best ever
Sunday, 20 January 2013
Barefoot in Paris
Wall Street Bosses Are Calling This 'The Best Cover Letter Ever' - But Not Everyone Agrees - Forbes
Shocker. It seems that ‘humble’ could actually work on Wall Street.
Well, at least for the brutally honest and hilariously self-deprecating young student, whose cover letter publicized on Business Insider, has generated a ton of positive interest amongst investment banking bosses.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the recipient of the e-mail immediately forwarded it on to colleagues, adding, “This might be the best cover letter I’ve ever received. Second and third paragraphs especially.”
Another added to the e-mail chain, “I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy gets at least a call from every bank out there.”
For your reading pleasure, I’m including the letter in full and have taken the liberty to highlight the classic bits.
From: BLOCKED
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2013 1:14PM
To: BLOCKED
Subject: Summer Internship
Dear BLOCKED
My name is (BLOCKED) and I am an undergraduate finance student at (BLOCKED). I met you the summer before last at Smith & Wollensky’s in New York when I was touring the east coast with my uncle, (BLOCKED). I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to talk with me that night.
I am writing to inquire about a possible summer internship in your office. I am aware it is highly unusual for undergraduates from average universities like (BLOCKED) to intern at (BLOCKED), but nevertheless I was hoping you might make an exception. I am extremely interested in investment banking and would love nothing more than to learn under your tutelage. I have no qualms about fetching coffee, shining shoes or picking up laundry, and will work for next to nothing. In all honesty, I just want to be around professionals in the industry and gain as much knowledge as I can.
I won’t waste your time inflating my credentials, throwing around exaggerated job titles, or feeding you a line of crapp (sic) about how my past experiences and skill set align perfectly for an investment banking internship. The truth is I have no unbelievably special skills or genius eccentricities, but I do have a near perfect GPA and will work hard for you. I’ve interned for Merrill Lynch in the Wealth Management Division and taken an investment banking class at (BLOCKED), for whatever that is worth.
I am currently awaiting admission results for (BLOCKED) Masters of Science in Accountancy program, which I would begin this fall if admitted. I am also planning on attending law school after my master’s program, which we spoke about in New York. I apologize for the blunt nature of my letter, but I hope you seriously consider taking me under your wing this summer. I have attached my resume for your review. Feel free to call me at (BLOCKED) or email at (BLOCKED). Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
BLOCKED.
Not everyone is impressed by this cover letter though.
Lex van Dam, former top trader at Goldman Sachs and head of hedge fund, Hampstead Capital, takes a dim view of the over-hyped reactions of the Wall Street bosses.
“They live on a different planet – and probably have never seen any of these letters before as their HR departments are trained monkeys.”
In other words, another example of a viral letter for entertainment purposes, that is much ado about nothing. And yes, I’m doing my best to ignore the ‘trained monkeys’ bit.
He goes on to explain, “The letter is well written and makes you have great sympathy for the applicant. However, it also feels as a call for charity. I would still prefer the candidate to have something special about them that they can tell me about , rather than a person who pretty much admits that he or she is pretty average. This letter is really not an exception – plenty of smart, hard working, honest people are begging for jobs that are just not available. To get ahead unfortunately, writing beautiful letters is not likely what will get you the job – doing extra ordinary things and thinking outside the box is.”
Still though – you’ve got to hand it to the applicant, who is probably the one in all of this having the last laugh: the seemingly average candidate may just have scored the internship of his or her dreams – the one that most college students would give their eyeteeth for – and it all came down to an average, albeit inspired cover letter.
Find me on Twitter @maseenaziegler or Facebook @maseenaz
Also on Forbes:
How To Write A Cover Letter
show morePut the name of a mutual contact in the first sentence.
This is the ideal way to start a cover letter, because it immediately sets you apart from the pile of applicants who have no relationship to the employer.
Apparently this particular cover letter is causing quite a stir due to it's "honesty", certainly the writer must be more than average to have come up with such an out of the box solution, and therein may lie the success, in the almost "mafia like" level of communication. It is a little bit like in the movie Casino, or actually any Italian mob based movie. "I don't know, what are ya gonna do?", means, that the person being discussed has got to "go", as in be dispatched. As we recollect, in the John Gotti an other mob trials, "tires" mean heroin, etc, etc. The person who wrote the letter by emphasizing their ordinariness, actually is playing a game of doublespeak. Pretty good going. Touching on all the important points, and thereby displaying a highly mature level of communication.
Having spent some time working for our own human resources department, I know what it is like to plough through a two inch pile of resumes, or curriculum vitae's as they say in Europe, call after call, some badly spaced, lacking the correct contact information, too many contact telephone numbers, or a number that lies hidden in a three page resume, buried in small type at the bottom. Calling grumpy or half awake applicants, households with dogs barking, children crying and phones ringing, as well as right in the middle of the call someone coming to the phone. People who are on the bus, people who are walking down the street with busy traffic in the background, roaring past generating an almost deafening roar. And so on and so on.
