Recovered from the Wayback Machine.
We all know how much I like irony — almost as much as I like serendipity.
In Meg Hourihan’s latest weblog posting she writes:
It’s no wonder we’re seeing an increase in unemployment, people seem to have no idea how to apply for a job these days.
Meg then goes on to detail some of the problems shes had with applications, such as blank emails, obviously generic cover letters and so on. The irony enters the picture when she writes:
Of the more than 30 responses I’ve gotten so far, less than 1/3 have even followed the directions to apply.
Of the more than 30 responses… I would say that the current unemployment situation is more accurately reflected in the fact that Meg received 30+ job applications for one position.
Focusing on the actions or lack of actions of the unemployed doesn’t account for the worst unemployment figures this country has seen in a decade, regardless of the Bush Adminstration’s attempts to hide this information. Specifically it doesn’t take into account that the Dot Com explosion resulted in a glut in the technology market that is now resulting in unemployment among technologists that exceeds the national unemployment rate.
Seriously, I imagine that most of us who are unemployed would be glad to send tasteful little ‘thank you’ notes for an interview, if we’re just lucky enough to survive the flood of applications to get to that point.