I once worked in a broadcast media outfit. Every year around this time I would come across loads of bad writing from graduating college students looking for jobs. After a while in my interaction with those kids, it dawned on me that they were actually after my job.
Of course, they didn’t actually say it; they were smart kids. Some of them came short of saying that they weren’t really aiming for my job, that they wanted something more. But just to get a start in the industry, they’d make do starting at my level. At the time I was program manager at an FM radio station in the city.
One time I got a letter from a young college graduate. It was written in his own stationery, with his name and address embossed on it. Too grand an act by someone looking for his very first job. He told me, in the letter, that he was a writer in his college publication, that he majored in political science and thought Dong Puno (who was very popular then) was a good TV show host, so he’d like to work on Dong Puno’s show as a writer or producer.
I didn’t have the heart to tell the kid that Dong Puno’s producers didn’t even have their own personal stationery, so as not to discourage him from wanting to work there.
Here’s a short clip from another letter I got: “I love to get involved in the proceedings at a broadcast station because the interchange of ideas occurring within a communications environment have a direct relation to my professional aspirations.” No, the writer was not Ernest Hemmingway.
Many years after I left radio and was doing a weekly column in The Freeman, a fresh graduate emailed an application letter to me. She wanted to become a writer, saying that she was always the one asked to write something on their parish church’s bulletin board. Her email had this line towards the end: “The attached résumé enumerates my relevant credentials and skills, specific experiences and related interests.” I referred the young lady to The Freeman HR office, and never heard of her since.
Almost every application letter I see refers to the applicant’s “skills and talents.” Maybe they think that just having a skill or talent doesn’t look much, so they make it both plural for added effect.
It’s quite flattering when young people want to be in the same profession we’re in. We’ve probably made the job look good to them. But, honestly, grandiose talk hardly amounts to anything. Okay, those job applicants probably mean to sound important – unfortunately, they come across as pretentious, to me at least. And I’m one who’s most tolerant of the bravado of the young.
It is not easy, indeed, for a young person just out of college. Many of them have been brought up under the protective financial wing of loving parents and didn’t have to do any real work. But at the moment of graduation there is an unspoken understanding for the new graduate to “start getting on your own now.”
Of course, parents aren’t going to throw their beloved kids out of the house right after college graduation. But there is now a pressure on the young graduates – to find work. The situation brings on a kind of bewilderment that I’m familiar with, but there’s no reason it should make young people resort to bad writing.
First-time job seekers complain that they can’t get the job they love because they have no experience, and they can’t get any experience if not given the chance on the job.
One summer break when I was yet in college, I read an ad in the newspaper. An upscale restaurant was recruiting young people for its new dining crew. I applied, but the manager said I just missed the weeklong training that was conducted for the probable new hires. I promised him I was a fast learner and would easily catch up with the others. He believed me.
On my very first day at work, it took only about an hour for the manager to know for sure I didn’t know the job. I got fired. Two weeks later, I got another job as a waiter in another restaurant. I lasted four days there, but by this time I knew a lot more about a waiter’s job. The third job I had I kept until the end of the summer break – because I already had some experience.
Perhaps such approach to a job works much better than sending a letter that simply employs “the magic of words.” I’m not saying a greenhorn should not have big aspirations. One may bluff a little, if need be, to get him on his way. But, please, the big act that no longer resembles the truth of one’s present level of competence shall be avoided.
It must be remembered: You won’t have it by all talk. Nobody gets there from here by simply talking when he should be walking. Somehow one has to get his feet bruised, for him to know the way.
Keep reaching for the stars. But always keep your feet on the ground.