I got into a heated discussion with my wife a couple of nights ago. We were in the car and she was talking about her work, and I could feel the anger rising up in me as she talked. I couldn't believe she was being so stupid and short-sighted. Or, to be accurate, I thought her position was stupid and short-sighted.
She is a senior vice president for her employer and two positions reporting directly to her are vacant. This is a serious problem for her because the positions are critical and until they are filled and the people are fully functioning, doing her job will be much harder for my wife.
It's an employers market and she says they have more than 300 applications, and most are qualified for one of the positions. But no more than half the applications will ever land on her desk at any point and fewer than 20 applicants will get any sort of interview.
She says she has dozens of cover letters to review and she makes up her mind in seconds whether consider or reject the applicant. And one of the deciding factors is whether there is a mistake -- ANY SORT OF MISTAKE -- in the cover letter. Spelling, grammar, a typo -- doesn't matter. The person is rejected. They could be perfect in every other way, could be perfect for the job, but she rejects them.
"Why would you do that?" I asked. "You have made small mistakes before."
She said there has to be a method for quickly getting through the applications and cover letters, and that is one method she uses.
The reason I got so hot under the collar was because just the day before I was reading some agent who said a tiny mistake in a query letter isn't a good thing, of course, but it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get a rejection.
After listening to my wife, whom, by the way, is a beautiful woman I'm most proud of, I wasn't so sure the agent was telling the truth. In fact, I thought they were lying.
Agents get dozens of query letters a day, hundreds a week, much like the hundreds of applications my wife has. And agents must weed through them. And I suspect a small error will get you bounced. Agents can't possibly have the time to seriously read all those queries. They have to find ways to get to the bottom of the pile.
Knowing I could be rejected for as minor a problem as one misplaced comma is a scary thought. All prospective writers pour over their letters looking for something to give them a slight edge. But I hate to think that an otherwise wonderfully written query letter could sink the chances for a brilliantly executed novel because the writer had a little typo. It puts even more pressure on you to have the perfect query. (As if you don't have enough pressure.) But anyone can make a mistake.
Life just doesn't seem fair.
Thanks for reading and don't give up. See ya next time.
2 comments:
Well, I hope your wife gets the people she wants. Spelling and grammar issues I could see but a typo or a misplaced comma is a little much. We all make mistakes.
Your wife sounds like a stern taskmaster. Sorry.
Anne, not so stern but determined and focused. And she assumes that most of the applicants are truly qualified, certainly the ones who will ultimately fall onto her desk. So she doesn't assume she won't get a good pool of candidates.
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