Caveat Lector

I did a swing through my application folders both paper and virtual, and noticed something so glaring and so important that I thought I needed to share.

Save for one place with its own online application system, every single time I’ve gotten a telephone contact with a potential employer, it’s been with a paper application. This is even more glaring because I’ve sent rather more applications over email than on paper.

Well. That’s stupid, I thought. I put as much effort into the typography of my HTML résumé as I did my paper one (print and screen, thank you; the résumé has a print stylesheet as well as a screen stylesheet), and the content is absolutely identical. What’s more, anybody interested in my XHTML/CSS chops can just check the bloody code.

On further reflection, however, I can guess why it happens. Paper applications have well-worn procedures attached to them that electronic apps probably don’t. I’m depending on the computer-savvy of support staff to keep my app from getting lost, and that can be a dicey proposition. Moreover, because some apps will inevitably be paper, all apps probably get printed, and a cover letter printed from email just doesn’t look very pretty.

Whatever the explanation, the trend is crystal-clear, so clear that I have to go out for more résumé paper, my existing stock having run out. Given a choice between paper and electronic application submission, I will always choose paper henceforth. It’s more hassle and more expense for me, but it’s more effective.

Go ye and do likewise.