My Spelling and Grammar F#$k Ups in my Cover Letters and CVs
When you go to an interview you want to give your best impressions and in this day and age your first introduction to a job is your CV and cover letter.
I can’t count how many times I’ve fucked this part up and I just realized I had a mistake in my CV for the jobs I just applied for recently. I could say there is no excuse for it but we always make one because we are human.
I didn’t stop caring about those mistakes, I stopped obsessing about them and letting those mistakes define who I was cause they don’t we are all human and mistakes are how we learn.
As a writer you want to be perfect but when you are writing thousands of words at a time that is almost impossible. You can’t separate yourself from the work and will see what was written they way it sounds in your head.
The more you write the more it happens and that’s what an editor is for. They are someone who is divorced from the work who see it not how you meant it but how it was written.
I’ve done it a lot, every HR department is like a filter, they’re job is to screen people for interviews and I stopped thinking about it. I usually have to screen my articles a few times and even then and even with 2 or 3 people going over my stuff sometimes mistakes get through.
When you find a job description with a mistake in it as the job hunter you still apply because you know what’s that like. You are not the person with the power in the search, they are but don’t think that way.
Mistakes are good, flaws in some instances can become strengths and we instinctively want to hide our mistakes but let’s own up to them and show those who would hire us that we are willing to work to get better.
I find that when I am on an application binge I make one or two mistakes that just becomes hard to catch. What I am going to do for now on is send my work to a friend to eyeball for both how things sounds and the spelling and grammar issues I missed.
I also run my cover letters through a program that checks for readability. This is just part of the deal. There is no point worrying if you made a mistake, maybe they will see it but maybe they won’t, it doesn’t matter because there are a ton of other positions out there and there will always be more in that industry or some other.
These mistakes, these rough edges are indicative of my lack of formal training, how I fell into writing and learned to love it but have been so self conscious I usually keep things to myself.
When you are sending a brief to a client it should be good but you shouldn’t have to be perfect when you are sending an email to a colleague. It takes too much time to be perfect all the time and although you want that perfection when you are applying for work when there are dozens of job sites and that many more positions how can you craft something unique for each.
You can’t, you don’t have the time, they realize it and that’s why those people that focus on a few positions can rise above the rest. You can’t do it for all the jobs you are going after but if there is one that you really want then that’s when you put that extra effort.
Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t but at least you gave it your best. My best is still raw, imperfect but I’ve reached the point where I don’t care what people think or say. I am going to craft my CV with my voice hacked together from templates, vectors and Linkedin.
I will not pretend to be something I am not. I want to leave a good impression but I’m not bothered by any mistakes that happen because it becomes a numbers game. There are always more positions especially when you are flexible.
I used to think I needed to work in the Office and now I think it will be fun to do something like general labour because you get to be out there working outside and it would be a great work out so that’s a bonus as well.
So I fuck up a lot but I love what I do, I own my mistakes I am not ashamed of what I’ve done or what I haven’t done because its led me to who i am today. By most standards many would think I’ve accomplished nothing, but I have lived and am gaining the confidence to turn my failings into strengths. (which is always a work in progress).
To go beyond my own doubts and realize that I will make it and that I am better for my challenges I face and even more so the falls that I’ve experienced. If you fail at least you tried, at least you went for it and that’s more than many can say.
There are probably several errors in this but I am not trying to write this for an audience I write it for myself. To clarify and rise above my instincts which are to be negative but with this post I feel free.
