Oh yay - glaring errors in cover letter... resume, too

Last night I learned that there was a part-time opening for a position I've often thought of as an ideal job for me. (Nope. Sorry. I'm not going to say what it is; I'm not superstitious about "jinxing" things, and yet I find I'm not willing to go all out and say what it is just now.) By this morning I'd decided it couldn't hurt to apply. I'd talked to a couple of friends and gotten their "Well you'd better apply!" supportive comments to spur me on, so I got to work.

Resumes aren't high on my list of documents to keep updated. Should be, no doubt, but truthfully I forget about them the minute I'm finished with them. And so when called upon to send one off on short notice, all sorts of flurry abounds in my little head. Lots of changing and tweaking and updating to make one more word pack a more powerful punch than the one before.

Let me not belabor the point. I viewed and reviewed these documents (the cover letter freshly written, resume updated a smidge,) and finally decided to just let 'em go. You have to stop perseverating eventually, don't you? Of course, once I'd sent them, three guesses as to whether or not I really let them go.

Yea, you guessed it. Later on I opened these documents again and looked at them with fresh eyes.

Oh great. Fabulous. Magnificent. I found more than one mistake.

These are, as we all know, the documents that are meant to speak to our abilities and skills. These are the documents that are meant to introduce us to someone who doesn't know how many rave reviews our colleagues and clients give us...how many times people come to us for our professional opinions over those of others we might think of as more credentialed in the areas in question. And yet I botched 'em. Not glaringly, of course. Nothing so simple as that. But in one sentence I'd moved some words around and, well, you know how once you've read something so many times you read what you think it says rather than what it says? Yea, well, that happened to me. On both documents. And never mind I added one tiny little extra thing which ended up affecting my formatting of one of the documents in a not particularly subtle way.

So what's to be learned from this? Surely a lot. But right now the lesson I'm working on is just to let things be. I know it's a job I could do and be magnificent at. Whether or not I'll get the opportunity remains to be seen. Stressing and worrying over these errors, however, is going to do nothing whatsoever to make my chances any better. I'll be invited to interview or I won't; simple as that. If I do, wow... my imagination tells me the opportunity would be thrilling. And if I don't? Well, I have a pretty stellar life already. I guess I'll go back to making the one I already have just that much better.

Any good news (I mean really good news,) and I'll let you know... 

Comments

[Carol]

One thing I learned from one of my professors in college was: Write a a paper (in your case document) wait a few days then read it again. Of course what's done is done--let it go. I'm sure it wasn't as bad as you think.

I'm praying that if this is meant for you it will work out.

Love,
Mom

[Just~Jen]

.......let it go.......
I know how you feel though. My Mom just went and read my blog and pointed out a big-old-honking typo that was in a post about 7 times (we can thank spell check for that word replacement)

Hope you land the job if it is what you really want... and not hearing anything might not be about the resume! I landed my current job three months after applying!

Hope all is well

[carolyn]

Yo, kid, you know professional English majors--it's one of the things we do: PROOFREAD. I personally am ok at it, but believe me, I know a VERY VERY eagle-eyed person (she's upstairs even as I write!) who would be glad to help you. This is one of the few times when our sense of pickiness and attention to detail can be a virtue.

You need to seek us out! Payment might be barter?! Or just good will.

My good thoughts are with you about the job!!!

[Melody]

Let's see. Mom first: yes, you're right. If I'd felt I had more breathing room, I should have absolutely given it more time to, hm... marinate. Thanks for the kind wishes and the prayer, too! Love you too...

Jen - "let it go" is my current mantra. And since NOT letting it go will serve no purpose, then I have to. Mostly have, too. I was just so flustered at the time. Thanks for the encouragement. (Great to hear from you, too...it's been a while!)

Now Carolyn! Here's the embarrassing part. (The most embarrassing part, that is.) I DID have another English degree person look it over. She had stellar comments and added some real insight and improvement. It was after I'd incorporated her thoughts that I went back and made these stupid changes. It was feeling like I really needed to jump on the submission right away (had to be at the office shortly...too many things scheduled for a couple of days... knew I'd already missed valuable days since it was first announced, and have no way of knowing when it'll be closed,) that distracted me from doing that last, final proof. But I love being reminded of my broader editing options for future writing projects. And don't even get me started about bartering! LOVE a good trade, so we'll talk. Thanks for the good thoughts.

Okay. Letting it go. For real. See? Done. Not thinking another minute about it. (Really, I'm serious. I have to turn my attention to designing some new artisan necklaces. Remember that last post? Yup - I have a lot of creativity ahead of me in the coming weeks. So that's where I'll be putting my mental energy and no more worrying allowed.)

Cheers!