Online job boards and application hosting platforms have made seeking employment as easy and painless as such a thing can be. No longer is it necessary to pound the pavement, a fat pile of resumes tucked under one sweaty, unemployed arm. Now, submitting your resume for review can be done from the comfort of your own home, pajamas on, in bed, porn open on your laptop, a beer in hand.
Hey, that’s fine! There no shame in this. You might as well enjoy unemployment while you can.
But as it’s become so easy to multitask your job hunt with your leisure time, it’s also become increasingly easy to mess up your chances at employment entirely.
Take, for example, the careless application error of Vanessa Hojda, a 20-year-old self-described “fucking weirdo” from Canada. Interested in a summer position as an administrative assistant at York University, Vanessa sent an email to a woman named Kelly who had posted the job ad on the university career center’s web page.
A simple enough email, inquiring as to the availability of the position, Vanessa closed with the promise that her resume was attached for review.
The email did contain an attachment, but it was not Vanessa’s resume. Rather, along with Vanessa’s otherwise very professional note, the email included a single image of Nic Cage, eyes wide and teeth bared in a crazed grin. 8765i.jpg was the file name.
There is a lesson to be learned from Vanessa Hojda’s careless error. A few lessons, in fact.
• Keep your resume files in a folder separate from where you keep your weird celebrity snapshots
• Always name files clearly, with an accurately descriptive title
• Double- and triple-check your emails before your send them off with an attachment, especially important ones concerning your career
• Do not keep photos of Nic Cage on your computer, because should you happen to accidentally send one off to the wrong person, they will know that you keep photos of Nic Cage on your computer
[UpRoxx via HuffPo]
Image via Janina Dierks/Shutterstock