Something the 99% can relate to

I found this nice little tidbit on Gawker today. Joining the exceedingly large population of undergrads/post-college students, unemployed persons and those just looking to get a new job, I thought this quite nicely put into perspective the importance of a good cover letter.

I know I'm not the greatest cover letter writer in the world, but even I know that you can't brag about yourself to excess--you just come off looking like an egotistical fool. (Can I just say that maybe if this guy took  an English class along with all those programming and AP 2.0 classes, there wouldn't be so many punctuation and spelling mistakes in his letter. Just saying. Don't get me wrong, it's still hilarious.)

This is probably what Mark has
to do when he's walking around.
Photo courtesy of dreamer07.

Some of my favorite bits from the letter include his mention of his "terrifying efficiency" at routine office functions and the casual slip about bench pressing twice his body weight while doing 35 pull ups. (That part actually made me laugh.) Thanks for putting us all to shame. I have the feeling that even if Superman were out looking for a job, he wouldn't put down under his qualifications that he can fly and save the world. There's a fine line between confidently stating your abilities and knowing when you need to suck up to your potential boss (and then your actual boss, once you're hired for the job) so they can feel better about being in control of you.

Also, a couple amusing comments from the various bank investors:

 "please enjoy. someone find him on facebook (although at this point, he probably deleted it).  be sure to scroll through the list of companies that this has been through in 5 days. this kid is never getting a job." 

"Drinks on me for the first analyst to concisely summarize everything that is wrong with this." 

This has even made the rounds at the poor student's school, NYU. 

Fantastic. But at least he's being a good sport about the whole thing, realizing he aimed a bit too high  in listing his achievements.

With all the people who are looking to get jobs or internships, it's important to make your resume or cover letter stand out. But let this be a lesson to all those who are looking for a job or will be soon enough. Have a touch of humility when writing your accomplishments and what you hope to bring to a company.