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Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Proof Your Docs, People
I mentioned this in an earlier post, but today's 2L blunder is worth repeating. Our recruiting coordinator passed along the resume of a 2L male at a good law school. He grades were quite good; he was on law review. His work experience and language capabilities were also very interesting. Normally he would merit a screen, or maybe even a call back because he is local. But, I dinged him. Why?? No, HP wasn't just in a crappy mood. This supposed law review dude put in his e-mail cover 2 references to a different law firm as in "Attached is my resume for consideration for XYZ law firm's summer program (let's say we are ABC firm). If that mail merge disaster wasn't enough, he then said something like "my research has confirmed that XYZ firm's xxxyyy practice (a practice we DON'T have) would fit my interests and experience." To make matters worse, when you opened the actual cover letter, it had our firm name, sort of. The firm name was not correctly spelled and the name was off. So, to quote the dearly departed Bernie Mac, "I ask you AMERICA"...what kind of law review student is this? ATTENTION TO DETAIL PEOPLE! GEEZ.
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5 comments:
Are you familiar with Muphry's Law? Better go look it up!
"He grades were quite good..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law
Except HP isn't interviewing for a job...just posting on a blog! Big difference.
No he is not, but I believe the point the first anonymous was making is that HP makes proofing mistakes, but he is still a great guy. So maybe this kid made a mistake, but he could still be a great guy.
On the flip side of things, There are loads of other kids identical to this kid who made sure to proof their letters. Spots are limited, this kid shot him self in the foot.
Either way, I'm still with no offer and stressed out.
I actually was going to overlook the email error (wrong name in email). But when the guy messed up the actual firm name in the cover, that pretty much did him in. We do not expect perfection, but in a tough market with other candidates who do take the time to make sure the firm's name is correct, I had to pass.
In my thank you letter to a callback firm, I failed to delete a word. This mistake is very apparent (even though I managed to overlook it after multiple, multiple reads). Fortunately, the intent of my sentence could not be misunderstood as it was a closing salutation.
Did I lose my shot at an offer?
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