Most mornings when I check my emails, I come upon a Yahoo group such as Sourcers Unleashed or Contract Recruiter Jobs where someone will post a recruiting or sourcing position and ask those  interested to email their resume to the poster. Of course, what happens time and again demonstrates to me that many people simply don’t – or cannot – follow even the most simple of directions.

So they post their cover letter and resume to the main thread of the post using the well-oiled – or is that well-spoiled – salutation of Dear Sir or Madam or even better, To Whom It May Concern.

Newsflash! The person who posted the job is, uh, listed as the author of the thread.

Of course, the cover letter and resume are replete with grammatical and spelling errors even though the person’s Summary section of the resume reads detailed oriented.

Sure we’re drowning in resumes, chasing down hiring managers who refuse to return our phone calls, and trying our best to be a compassionate ear to you during your prolonged job search but don’t blame us when you shoot yourself in the foot. When you do something like post your cover letter and resume publicly despite instructions to do something else, not only are you demonstrating to the originator of the thread that you’re a knucklehead but you’re also doing a darn good job of showing all readers that you’re a knucklehead.

So rather than categorizing the entire recruiting community as a bunch of heartless #%^$&#@,  every so often try picking your head up to see if you’re moving in the right direction.