Hey! I am back after a very long hiatus! I was basically tied up with so much stuff that I had little time and motivation to get myself to update my blog.
I was going through the best of Craigslist when I noticed a very interesting post by the CEO of experienceTHIS.us giving out advice to people applying for jobs online.
The gist of the post is that it is always better to be honest, elucidative, simple, concise, and professional when initiating that first key hiring related correspondence. Of course, different recruiters have different preferences, and some might prefer the traditional cookie-cutter emails/correspondence with “tasty” phrases and lots of magic keywords. I remember sending in an application for recruitment to SuSE Linux straight out of college and receiving an email from a recruiter saying that it was one of the most “interesting” applications he had seen. Too bad, at that time, SuSE was not doing good and was actually looking for someone to buy them (which was later done by Novell). That notwithstanding, “interesting” could hold connotations that could be either positive or negative.
Personally, I believe that the best way to sell yourself is to highlight your successful projects/achievements and lessons from mistakes. That minor in communications could be a good idea in the increasingly competitive technology jobs arena.