Stupid mistakeI did something really stupid. I applied for a position, changed the company name and the position title in the cover letter, and adjusted the text of the CL to fit the requirements of the position I was applying to. Here' s the stupid part--while I changed the name of the position in the body of the cover letter, I completely forgot to change it in the subject line, so the subject line still reflects another position I applied to. I always check and re-check everything I submit to the employer, and this is the first time I have ever missed something this stupid. Honestly, I have NEVER missed anything this crucial in my CL, and I have no idea how I could have missed it despite proofreading the whole thing like 3 times (my girlfriend thinks this is the universe letting me know this position is not right for me). Now, I don' t by any means expect them to call me after this. My question is, if I make the necessary correction and resubmit next week, what are the chances they will still have my original e-mail or remember the stupid mistake I made in it? I am thinking a week should be enough for them to go through the submissions and trash the ones with glaring errors in them, but not enough to have settled on a candidate. I' m guessing that since this is a rare entry-level opportunity at a Fortune 500 company, they will probably receive hundreds if not thousands of resumes between now and then, and the chances of them remembering me are slim (I doubt they will print out my e-mail and paste it up in the lunch room just for laughs). Do you think allowing time for the first e-mail to be deleted and resubmitting can salvage the situation at this point, or should I just let it go? I don' t know if my girlfriend' s theory is correct or if that' s just something people tell themselves after a stupid screw up, but I sure wish I had made a stupid candidacy ending error when I was applying to work for my former employer. Could' ve saved myself a lot of trouble. I think it' s inlikely they will still remember you out of hundreds of others a week from now. Since this is such a huge company, you may not even get the same screener the 2nd time around. And, since the error was at the very top of your submission, and chances are that once they saw it, they read no further, it' s unlikely that they have read enough of your cover letter/resume to spark some recognition when they encounter these documents for the 2nd time. Sooo, if you want to fix the error and reapply next Tuesday or Wednesday, you may be able to "salvage the situation". This being said, I personally agree with your girlfriend. Errors this glaring rarely just "happen", especially since you failed to see the error every time you reread the letter until after you had sent it. Perhaps your subconscious sensed something in the way the ad for the position was phrased (I' m assuming you responded to an ad) and tried to prevent you from being able to pursue this. Laugh if you want, but I believe that we are all slightly psychic and know more than we think we do. Had this been a different error, like a misspelled name, or an unfinished sentence, I would say you should immediately send the corrected version and in the body of the e-mail explain that you had noticed a mistake in your original cover letter or resume, are oh-so-embarrassed, and are forwarding a corrected version to replace the other one. This will not work for a mistake as careless as referring to the wrong position, as you yourself understand. If you still want to apply to this position, I think you are correct in planning to wait until your original application is trashed and reapplying then. The downside of that approach of course is that they may have enough candidates to interview by that time and may no longer be reading newly arriving resumes. When did you send the e-mail? If it' s a very large company, they have HR clerks on staff screening out the most obvious misses, like your cover letter, as they come in. I don' t think you should wait a week because your e-mail will most likely be history within the first 48 hours or so. I would say, once 3 business days have passed, go ahead and resend. Then, move on. DO NOT BEAT YOURSELF UP OVER THIS. It happens. I once forwarded a joke e-mail intended for a co-worker to a client! Good thing the client had a sense of humor. Everyone has a stupid screw-up story. | |
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