For several years I was an assistant manager at Service Merchandise, (I left after it became quite obvious that they were not going to nicely recover from their bankruptcy).

We would receive a lot of job applications, often ten or more a day. The store manager did not want to read all of them. So it was my job to sort through them. When I asked the manager what criteria I should use he said, "If they spell anything wrong, or fill anything out incorrectly, you should throw it away, otherwise put it on my desk". His reasoning was, that if they couldn't even spell correctly on a job application, then they probably would make a lot of other mistakes, (specifically with money and inventory).

So I would look through the applications for errors. I couldn't believe how many people don't know how to correctly fill out an application. Many people would list their previous employers in the wrong order. Other people would put down references such as "Bob", with no phone number or address.

On to the spelling errors. People would make spelling errors on simple words such as "register", "thursday", and "warehouse".

It was really kind of sad. If you want a job, why can't you take a couple of minutes to make sure you fill out your application correctly. If you know that you have problems with things like that, then you should have someone else check it for you. I myself, (because of my bad handwriting), have had other people fill out my job applications ever since I was 16 years old.

I would usually have to look through more than 20 applications before I would find one that was actually filled out correctly. My boss would almost always hire these people. So next time you are looking for a job, take a minute to double check your application; it really does make a difference.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.