Can this be fixed?
March 28, 2012 5:10 AM Subscribe
Is there anything I can do about this job application fuck-up?
On Monday, I submitted an application for a job. The process is quite competitive and has three stages: first you submit a resume and cover letter, then the successful candidates submit a lengthy essay, and then those successful candidates get invited to an interview. I made it to the second stage, and that’s what I submitted on Monday. The employer recommends that you spend about 40 hours on the exam, but I must have put in at least 100, because I want this job very much. I put everything else in my life on hold to work on it. I’m very critical of my own work, but I actually think these essays were quite good, because I worked tirelessly on them. (I know some of you are going to be critical of me for spending so much time on one application, and I totally understand why you would say that. But please believe me when I say that this job is a perfect match for my interests and abilities, and new opportunities in this field are vanishingly rare.)
On Sunday night, I got sick. I had a fever, and I slept very poorly. So on Monday, I was not thinking clearly. We were supposed to submit our essays by email, and the email was supposed to contain a short certificate signifying that we had not plagiarized or cheated. I did so, but I made a mistake – I wrote the date as “March 29, 2010” instead of “March 26, 2012.” I considered leaving it alone, but I thought the mistake was so glaring that it demanded redress. (This email was very short, the date was on the last line and on its own, and the employer was going to be receiving many correct but otherwise-identical emails.) But I only caught half of the mistake, and I resubmitted as “March 26, 2010.” Which, fuck, now I have to correct my correction, right? Which I did, but because I was not thinking clearly, I only wrote “Sorry, I meant March 26, 2012” – no explanation or anything. In retrospect, obviously, I should have just left it alone.
I know that this is my fault, and I know that it makes me look like a careless, incompetent fuck-up. But I’m not careless or incompetent – I was just sleep-deprived and feverish on that one day. The worst possible day. I am extremely upset about this – I feel humiliated and regretful and like a complete idiot.
The exams are anonymous – every candidate is given an ID number and told to put only that on their essay (which is attached to the submission email), not their name. My hope is that my exam will just go in the big pile, will end up being read, and that I’ll get an interview on its merits. But I wouldn’t blame them if they just immediately deleted my email and dismissed me out of hand.
I’m thinking of calling the hiring manager and explaining all of this. Is that a terrible idea? Is there anything I can do, or do I just need to move on? I hate the idea of losing this incredible opportunity – and over 100 hours of work, stress, and hope – because I couldn’t get any sleep on Sunday night.
On Monday, I submitted an application for a job. The process is quite competitive and has three stages: first you submit a resume and cover letter, then the successful candidates submit a lengthy essay, and then those successful candidates get invited to an interview. I made it to the second stage, and that’s what I submitted on Monday. The employer recommends that you spend about 40 hours on the exam, but I must have put in at least 100, because I want this job very much. I put everything else in my life on hold to work on it. I’m very critical of my own work, but I actually think these essays were quite good, because I worked tirelessly on them. (I know some of you are going to be critical of me for spending so much time on one application, and I totally understand why you would say that. But please believe me when I say that this job is a perfect match for my interests and abilities, and new opportunities in this field are vanishingly rare.)
On Sunday night, I got sick. I had a fever, and I slept very poorly. So on Monday, I was not thinking clearly. We were supposed to submit our essays by email, and the email was supposed to contain a short certificate signifying that we had not plagiarized or cheated. I did so, but I made a mistake – I wrote the date as “March 29, 2010” instead of “March 26, 2012.” I considered leaving it alone, but I thought the mistake was so glaring that it demanded redress. (This email was very short, the date was on the last line and on its own, and the employer was going to be receiving many correct but otherwise-identical emails.) But I only caught half of the mistake, and I resubmitted as “March 26, 2010.” Which, fuck, now I have to correct my correction, right? Which I did, but because I was not thinking clearly, I only wrote “Sorry, I meant March 26, 2012” – no explanation or anything. In retrospect, obviously, I should have just left it alone.
I know that this is my fault, and I know that it makes me look like a careless, incompetent fuck-up. But I’m not careless or incompetent – I was just sleep-deprived and feverish on that one day. The worst possible day. I am extremely upset about this – I feel humiliated and regretful and like a complete idiot.
