How Not to Get a Job

A quickie little post to tide you over until I post a big, photo-laden post about the proposal...

I've been helping our CEO hire for one of our open positions at Disqus, and I've been absolutely horrified (and ok, entertained) by some of the atrocious cover letters in my inbox.  I remember going through the same thing last year at Fantasy, and it never fails to make me just a little bit sad.

That said, I thought I'd offer a little advice (or anti-advice, really) -- How Not To Get A Job 

• Capitalize random words in the middle of your sentences.
• Use the wrong job title in your cover letter. The more times the better!
• Better yet, don't include a cover letter at all!
• Write entire paragraphs with no punctuation.
• Address your letter to "sirs".
• Have a 2 (or three!) page resume when you just graduated from college 6 months ago.
• Just copy paste chunks of your resume (or worse, our job posting) into your cover letter. No need to customize!
• Wax on and on about your "freakish obsession with grammar" but fail to recognize the difference between a comma and a semicolon only one sentence later. 

These are just a few of the lovely tips I have to offer.  I'd quote bits from cover letters, but that just seems mean.

Seriously, people.  If you want a job, learn to write.  And if you're applying for a job in recruiting, you should probably know how to submit a proper application.

Rant over.