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Ask A Progeek: Cover Letters And Formality

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Ah, cover letters.  So important, so often forgotten.  So let’s see what one of our pro geeks out there wants to know about them:

How casual are you allowed to be in your cover letters?  I want to sound like a person, not a term paper, but I don’t want to seem like I don’t care about formality.

Cover letters are the first thing most people see in my experience – resumes are second – so it’s natural to worry about them.  A cover letter is often the “first impression.”  So the real question is what kind of first impression do you want to make.

There’s where you start.

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The Recruiting Nightmare #8 – No One Knows What They Want

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New technology has changed things, the market is fast, but one fact that has worn on recruiters for awhile and gotten worse for nearly a decade is the fact that a lot of clients don’t know what the hell they want.

Look, this isn’t disrespecting people that do hiring.  A lot of them think they know what they want, thy did research, they planned and budgeted carefully.  Of course they’re hideously wrong, but they try.

I first became aware of this trend in 2006, when a recruiter told me how his client was looking for ten years of Java experience.  If you’re any kind of IT person you’re laughing.  If you’re not, let me put it simply: at that time anyone with ten years of Java experience had helped design it.

This trend of ridiculous “asks” didn’t abate really.  Technology, economics, demographics, and everything else have changed things so rapidly that it’s hard for people to get an idea of what skills they need in employees.  it’s hard to know what they need in the future.

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The Recruiting Nightmare #7 – The Best Frayed Plans

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So I’ve documented all the challenges of getting out a good job post, networking, sorting through resumes, and so forth.  It’s pretty heavy stuff, and if you don’t work in recruiting I hope you understand a little better what recruiters go through.

Once a recruiter gets out the right job posting, once they network, once they find the right person, eventually it’ll all work out right?  I mean you’ll find the right person and hire them?

Well, possibly.  Oh there’s the usual challenges – you may not be able to get to them in time, or there’s a competing offer, or whatever.  But eventually it’ll work out.

Maybe – until someone changes their mind.

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