Batmen: People who write letters
Have you ever had a pen friend? Do you know the feeling of anticipation, waiting for the postman to arrive? When I was 10, I was writing with a young Japanese girl.
Yes. When I was little I wrote letters in English using very simple sentences. Once every few weeks I opened an envelope with a reply from my Asian friend, a sheet of paper embellished with a hundred of cartoon decals took me, for a moment, to the Far East. Pink stationery and rudimentary information, read by me with the care of the most diligent pupil, still brings a smile to my face. Fate decided that I’ve started to miss those letters.
Imagine Batman or Sherlock Holmes, they both in their super existence and during countless adventures needed Robin and Dr. Watson. They both had their faithful brothers in arms they could rely on no matter what! It’s just the way it is, our success depends people from the backstage. If the teenage Robin suddenly fell ill, went on a binge or simply went to college, Batman would have to start recruiting for the sudden vacancy.
Let’s look at how Batman is going to recruit a worthy sidekick. We may imagine that his super-Batman inbox is filled with resumes of people (or creatures), who have absolutely nothing in common with the potential Batman helper.
There will be, for instance, a resume from a gravedigger, a pigeon-fancier, a lady from the bakery and a priest. Let’s face it, any of the above, at least on my street, dreams of being a celebrity.
For Batman though, these applications do not reflect any experience or skills a sidekick should have. So he would have made a list…
Gravedigger — Knows the dark side
Pigeon-fancier — Knows his s**t
Lady from the bakery — Knows who knows
Priest — Know that something is going on
…and come to the conclusion that everyone knows something, which does not qualify them to be discarded nor a to be particularly favourable towards their application.
What could any of these candidates do to increase their chances for being selected? Write a letter.
It seems to me, however, that “the generation of winners” does not believe in letters, and today it is difficult for people to start writing cover letters as they all assume that their resume will defend itself.
Obviously, I admit that for a programmer just a resume should be sufficient. But when we
imagine a job market situation where the programmer cannot find a coding job and wants to work as a carpenter instead. What will make his job application stand out and be selected?
Why do we not write letters and struggle with elaborating on all the value we can bring to the company? Gina Rudan, in her book Practical Genius, uses the term fat brains in relation to people between 20 and 35 years old. They are those who want some change, combine work with fun, look for creative solutions to problems and experiment with new things. I thought to myself that perhaps there is the fear of vain and unnatural writing, because they never taught at schools what self-promotion is. I left that thought a moment later and it made me sad.
Recruitment sometimes is more like catching fish in a fast-flowing stream. Like a Grizzly bear standing in a river catching salmon that quickly swim upstream. The fish are not entirely sure where are they going and the bear tries to catch anything it can.
Opportunity to change industry.
I must admit, it is difficult to change the career even if our initial choice was made unknowingly. Most people do not wonder where and what they do but how much they are paid. At a presentation, I mentioned in the note On the road to self-design, the presenter called such behaviour (I’ll allow myself for a nicer paraphrase) “making choices out of thin air.”
Not many candidates appreciate the importance of a cover letter, which requires some good will both from the candidate and from the recruiter. Sometimes it is enough to just want, and a letter written to a ‘real person’ and not to an idea of a large organisation will draw interest from more than one eye. Give ourselves a chance.
Orginally published on: http://pracologia.sycz.biz/2015/04/08/batman-ludzie-listy-pisza-2/