The exams are anonymous – every candidate is given an ID number and told to put only that on their essay (which is attached to the submission email), not their name. My hope is that my exam will just go in the big pile, will end up being read, and that I’ll get an interview on its merits. But I wouldn’t blame them if they just immediately deleted my email and dismissed me out of hand.
I’m thinking of calling the hiring manager and explaining all of this. Is that a terrible idea? Is there anything I can do, or do I just need to move on? I hate the idea of losing this incredible opportunity – and over 100 hours of work, stress, and hope – because I couldn’t get any sleep on Sunday night.
This post was deleted for the following reason: poster's request -- jessamyn
Is that a terrible idea?
Yes that is a terrible idea. Everyone makes mistakes like this. No one will make an issue of it, unless you make an issue of it and then you run the risk that you making an issue out of it becomes the issue. Leave it be. If anyone mentions it, brush it off as a typo which it was in the first place.
posted by three blind mice at 5:20 AM on March 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
Yes that is a terrible idea. Everyone makes mistakes like this. No one will make an issue of it, unless you make an issue of it and then you run the risk that you making an issue out of it becomes the issue. Leave it be. If anyone mentions it, brush it off as a typo which it was in the first place.
posted by three blind mice at 5:20 AM on March 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
These types of mistakes happen all the time - remember, many of your co-applicants will have mistakes, some far more critical. Your saving grace is that you will notice your own glaring error far more reliably than anyone else - no one else pays the same amount of attention as you do to your own work. And, dates & times are hardly ever noticed to begin with.
Hold your fire - Do not make this insignificant problem any worse by attempting to contact them.
posted by Kruger5 at 5:24 AM on March 28, 2012
Hold your fire - Do not make this insignificant problem any worse by attempting to contact them.
posted by Kruger5 at 5:24 AM on March 28, 2012
So if you did anything further, you're just jumping up and down underlining your mistake and you become "mistake guy" instead of normal applicant who made a typo.
Odds are no one would have paid too much attention to the mistake initially, but you seem determined to call their attention to it. Let it go. What's done is done. There's really nothing to fix.
posted by inturnaround at 6:06 AM on March 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
Odds are no one would have paid too much attention to the mistake initially, but you seem determined to call their attention to it. Let it go. What's done is done. There's really nothing to fix.
posted by inturnaround at 6:06 AM on March 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
Allow the process to continue without trying to control it any further. Do so to your own peril.
You want this job so much that you're looking at every detail and overthinking it. If you get the job, it will be because you are the right candidate. If you do not, it will not be for a type, it will be because you were not the right person for the job.
You did your best, made a type. Happens to the best of us. Now is time for the chilling out and the waiting.
posted by nickrussell at 6:23 AM on March 28, 2012
You want this job so much that you're looking at every detail and overthinking it. If you get the job, it will be because you are the right candidate. If you do not, it will not be for a type, it will be because you were not the right person for the job.
You did your best, made a type. Happens to the best of us. Now is time for the chilling out and the waiting.
posted by nickrussell at 6:23 AM on March 28, 2012
(There is something poetic about two typos responding to a post about a typo!)
posted by nickrussell at 6:25 AM on March 28, 2012
posted by nickrussell at 6:25 AM on March 28, 2012
There's no graceful and non-annoying way to do anything about this.
Nor, should the work be good, is it likely this will be a terrible black mark against you.
Also this is the strangest, perhaps most evil, job application that I have ever heard of.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 6:31 AM on March 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
Nor, should the work be good, is it likely this will be a terrible black mark against you.
Also this is the strangest, perhaps most evil, job application that I have ever heard of.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 6:31 AM on March 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
Furthermore, since what you've described as the hiring process seems fairly rigerous and looks intended to be as objective as possible, I would guess that the chance that they'd reject you for such a mistake is small. Calling the hiring manager will therefore be counterproductive as that obviously will cost you your anonimity...
posted by MartinWisse at 5:17 AM on March 28, 2012 [1 favorite]