Looking for an intern who can follow instructions
This post written by Stephanie Fader, Marketing & PR Manager
As you probably know from Matt’s two previous posts, MyPunchbowl is looking for a Marketing & PR intern. I haven’t weighed in yet publicly regarding “A story about spunk and fight” because we’re still in the process of reviewing other candidate’s resumes and I’d like to remain fair and open-minded. I will admit that I have concerns about how this public debate is affecting our overall intern search. What do other candidates think? Will applicants be afraid to work here?
I finally had some time between a board meeting and a new site release to read through the emails from internship applicants waiting in my inbox. Trust me, there are plenty more typos and grammar mistakes. The thing that gets me is that most of the candidates aren’t following the instructions we gave them for applying!
Here’s the job posting as it appears on Craiglist:
Do you want to get solid marketing experience and be involved in a cutting-edge Web 2.0 company? Punchbowl Software, the developers of MyPunchbowl.com, is looking for an enthusiastic Marketing Intern to join our fun, software startup environment. MyPunchbowl is an award-winning site for event and party planning.
Who you are:
• You are intelligent and well organized
• You have excellent writing skills
• You are energetic and creative
• You have an excellent memory and attention to detail
• You are web savvy, particularly with social networking sites
• You have marketing experience from previous internships and/or coursework
Responsibilities:
• Represent and promote MyPunchbowl on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook
• Expand MyPunchbowl’s presence in the blogosphere
• Implement a relationship management tool for keeping track of bloggers
• Assist with press announcements and other marketing activities
• Various writing tasks as needed
• Assist with office and administrative tasks
This is a semester-long internship; 15–20 hours per week. We are located in Framingham, so you must have a car. Compensation: $10–15 per hour, based on prior experience.
To apply for this internship:
1. Create a user account at MyPunchbowl and check it out.
2. Send a *one page* resume, your impressions of the site, and brief introductory email to jobs at punchbowlsoftware dot com
What I end up getting is an email from candidates telling me about themselves. Sometimes they don’t even do that, they just send the resume. No impressions of the site. No reference to signing up and trying out MyPunchbowl. Part of why we ask for this is to 1) see if they can follow instructions and 2) to evaluate their writing skills. By not following these simple instructions, they’re basically telling me that they aren’t either of the first two things we’re looking for on the job posting!
Unlike Matt, I haven’t written to anyone who didn’t follow instructions to make them aware of their errors or grammatical mistakes. But on the flipside, I probably won’t give their resumes much consideration either. Is it really that hard to follow instructions?
February 10th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Nice to see Stephanie weigh in on this issue. I am glad that Matt has you on board, he sometimes needs advice that he doesn’t realize he needs. I will speak to him personally about his Blogging on this, but having recruited and for five years taught R & S Seminars, I do know that every once in a great while there is a “feeling” that you can pick up on. Some times this is because it reminds us of ourselves or someone we know, and other times, there is truly a “gem in the rough.”
But the point I want to make here is a little bit different than what I have seen in the Blogs. You need to ask why “most of the candidates aren’t following the instructions we gave them for applying!”
With all of the media about Internet scams, maybe people might be apprehensive about creating a user account. Matt can tell you that I am “an old fart” and I am not current on today’s classifieds. Do other companies ask potential recruits to do the things you are asking?
I like your idea of this being, somewhat, of a test but I am not sure this is the right time or place for the test. I guess you can say I agree with both of your styles and if you are both involved in the selection process, you may be getting the best of both worlds.
February 11th, 2009 at 7:35 am
Good morning, Stephanie. You and I agree. Write ads with clear instructions and indicate what you are looking for in a candidate and in their application. If they don’t comply — they may not follow directions, they are not detail oriented enough, and they haven’t learned to market themselves. Our job is not to instruct candidates. Our job is to find the best fit for the organization and then, work with and instruct the successful intern. Stick with your guns!