writing letters

When stuck on the endless merry-go-round that is job applications, does anyone else have a distressing tendency to get easily bored... and far more creative than they should be?

Unfortunately, when I'm bored my sense of humour starts to emerge - and my sense of humour has this thing about getting me into trouble, especially with it comes armed with pen and paper.


To demonstrate what I mean, here is an excerpt from a job application letter, back in those far-off days when I still had optimism:

As an editorial student hoping to work in the field of educational publishing, I would love the opportunity to join your company.

(Nice, formal, stodgy...)


A bit later:

I would be very grateful if you would consider me for a position in your company, or for any freelance work you could offer me.

(This is when the italics start creeping in.)


Then:

I would like to explain, in simple terms, why I believe that I’d be good at this job. (Granted, this is pretty much the definition of what an application letter is for…)

Last week:

* Not, I admit, a necessary job skill. But it is pretty cool.

And then yesterday:

I'm contacting you in the forlorn hope that you'll take pity on a would-be editor if I can sound pathetic enough.

You see what I mean. As soon as I get bored, I get creative and increasingly silly. (In that last one, I also used the phrase "forlorn-ness (or should that be forlornity?)" and promised that I'd throw her a party if she gave me any work.)

Anyone else do this? Just me? Okay then.



So, anyway, I was wondering: what do your favourite characters do with their job applications?

Sokka never has any problem getting jobs. Which always surprises him - he keeps confessing, mid-interview, that he has no idea what he's doing and still has a lot to learn. And people keep on hiring him every time...

Faith never has to apply for jobs anymore (permanent positions rock!) but whenever she has to apply for stuff from the Board, she and Buffy swap applications and write each other's. Faith comes across as super-eloquent and formal, and everyone assumes that all the swearing means Buffy is stressed out and needs to be treated nicely.

Dawn was pretty sure her job interview would mostly be an opportunity for out-of-retirement stuffy Watchers to look down their noses at the 23-year-old American chick, so she was going to have to impress them right from the start. That's why she wrote her CV in Ancient Etruscan. Ancient Etruscan haiku.