Because the cover letter template I’ve been using lately hasn’t seemed to draw much attention, I decided to start completely and totally from scratch for my next round of Jobbing.
I’ve consulted some old notes, a few style guides and, today, did a cursory Googlization on the topic (I’m on a word-making roll today, folks!).
One of the first links upon which I clicked seemed promising: an official (looking) address (.gov, people!) and seemingly solid tips in its truncated summary. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the .pdf document that seemed to have so much promise turned out TO BE TYPED IN COMIC SANS.
COMIC SANS. Seriously? Had I downloaded a bake sale flyer by mistake? Oh, nononononono: this was a genuine, GOVERNMENT-ORIGINATED DOCUMENT typed in mother-lovin’ COMIC SANS (though, to its credit, there were no smiley-face bullets or gratuitous ClipArt images). I can’t even tell you if the content was helpful; too distracted was I by the cartoonish lettering.
Seeing junk like this fills me with equal amounts of hope and dread. Hope, because if this shit can be deemed “official,” then my chances of getting a job disseminating and/or producing this sort of information seem high (I can wow a prospective employer with my serif fonts and command of the English language!) and Dread, because – well, if this is some kind of universal trend we’re all pretty much fucked.
It’s discombobulated me enough to take a brief breaky-break from the cover lettering and concentrate on less productive pursuits, such as posting a bitchy blog about it. Screw productivity, I guess.
But really, if all else fails, I could always just staple a twenty to my next application.
the sloppy copy 