…of an employer’s life is when he or she can toss your resume
and cover letter into the garbage.
“1. I'm 45. 2. I wear reading glasses. 3. I
have 200 files to read. 4. It's 10 p.m., I've worked a 12-hour
day, my kid has just thrown up, and if I don't do laundry tonight, I'm not
going to have clean underwear tomorrow. 5. So if you don't
make this in a font that I can read without straining, you're toast!"
I’ve got to love this quote… because I’ve been there, done
that. (Okay, I’m older and no kids. But the underwear thing—yup.)
It’s from a blog for academics, with advice to job-seekers.
If you are reading my blog, you are
probably not looking for a job as a tenure-track college professor. You
probably don’t have a Ph.D. You may not even have your B.A., yet, but God
willing and the creek don’t rise, you’ll have one in a short while.
So what’s the point? The point is that there are more
applicants than ever out there looking for your job. Your application materials
will possibly be read first by a machine. And then, if you make the cut—your
materials will be read by a human being who is stressed out, sleep-deprived,
perhaps dyslexic, balancing work and life badly,
and who really needs a compelling reason to keep
your application “in the running” for the job, rather than to toss it.
Make your materials easy to read (font size!), pleasant,
engaging.