And You Thought Your Cover Letter Was Bad

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At least you weren't this guy.

Here's the thing – I can see where he thought this thing would work:

  • He plays up his background.
  • He calls to his strengths.
  • He calls out his achievements.
  • He seeks challenges.
  • He projects confidence – well actually he carpet-bombs you with confidence then sets you alight with confidence.

The problem is:

  • He does all of the above in a wordy, over-detailed, overblown manner it's ridiculous.
  • He over-includes things that should be on his resume
  • He never truly says why he's right for the specific positions and what he brings much beyond his own awesomeness.

The letter is ridiculous, but the ridiculousness is even more apparent in that, if you dissect it, you can see how he may have thought this was a good idea.

The problem is the letter is an overblow, disconnected piece of work.  His overdoing it disconnects him from the people he sends it to, from the job (it's a Pile of My Awesomeness), and from those he works with.  Somewhere he thought he had the right idea.

Now odds are your cover letter or resume are overly modest, but it's always a good reminder that your letter – and resume – display your abilities while connecting you with others.  Oh, and not annoying them.

– Steven Savage

Promoting Professional Geekery #24: Start a Meetup

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you've got cons, you've got your video viewings, you've got your midnight runs with your gaming group to get pancakes.  You've got a lot of social events, my progeeks.

So if you want to keep promoting professional geekery, why not make an event just for career geeks like you?

It's easy – you take a coffee shop or cafe, coordinate with various geek groups, and/or throw it up on http://www.meetup.com/.  Then keep doing it until you bloody well help people.

There's a variety of things you can do:

  • Have people swap job search tips.
  • Help the unemployed network.
  • Do workshops.
  • Commiserate and drink alcoholic beverages.
  • Have particular themes.
  • Run oddball documentaries on the history of your industries.

Of course whatever benefits these actions have, it also means that people will A) appreciate the potential of professional geekery, and B) They'll be drawn closer together.

Really it just helps for people to have a place to meet with fellow and future pros, whatever you do.  It's outside of other events so people aren't distracted, but formal enough that you can work together to help each other out.

Or do the drinking thing.  Hey, whatever works. 

– Steven Savage

 

Game Career News 2/7/2012

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The bad: EA appears to be having layoffs in Vancouver.  It doesn't sound too big, but still bad for those losing their jobs, and it might be worth seeing if this is the start of something bigger.

The good: Ignition games raised $5 million for a realistic driving game.  I'm sure you could help them spend the money, so send a resume.

(Also, is it just me, or do driving games never go out of style no matter what?)

– Steven Savage