Perhaps the most important insights one might offer, is that, when you have a pile of cv's, you very quickly learn to scan quickly as you are starting to dial. The first few resumes you read, you spend three minutes reading them minutely, then you call, simply to find that the person is not in, or has found their job, or has an interview somewhere else, wasted effort on your part. So what you do is develop a shorthand way of pursuing contacts where you learn to ask simplistic questions, while you half listen and quickly read. If someone does not care to put all their info on the cv, or is hiding something, or lying to get the job, it will quickly become apparent to you. A few quick questions will give you the foundation of the conversation, and also the sub texts to what is said. There is nothing better than getting someone with a great positive attitude, what I learned to call my superstars, people who are giving off the right vibe, who already seem to be be part of the team, that give you the feeling to just say "come on down", "start today", after wading through twenty or thirty grim discussions. Lack of confidence will neutralise many applications progressing, you have to have something to say for yourself, be interested, and to have been interested enough to research your possibly new employer, and to have reasons why you would like to work for this particular company.
Have some notes with you, or ready by the phone, if it is really not convenient, many companies will not leave a message, they want to control the times that you might call, and want to avoid "clingons", so we like to call you. If the kids are crying, ask if the person can call back in ten minutes, or after lunch, really emphasize how important this contact is, and remember, if it is not the right time, it may take a day or so for the interviewer to get back to you, if at all, your resume goes to the bottom of the pile.
Be on the game, on the ball, on time, and ready to go. Just a few quick tips, and hope they help.
Saturday, 19 January 2013
mackwhite.com
http://www.mackwhite.com/Dealey.html
This is a short and charming reminiscence from the period of the Kennedy assassination in Dallas. With the fiftieth anniversary of JFK's death later this year, there should be a lot of renewed interest in this murder.
BBC News - Tutankhamun tomb: Human breath wreaks havoc in Egypt
The first time it seemed did not display the video.
BBC News - Tutankhamun tomb: Human breath wreaks havoc in Egypt
This is actually quite a moving clip from the tomb of King Tutankhamen. Unfortunately, it is starting to suffer similar damage to Lascaux in terms of the breath humidity brought in by it's human visitors.
BBC News - Bolshoi director Sergei Filin hurt in acid attack
The BBC News organization has reported that Bolshoi director Sergei Filin has been severely injured in an acid attack.
Apparently over recent months, he has been subject to a cyber attack, intimidation, threats and now on returning to his home in Moscow on Thursday evening, he has had acid thrown in his face. As you can see from this report, police have found the jar that was used to contain the acid, in this clip you can see them examining it in the snow and moving it into an evidence box. Hopefully they will be able to recover finger prints from this.
It is suspected that Mr Filin has been caught in the middle of infighting and competition between different groups of Bolshoi dancers, he is said to have an uncompromising style, and would not allow dancers to perform roles until they were ready, this has perhaps been the source of considerable tension, and possibly played a role in this recent attack.
Sergei Filin, born in nineteen seventy, began a twenty year career starting in nineteen eighty eight, and ended his professional performing career in two thousand and eight.
The problems occurring within the Bolshoi have been the subject of wide media attention in Russia, and seem to be based not on financial reward but on competition between the dancers to have "jewel" roles.
This sought of cultural in-fighting has been going on for decades and has often degenerated into dancers even tampering with each other's ballet shoes, such as putting crushed glass inside, or causing disturbances during high points of a performance.
At the Bolshoi's web site http://www.bolshoi.ru/en/, the directors have expressed their support for Mr. Filin:
19.01.2013
"The members of the Bolshoi Theatre Council of Trustees express their solidarity with the family of Sergei Filin and the Theatre Company in connection with the horrific attack on the Artistic Director of Ballet.
In the two years he has occupied this post, Sergei Filin has managed to seriously renew the Ballet Company and to conduct an artistic policy enabling the Bolshoi Theatre to remain the best ballet company in the world, and preserve its world cultural heritage at the same time as constantly developing.
The attack on Sergei Filin will not go unpunished. Members of the Bolshoi Theatre Council of Trustees hope that the crime will be solved and the guilty parties named. The Council is ready to give all possible support to ensure that Sergei receives the best possible treatment.
We hope Sergei will soon be back at work. We will be waiting for him".
The Bolshoi which began in the seventeen hundreds as a private theatre of a Russian prince has attained a world wide reputation for the finest ballet in the world. A Russian friend once perceived that the arts gained much prominence during the soviet era because Stalin took great measures to destroy the hold of religion over the Russian people, and replaced it with two things, culture, and Stalin himself.
He made himself a religion. The soviets also realized the political importance of world class performers, not only in ballet, but also in athletics as we know is evidenced by their achievements in the Olympics, especially during the official period of the cold war.
It is interesting to note that the charter of the Bolshoi began in seventeen seventy six, with Catherine the second charging Prince Pyotr Urusov, the "privilege" of "maintaining" theatre performances of all kinds, including masquerades, balls and other forms of entertainment, for a ten year period.
The great theatre began with a royal patron, the Russian rulers saw that they needed to create a court and culture that could compete with the best that the more established courts of western Europe could offer.
Thursday, 17 January 2013
BBC News - Napoleon's Kremlin letter sold for 150,000 euros
Napoleon wore out his secretaries, I think one stayed with him for five years and finally left after this period, absolutely exhausted. As I recollect I believe he wrote or dictated between eighty and one hundred and twenty letters a day. His secretaries would sit around him in a circle, he would pick one out to write out his dictation. It was said up until that point he was the most informed ruler in history with riders coming to him from every part of France with information every day. It has been said that during his reign, he spent only about a thousand days in Paris, but in that time he re-wrote the constitution.