A note to interns and job seekers

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Not an hour passes by without an email from a prospective PR or events management student landing in my inbox. Occasionally I read them, but more often than not, I delete them. The ones I do read thoroughly unimpress, annoy or irritate me.

It seems that more and more youngsters are choosing this profession as a career and, although we all welcome new talent and are desperate for young, energetic students to become part of our team, I get the feeling that there is not much genuine talent out there.

Professionalism and business etiquette are things we all strive to achieve on a daily basis, but I don't think students are being taught any such things. Starting an email with ‘Howzit', sending me an SMS asking for a job, or asking for my ‘advise' [sic] are a few ways of ensuring your email application for a job will be deleted before I get to your name. Any sort of spelling mistake will automatically irritate and bad sentence structure will make me question the degree and competence you are busy selling me.

Do our colleges and universities spend any time educating their students on how to go about getting a job once they have completed their studies? Surely compiling a CV, a grasp of the English language and the ability to spell-check are taught at some stage?

So, to all you young interns and job seekers, I have the following advice -

Remember that we all get hundreds of CVs a day. Make yours stand out from the clutter. Show me that you've done some research and make me see that you'd be valuable to my organisation.
Have a strong understanding of what the company you are applying to join actually does. There is no point selling yourself if you haven't properly researched what each company does.
Don't use slang, don't send late night SMSes and don't write five page emails. Introduce yourself, give a few relevant points about yourself and your reason for wanting to work at the company and then direct me to an interesting and well-written, spell-checked CV.
If you can't be bothered to get the spelling right of the name of the person you're emailing, then don't expect a response.
Don't mass mail your CV. A ‘Dear Sir/Madam' shows you up.

This is very basic and simple advice and I hope just one or two of you read it and re-look at the way you are currently applying for jobs or intern positions. Perhaps then you'll get positive responses and not find yourself in the deleted items box.

And, to the young lady that sent me a picture of herself with a note saying she'd be ‘perfect for PR'... there are other ‘professions' looking for your type of talent!