I got this cover letter today in response to an ad I put on craigslist seeking sales people. I have gotten lots of weird stuff, one girl sent me a half naked picture to accompany her resume and another girl sent me her Myspace profile. Others told me to contact them on facebook and then I had the bright idea to just write “commission only” in the ads so we get really good people.
As the person put in charge of finding and hiring at my company, I have seen a lot. Most of the interviewees have been duds, I get these hot shot real estate brokers who couldn’t sell for beans and then I’ll get some 19 year old girl who could tear the house down. But today I got my first frummy cover letter.
Only the opening is funny, but doesn’t BSD stand for something besides for Heaven being with you? I thought it was some sort of sexual acronym as well?Maybe all frum people do on craigslist was try and find frum affairs and people to rub cholent on you, so they may not know the correct way to go about real things like finding jobs or getting a free box spring.
BS”D
To whom it may concern,
I am writing in regards to the ad for the inside sales position. My name is “Enter frummy name here”, I have tremendous sales and marketing experience, and I would really like to know more about the position you have available. Also, if there is a way to schedule an interview I would greatly appreciate an opportunity to find out more about the position, and discuss my experience, if needed.
Thank you so much for your consideration, have an amazing day,
If anyone is looking for a job and is really good at closing over the phone you can email me.
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Hesh, who wrote this?Are you in charge of HR at your job?I hate to burst your bubble but this is the 21st century nobody likes telemarketers.Even if you have a good product or service people simply wont buy because you are a telemarketer.99% of the time people just hang up, or stay on the phone just to fuck with you.
no, you call me.
Who wrote this article?I hate to break it to you but no one buys anything from telemarketers nowdays.There is just too much fraud out there and strangers simply don’t trust strangers, especially to give credit card info over the phone.People are conditioned ,like pavloves dogs, to say”I’m not interested” than hang up
Even if the product or service will change the person’s life or save them money, the phone conversation lackes fundemental trust that must be present even to attempt a sale.You can thank our corrupt society (or the media propaganda that makes me believe Im living in one) for this sad state of affairs.
Back in the 80s at least you can trust that the guy at the other end of the phone came from your standard “leave it to beaver”family,and he had enough fundamental ethical and moral values not to steal your credit card info or scam you in any other way.Nowadays there is no assumptive inhernte trust amoungst strangers.
I hope I didn’t open panda’s box cause we can go on all night about what exactly changed in our society to make us the way we are in 2009
Can you send that half naked picture please?
Are you still wanting commission only, car sales people?
Oh, and to your shock, you might be interested to know that no professional person will ever apply for “commission only.” Our time is worth more than that, and we expect the employer to understand that. Just FYI…
I meant to say, “will never apply….”
Its hard reading and writing on blogs when your signing deals
Say Tevye, Signing a deal for that cow with Leizer the butcher?
Bsamim Smoker – Perhaps you opened a Pandora’s box, but definitely not a panda’s box.
At least the frum applicant spells and uses grammer better than you do.
I’m a bit confused over what is wrong with the cover letter. I do see one punctuation error, but that’s it. Is it because they began with B”SD or because of their name ? Did the person (I am guessing female) send a resume along with it?
I also would not ever apply for any job that was commission only. Especially not in these economic times. However, I have never been in sales so….
Bsamim Smoker I so hear you! I never thought it would happen to me but my daughter has access to one of my bank accounts as it is emergency money for school, etc. I was in AU, she in the States. She noticed that I had NO money in the account and alerted me at 3am. I called the bank and sure enough, someone had gotten ahold of my info and I had to change everything. They tracked it down as fraud.
Yesterday, as I have moved back to the states, we went to Verizon so I could add a line to my kid’s plan. The guy said there was over $600 outstanding under my name, not my social security number nor my address or any local(ish) phone number. Why? Yep. Fraud. All those lovely credit card offers they send out – I love to dumpster dive and cannot believe how many people just chuck those in the trash.
My dad once bought a business with a duplex rental on the property with a counter cheque. He wrote it on a paper bag and the bank cashed it. That is how it was in the late 60s. Can you imagine anyone doing that today?
Something else – there were some movies that my husband was purchasing over the phone. Very nice family movies. Then one night we saw a 20/20 program – the salesmen were calling from PRISON! Yep, this nice company with the polite gentlemen selling over the phone had access to his Corporate American Express and OUR ADDRESS!
Now we will return to our regularly scheduled programming….
Leeba
“If there is a way to schedule an interview..”.
The letter should have read:
I have heard many great things about your company blah blah I have extensive experience blah blah which will be an asset to your company blah blah
I look forward to hearing from you shortly.
Sincerely,
Remember: I will show you how I can benefit your company by researching your company first.
Future Druggie – I agree with you. There was not a lot of content in the letter. It could have been sent to any business.
How about posting the photo the girl sent?
I do not post often, but this was a good read. Craigslist always has something new in stock. There was this post about a guy who wanted to buy a car for his gf, and he found a car ad with stuff about Hitler in it… Very odd. That is Craigslist…
The only thing funny was that he used the acronym Bsiyata deshamyim.
B’samin – this nothing near telemarketing, I would say the opposite – its inside sales or buying shall I say.
Tevye: I got the best buyer my company ever had and I wrote commission only. I can give a $1000 a week draw to someone after a 30 day trial and I wrote that in my newest ads.
discuss experience, ****if needed****
So, they expect a job without discussing experience?
Panda’s box cracked me up.
Mmm, yeah. BSD does mean something besides “Heaven be with you”. It stands for “Berkeley Standard Distribution”, a UNIX variant which has been very important in the evolution of modern operating systems.
Now you know what industry I work in
We also know you’re a nerd
Of course, so am I, and that is what I thought of when I saw BSD.
amazing! I laughed so hard!
I especially like (insert frummy name here)
I thought BSD was an acronym used by Shadchanim to describe girls with great middos. I think it stand for “Big Sexy Dumpling”.
Teacher, maybe learn to spell grammar, and then you can complain…
Tremendous and amazing are not words that belong in an employment cover letter. Is sounds like he/she just came back from a kiruv shabbaton or something.
Anonymous, thanks for your last comment! Was gonna say: who says “tremendous experience”? That doesn’t make sense. Tremendous is a word that should preface BS”D as in “I have tremedous BS”D” LOL
what a frummy word.
Plus, you can tell by his wording that he isn’t confident- asking twice about potentially meeting- never discussing his credentials or his knowledge of anything, except his ability to write awful cover letters.
I’ve seen alot worster cover letters. The one you posted was pretty decent. Why did you post it, was it the name or the BSD?
My grandmother puts BSD on her emails, I think it’s just instinct.