Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Recruitment & retention
    • Wellbeing
    • Occupational Health
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Recruitment & retention
    • Wellbeing
    • Occupational Health
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise

Recruitment & retentionPre-employment screeningOpinion

Have a rant… attention to detail

by Personnel Today 26 Sep 2006
by Personnel Today 26 Sep 2006

I am taking a breather from our current major recruitment drive to rage about the number of errors I find in people’s job applications. And I’m not even talking about the kind of howlers that Guru prints.

The debate about young people’s low literacy levels may be a current hot topic, but in my experience, lack of attention to detail is completely ageless.

It’s not just that job hopefuls (or should that be hopeless?) put commas where full stops or semi-colons should be, or start every noun with a capital letter – though that’s bad enough.

But is it too much to expect that someone applying for a job should at least be able to spell the hiring manager’s name?

My surname isn’t that complicated, but it gets spelled in all manner of weird ways. Or how about my job title? I’m a recruitment manager, not a recruiting manager. And these people even have the cheek to claim that one of their skills is ‘great attention to detail’.

The worst case I’ve seen recently is a woman who was enthusiastic to the point of desperation about a position in our company, and was continually hounding the line manager to call her in for interview.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

When he tried to call her, he found that she had put the wrong phone number on her CV. Needless to say, she didn’t get the job.

In this quick-fire culture of e-mails and texts, why don’t job applicants just slow down for two minutes and check they’ve actually got the basics right.




Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Willing to slap their credentials on the table
next post
Commission of the European Communities v United Kingdom

You may also like

Jobs market continuing to stagnate, says official data

16 Sep 2025

Day one rights to make 86% more cautious...

14 Sep 2025

How to employ a global workforce from the...

10 Sep 2025

Employees more likely to be staying put and...

9 Sep 2025

How to manage workplace investigations effectively

5 Sep 2025

Agency crackdown won’t cure NHS staffing crisis alone

5 Sep 2025

Free childcare expansion beset with recruitment challenges

1 Sep 2025

Indeed launches platform aimed at healthcare workers

27 Aug 2025

Jobs market continued to struggle during July

26 Aug 2025

Petition calls for rethink on NHS agency staff...

19 Aug 2025

  • Workplace health benefits need to be simplified SPONSORED | Long-term sickness...Read more
  • Work smart – stay well: Avoid unnecessary pain with centred ergonomics SPONSORED | If you often notice...Read more
  • Elevate your L&D strategy at the World of Learning 2025 SPONSORED | This October...Read more
  • How to employ a global workforce from the UK (webinar) WEBINAR | With an unpredictable...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits Live
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Recruitment & retention
    • Wellbeing
    • Occupational Health
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise