Re: Job Opening for System/Database Analyst

>mlayne@tul.ms.ch2m.com (Mark "Guido" Layne) wrote: >>We have the following job opening: >(snip) >>Interested candidates should send a letter stating qualifications >>and a current resume with references and salary requirements to: >(snip) >>*** Do NOT send email Resumes as they will not be answered. *** > > >Now that's what I call modern communication - post something in >various newsgroups and then make people answer by "old fashioned" >paper-letters... :( ........... You may be missing some points here. I can think of several reasons for requiring snail mail responses: 1) security and validation of identities--it is a lot easier to validate the existence of someone with a physical address than with an email address. Also, many companies want their job application files to be highly secure, for internal or for legal reasons, but their internet connection is not secure enough. What if you think you are replying to a job announcement, but instead you post back to the newsgroup? Or what if you email a job application and somehow the security of your internet connection is compromised and someone else finds out and tells your current employer? 2) timing--there are a lot of people on the net who might reply to a posting for the thrill or harassment value who might not go to the trouble of sending a letter. Also, people who send email tend to expect replies faster than those who send letters, and many HR departments are not able to respond within those expectations, for a variety of reasons. 3) the stuff that most people send via email is not formatted well and is difficult to read, relative to the typical resume. There is no standard yet for formatting. For example, you can't really assume your reader can read a Word document--they may be using Word Perfect or Ami. Fort that matter, you really can't assume they are set-up to deal with enclosures. Furthermore, although format translators save re-typing, they don't get all the formatting correct, so if you are concerned about how your document looks, you shouldn't use a translator. Maybe soon, we will all start using something like Adobe Acrobat which will fix this. 4) the person who posts to the newsgroup and has the email address is typically not the person who must review the applications. In general, I'd be a little less hasty about drawing conclusions about potential employers from their email policies. There are a lot of other more important things to consider, and some of the most enlightened contributors to this newsgroup come from companies with no email or Web support at all--they do it on their own. -- ========================================================= Joseph R. Davis, Davis Exploration Consulting P.O. Box 7748, Dallas, Texas, 75209, USA email: davisexp@ix.netcom.com phone: 214-691-6089 =========================================================