Really?? “Thx”??? (and, a rant on the economy, the presidency, and possibly squirrels)

I have a few pet peeves – awww, hell, who am I kidding: I get annoyed when the wind speed changes.  Just Martin being Martin, as it were.

But, this one cost somebody an interview (that, and the fact that he changes jobs every 12 months, and yet somehow “magically” manages to have at least 18 bullet-point “Responsibilities” per job – more ranting on that below*).  Here’s something I hate.  This cover letter:

Hi,

I have attached my resume for this position, Right Now i m working as the Sr QA analyst/Lead in healthcare software company based in Cambridge Ma and living in Acton Ma. I m full time employee. My Current Visa status is H1b Visa.

If You have Any question or concern plz let me know

See, I’m fine with the Visa – heck, I love it, wish there were more to give out – cutting Visa’s down to a trickle will have long term affects that are going to cripple this country in 10 – 10 years.  Just one of the ripple effects from the past 8 years – the current crisis is just the first of many.** 

It’s the “thx” and the random capitalizations.  And, well, the fact that one of the job requirements is that you know how to communicate.

*Look: If you’ve only been at a job from March to October, there’s absolutely no freaking way you had 24 distinct responsibilities.  Let me repeat: there is now freaking way…  This was a massive multinational, so you spent March to May just figuring out everyone’s name, where the  bathroom was, and what dumb requests pissed off IT the most.  You spent the next 4 months on some projects, many of which involved matching the appropriate cover sheet to the TPS reports.  You socialized, and basically failed miserably at your job, because you show a pattern of that, and then started getting your resume updated, and spamming it out to poor suckers like me.  You didn’t do much, in other words.  Keep it simple, because – while I may not be qualified to be the leader of the free world (which doesn’t make my unelectable) – I’m not an idiot.

**Editorial note/ rant: If you’re a regular reader, you may have sussed out the fact that I think Bush & Co are absolute boobs – descendents of immigrants who ducked out of military service during a war, who are also anti-immigration, pro-war, and, well, freaking idiots.  I don’t want to elect somebody I’d like to have a beer with.  I don’t want to elect somebody who’s “just like me”.  The president shouldn’t be hanging out in bars, drinking with me, and – complete self-honesty here: if they’re “just like me” then they’re “just not qualified for the most challenging, stressful job in the history of the world”.  There’s a saying the best companies hold to, and it holds true for elections: hire/ elect people who are smarter than you are.  To paraphrase Ogilvy, who knew a thing or two about hiring: Keep hiring people who are smaller than you are, and you wind up with a company of dwarves.  Hire people who are bigger than you are, and you get a company of giants.  Giants smash dwarves.