This mentality is frequently at odds with how companies find the best candidates.
It presumes that you, the company, have this great and wonderful thing to offer some lucky individual, the candidate. The candidate, gracious for even the opportunity to apply for such a choice offer, spends hours proofreading and otherwise perfect his or her resume and cover letter.
What this ignores is reality. Often the people you want to hire couldn't care less about sending you a resume to prove to you why you are worth their time. They have got better things to do -- and probably a good job that already pays them quite well, thank you very much.
I'm nitpicking a bit here -- obviously it pays to be professional in your communications, no matter what the circumstances. But it's an exceedingly dangerous mentality, particularly for companies operating in our space, where good talent is quite scarce. 37 Signals (oops! I mean "37Signals") can get away with it probably, because they are so well known. Doubtful whether your startup can...
Judge candidates by what they will be doing for you, not by arbitrary weed out criteria like getting your company's product names right.
It presumes that you, the company, have this great and wonderful thing to offer some lucky individual, the candidate. The candidate, gracious for even the opportunity to apply for such a choice offer, spends hours proofreading and otherwise perfect his or her resume and cover letter.
What this ignores is reality. Often the people you want to hire couldn't care less about sending you a resume to prove to you why you are worth their time. They have got better things to do -- and probably a good job that already pays them quite well, thank you very much.
I'm nitpicking a bit here -- obviously it pays to be professional in your communications, no matter what the circumstances. But it's an exceedingly dangerous mentality, particularly for companies operating in our space, where good talent is quite scarce. 37 Signals (oops! I mean "37Signals") can get away with it probably, because they are so well known. Doubtful whether your startup can...
Judge candidates by what they will be doing for you, not by arbitrary weed out criteria like getting your company's product names right.