That’s the case for Kevin Colvin, the bank intern busted by Facebook. Late last month Mr. Colvin did what any recent college grad would do to not miss a great Halloween party, he lied. Instead of faking sick or asking for time off, young Kevin wrote an email to his boss explaining that a family emergency required him to leave town immediately. Much to his dismay, Colvin’s boss, Paul, is social-media-savvy and no stranger to the Facebook, which is where he found a picture Kevin, who was not tending to a family emergency, but a righteous Halloween party instead. Here’s what went down:
1.) Kevin wrote an email to his boss
2.) Kevin’s boss, Paul, wrote him back
3.) Paul included an attachment with his email
November 14, 2007
Every now and again HotJobs.com, a division of Yahoo.com, publishes a monthly feature, which they’ve branded the Recruiter Roundtable (RR). The RR is when a panel of prestigious recruiting professionals respond to one question in an effort to provide career and job-seeking advice. This week’s question asked: “What was the most remarkable attempt to impress you or get your attention that actually backfired against the candidate?
I found each of the recruiters’ answers comical and some even frightening, as I don’t understand what some folks were thinking during their job searches. Furthermore, this article got me thinking about my own job search, particularly the story surrounding the action which helped me secure my current job.
At some point during my senior year I decided that I needed to work for an advertising agency and that I wanted to live in Portland, OR. Lucky for me there are a number of great ad agencies in Portland and even luckier was the fact that one of the city’s bigger agency’s CEO graduated from The University of Montana as well and my closest adviser/professor had a tight connection to him. After a brief phone interview with the man who would soon become my employer I was asked to send along my resume. I could have simply emailed it for immediate arrival; however, that seemed too easy and I felt as though I had to do something to differentiate myself, so I opted for snail mail. With a bit of research I found out that my prospective employer’s passion outside of work was fly fishing. I then went to a friend, who happened to be one of Missoula’s best fly fishing guides, to tie me up a few special bugs. With two different flys in hand I went home and fashioned an envelope to secure them in with my resume.
I knew what I was about to do was risky, so on the first envelop I typed in red “Open with caution, sharp objects enclosed.” Then, inside that envelope and between the folds of my resume and cover letter was another envelope, this one had an image of a trout on it and copy reading “Patrick is a great catch for your advertising agency.” Genius strategy? I’d like to think so. After all, I was hired soon after, but my boss never acknowledged my strategy, then again, I never asked. Nonetheless, I got the job and my actions have since set an example for many young people in the midst of their job search.
July 26, 2007
