Unlettered
A reader wrote the following letter as a covering note to her application for the job of personnel manager at Clarks Shoes.
Dear Mr Baker Re: The Position of Personnel Manager Looking at my CV you probably think I have not read your advertisement prop- erly. I do not have union negotiation experience; nor do I have a proven record of managing a team.
But I think you should interview me. I will explain why when we meet.
Yours sincerely Annette Pettman This was the reply she received: Dear Ms Pettman I am afraid I am going to have. to disap- point you. Your somewhat peremptory letter arrived this morning when I have already had almost 160 candidates for this job.
This letter may appear to be somewhat reactionary to you but I felt I should explain to you why your style did not impress me or indicate that you were an appropriate person for this job.
I accept that the idea of a covering let- ter is to catch the attention and imagi- nation of the person who reads it, but frankly yours turned me right off. You sounded arrogant, self-centred and pre- sumptuous. You may not realise it but that is the effect that your letter has: arrogant because you seem to believe that your unique qualities are more important than the skills, knowledge and experience that we require; self- centred because you seem to think that you can go to the front of the queue; presumptuous because you seem to think that you are going to get an inter- view.
I do not wish to denigrate your achieve- ments which are considerable, but I do not think that your style of approach would fit in here at all. It may surprise you to know that there are at least 40 candidates that we think are more suit- able than you.
Yours sincerely Jeremy Baker Management Development Manager Clarks Shoes Limited If you have an example of a crass, illiter- ate, ignorant, irrelevant or embarrassing letter or notice from a company or pub- lic body, send a copy to Unlettered, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London, WC1N 2LL. £10 for each one printed.
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