I just caught up to this email from CareerBuilder.com regarding anecdotal stories from hiring managers.  These types of stories come out frequently and, honestly, I never get tired of them.  Here is the bulleted list:

When asked for the most memorable missteps they encountered when going through resumes, human resource managers and hiring managers reported the following:

• Candidate put God down as a reference (no phone number).

• Candidate listed her hobby as alligator watching.

• Candidate claimed to be a direct descendant of the Vikings.

• Candidate’s email address had “lovesbeer” in it.

• Candidate listed “Master of Time and Universe” under his experience.

• Candidate started off the application with “Do you want a tiger?”

• Candidate specifically pointed out that he was not a gypsy.

• Candidate’s condition for accepting the position was being allowed to bring his pet monkey to the workplace.

• Candidate pointed out, “I’ll have your job in five years.”

• Candidate sent a 24-page resume for a 5-year career.

• Candidate put a picture of her cat on top of her resume.

• Candidate declared himself the LeBron James of table games.

• Candidate sent a video trying to hypnotize the HR manager into hiring him.

That last one is excellent…I’m still laughing.

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I’m not sure what to make of this, but it caught my eye:

Overall, the reading on local economies is still grim though, as home prices continue to fall and unemployment rates remain historically high, the report said.

The list of strongest-performing areas included several middle American cities that were boosted by an uptick in manufacturing jobs and home price declines that were more modest than in other parts of the nation. The weakest performers were mostly sunbelt cities which saw some of the largest declines in home prices and continue to lag behind the rest of the country.

Honolulu just jumps off the page for me.

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The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter–it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.

-Mark Twain

If you would, allow me to speculate a bit.  I’ve been involved in volunteer activities with high school students over the past 2 years so I have become a reluctant texter (is that a word?).  I learned quickly that their preferred method of communication is texting.  I didn’t even have texting on my cell service when I started.  I now have unlimited texting out of necessity.

I tell you this in regards to a concern I see in this younger generation.  I’ve read many pieces about how the younger generation uses text shorthand in formal communications, e.g. cover letters.  That is obviously a great concern.  However, I see a more disconcerting trend – a limited vocabulary.

The modern youth needs to condense their communication into a limited number of characters for texting, Twitter, etc.  An adverse side effect of this constraint is their condensed vocabulary.  Common, monosyllabic words are their preferred lexicon.  The impact is a rather limited vocabulary that is exposed in a long-format writing piece…for instance, an essay.

This limitation is apparent when you work with these teens.  Their word selection (use of adjectives especially), syntax, punctuation and idea structure are lacking.  They have a desire to respond in a succinct manner with common words absent any punctuation beyond a period.  The exploration for new words seems lacking in their approach.  Hence, the wonderful, aforementioned quote from Mark Twain.

I see this subtle regression in writing skills becoming a widespread issue in the next generation of professionals.  The ability to write effectively may be moving onto the endangered skills list right before our eyes.

I mentioned in a previous post about a client who had a salesperson who simply could not convey cogent thoughts through his writing.  The owner paid – paid – for an English tutor to help develop this salesperson’s writing ability.  It was an abject failure and the owner eventually fired the salesperson.  My hope is that this scenario is an uncommon anecdote.

If you know of young people working their way through the education system, encourage them to expand their vocabulary and refine their writing skills.  This much-needed ability will serve them, and us, well as they move into the workforce.

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From CNNMoney.com:

A jobless recovery? Hardly.

By historical standards, the labor market is recovering nicely — job growth has started earlier than in past recessions.

I guess I was unaware of how good it is out there.  I think this article comes with a large serving of Kool-Aid also.

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I’m beginning to think we are becoming immune to employment reporting.  A sentence from the beginning and end of a CNNMoney.com article (emphasis mine):

The good news: Overall employers announced fewer planned job cuts.

…

Economists are expecting the report to show there were 120,000 jobs lost in August, an improvement over July’s 131,000 job loss.

In a prolonged recession, I guess these pieces of information are uplifting.

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