What You Are Sir...

(I am writing this just past midnight in a hotel room in Banff, Alberta).

"What you are sir speaks so loudly that I can hardly hear what you say." (Emerson)

It has got to be my favourite quote of all time. I was reminded of this quote today while opening my email. The story follows.

I checked my email and after I deleted the obligatory SPAM, I was left with three of the original 18 messages. One of those messages was an application for employment from a university student just north of Toronto. This person was looking for a job in a public relations capacity with my company. The cover letter with my name, company name and email address was at the top of the email in Arial font. The cover letter followed in Times New Roman (an obvious cut and paste).

In the email, the student said, "The learned skill, that I find most useful to public relations, is presentation." What followed was a standard cover letter that did not include any references to my company, my industry, my profession or my name. I wrote a letter back.

In that letter, I offered some suggestions:

1. If you're going to tell me "presentation" is important, then take the time to make a presentation that is appropriate to me.
2. Don't SPAM me and expect me to jump and offer an interview (I should mention here that I am not looking for anyone right now - please don't send your resumes).
3. Be real. Be human. Be creative. Don't look like every other student looking for a job.
4. Be the product. Conduct a PR campaign about yourself that talks to me and offers a solution to my problem (research is crucial to first find out if I have a problem that needs answering).
5. Practice what you preach. Don't just be a resume that's been spammed out. Be everything your resume says you are.

That's how Emerson's quote came to me today. We need to be more accountable for our actions. We need to not only have an impressive resume, but we need to be everything in that resume. You can say you know it, but are you practicing what you preach?

Food for thought early on a Monday morning.