help in their job searches. And I’ve noticed there are two distinct camps.
Camp #1
In this camp, the folks seem to be cognizant of the fact that they are presenting themselves to potential employers. They use proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, and depending on the length of the post, paragraph structure.
Camp #2
In this camp, there are run-on sentences and/or lack of punctuation altogether. There are misspelled words. There is improper use of capitalization or lack of capitalization. There seems to be a lack of realization that this could very well be the first impression left with the person hiring for his/her dream job.
As a business owner and employer, I can’t fathom giving someone in Camp #2 a second glance. If this is how they represent themselves, why should I consider that they’d represent my company in a better manner? Or why would I assume they’d represent one of my connections’ businesses any better and introduce them to a colleague? A typo here and there is one thing. Not great, but we all make mistakes. This is a whole other level.
I implore you. If you’re searching for a job, look at what you’re putting out there. Whether it’s a post looking for a job, a photo, other more generic posts, I assure you that potential connections and bosses are seeing these things, whether you’re thinking about it or not. You’re presenting them the opportunity to reach out…or to pass you by.