What's in a Name? - Properly Naming Documents

One of the wonderful tasks I have had the extreme pleasure of assisting with is organizing resume and interview processes. In my own naive little world, I honestly thought that those wonderful people in the recruiting and HR world had it pretty nice. You post a position, happy folks who need a job apply, you find the perfect person, you hire them and they live happily ever after.

~ Yes, I should be smoking crack!

Other than living in dreamland with my initial assumptions, I really have only found 3 beefs with prospective employees. Two of them fall into my lovely realm of organizing and the other annoys the shit out of me so much that I had to laugh uproariously when the offending McDonald's Commenteer solicited ME unbeknownest to his pea-sized brain...but we'll get to that in a moment.

1. Properly name your documents in the computer. Not only does it apply to job seekers, it does truly go for everyone who ever saves a single thing on their computer. When it comes to a resume; "resume_version_1" does NOT help anyone...including yourself. Suzanne_Babb_Resume has a heck of a lot better ring to it. Same goes for any other document. If you lose a document, it will be a lot easier to find if you have named it logically.
2. I don't know you. No one else knows you. Why in the world would I open a "resume_version_1" file attachment with NOTHING in the email itself? Hello! Does it take very long to type a short little, "Hi, I came across your job posting and I felt that my qualifications would fit perfectly with your expectations?" Are you TRYING to get a job, people?!
3. Number 3 involves my "Aaron McDonald's Lover". When you think you are randomly sending pissy emails to companies trying to hire an entry level position and you want to comment on the rate of pay by comparing it to being able to work at McDonald's for more money, you may want to remember that it is a small world and you have NO CLUE who is actually reading the emails.

Mr. McDonald's Man was so offensive in his hourly attacks on the job posting I wanted to send him the dried up french fries I found under the seat of the car with a note stating that I would much rather pay the french fry to design brochures than consider him to wipe the dog feces off of my shoes. (I didn't, but I wanted to!)

However! The Powers that Be had something else wonderful in store for Mr. "Don't hide your name in your email" McDonald's Man. I typically get a 5 or 6 solicitations in my email from local promotions companies, graphic designers, web guys, and other small business services. Nothing too terribly exciting, but it happens. Several days after being completely annoyed by the ungrateful piss-ant who, seriously sent over 25 emails to the hiring company, sent ME an email!

Not because of the job I had posted on behalf of a local business, but because HE wanted to discuss with me the possibilities of working with me on MY graphic needs! He was emailing me BLIND! OBLIVIOUS to my evil plots to annihilate his computer and cause him to go color blind.

I considered emailing him right away BLASTING him for his unprofessional behavior, but then I erred on the side of caution and waited a day. Then I CALLED him.

We spoke on the phone for a few minutes and he was regaling me with stories of all his wonderful high end clients, how passionate he was in his work, how he prided himself on his professionalism, and how much he was looking forward to showing the world a new and improved image for Let's Talk Organizing. Then he wanted to know about my budget. :o)

I very innocently told him that my budget was definitely on the scale of an hourly wage similar to that of a McDonald's employee.

There was a long silence.

I had a grin from ear to ear trying hard to stifle my cries of triumph.

Then I said that it was a small world and he should take a bit of that "professionalism" he touted and it apply it to the emails he sends.

I hung up.

Did I mention that I felt SOOOOO good? Did I say that I did a happy dance of extreme joy? Did I say that I LOVE karma?

So, the moral of the story is:

Your name, good or bad, can either open the doors of progress or slam it shut.

So...

1. Save your files with logical names.
2. Be sure and say a few words in the emails you do send.
3. And for the love of Pete, don't send nasty emails to people, you never know WHO is reading them.

Happy Organizing!