I'm looking for a job

In article <20120823164805.GB1866 at zoho.com>, microcode at zoho.com writes: By generic, I mean that it didn't address me and my interests as an individual, it was a form letter. English aside, had the person taken the time to comment about my cctalk-related interests before asking for a job, I would have spent more time reading it. This is basic job-seeking advice. When you "cold call" someone asking for a job, sending a form letter doesn't indear you to the recipient. If you take the time (and since you're unemployed, you should have plenty of it) to customize the cover letter to the recipient, they pay attention. If it's a company and you show in your cover letter that you've researched the company's products and are telling them specifically why you could help them out with their existing product line and potential future products, that gets their attention. If it's an individual like me and you show in your email that you've been paying attention to the kinds of things I say on the mailing list (or you bothered to do some googling to see what kinds of things I say on the mailing list) and that you have skills that I would recognize, then I'm paying attention. When it's a form letter, I stop reading. Non-existent. However, if the situation were reversed and the Ukraine was booming and I needed a job, you can be damned sure I'd customize the cover letter and have someone who *did* have good Ukrainian review my letter before I sent it to make sure I didn't have any typos or grammatical mistakes. But you miss my point about "generic", I am not nitpicking his spelling or grammar, which seemed fine, but it would be another point working against him if the email contained spelling or grammar errors. <http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/07/i_wont_hire_people_who_use_poo.html> Because we don't have an office in the Ukraine. If you want to be a telecommuting long-distance team member, you better stand out and show why a company is going to take a gamble on you. Sending a poorly formatted form letter is not the way to make that stand out impression. Modern technology work is a team effort. Being part of a team means being available at the same working hours as the rest of the team, which isn't feasible when you're on the other side of the globe. If all you wanted was a lone individual coder position, then you don't need to send a personal plea to my inbox, all you need to do is to start subscribing to the websites devoted to connecting such contractor types with available work. My remarks have got nothing to do with Ukraine, but with it's time zone distance from where the work is and the fact that most work is team based, not lone individual based. If the request came from Argentina or someplace in South America, that would at least address the time-zone difference, but there's also something to be said for being in the same physical office. It's not like this is someone I've worked with (or hell even had a *conversation* with) before and I can vouch for them. This is basically a complete stranger approaching me and asking me for a job. They want *me* to do them a favor. They could be the best worker ever, or they could be a complete scumbag liar child molester. I have no way of knowing the truth of the matter. I'm on this list for my own personal reasons, it doesn't have anything to do with my employer. (You'll notice that in my signature, personal web site, museum web site, manx, terminals wiki, etc., nowhere do I mention my employer. Since joining this list in 2005-ish, I've switched employers 3 times. I don't think I've never mentioned any of my employers by name in my conversations here, but you might be able to turn up the odd message or two where I do.) Given where I live (Salt Lake City) and so far having found like... uh... 2 people on this mailing list who are even in the same state, I don't go pimping job opportunities here. Like it or not, most work is still accelerated by being physically in the same room. If you're distant, you need even *better* communication and interpersonal skills than the average person, never mind the average engineer, to make up the difference. I've made a number of personal friends from this mailing list over the years; if one of them asked me about job opportunities in private email, my response would be much different than ignoring the email I've given plenty of practical job-seeking advice in the two messages I've posted this thread. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" free book <http://tinyurl.com/d3d-pipeline> The Computer Graphics Museum <http://computergraphicsmuseum.org> The Terminals Wiki <http://terminals.classiccmp.org> Legalize Adulthood! (my blog) <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>