I'm an idiot Forum

[Anonymous User]

Just emailed a firm a copy-pasted cover letter where I forgot to remove the name of another firm. That is one job I won't be getting!

[bk1]

I think somebody accidentally logged on to TLS instead of their Twitter account.

[03121202698008]

I was just going to say...holy shit TLS merged with Twitter!

[blurbz]

I think somebody accidentally logged on to TLS instead of their Twitter account.

I thought the same thing!

[plum]

I was just going to say...holy shit TLS merged with Twitter!

rofl

[Anonymous User]

I wish we could just write generic cover letters. Firms know we're applying to more than one of them; why the pretense?

Hi. I'm a 2L at Law School X. Here's some generic shit I've done. Here's why, based on info I got from 5 minutes of reading your website, I think we'd be a good match.

Blerg. I say spare me that and let me just crtl+v the same one to everyone.

[psychomohel]

I wish we could just write generic cover letters. Firms know we're applying to more than one of them; why the pretense?

Hi. I'm a 2L at Law School X. Here's some generic shit I've done. Here's why, based on info I got from 5 minutes of reading your website, I think we'd be a good match.

Blerg. I say spare me that and let me just crtl+v the same one to everyone.

If you can't be bothered to change the name of a law firm in an email, they probably don't want to hire you.

[napolnic]

I wish we could just write generic cover letters. Firms know we're applying to more than one of them; why the pretense?

Hi. I'm a 2L at Law School X. Here's some generic shit I've done. Here's why, based on info I got from 5 minutes of reading your website, I think we'd be a good match.

Blerg. I say spare me that and let me just crtl+v the same one to everyone.

Learn to love mail merge.

[Anonymous User]

I wish we could just write generic cover letters. Firms know we're applying to more than one of them; why the pretense?

Hi. I'm a 2L at Law School X. Here's some generic shit I've done. Here's why, based on info I got from 5 minutes of reading your website, I think we'd be a good match.

Blerg. I say spare me that and let me just crtl+v the same one to everyone.

If you can't be bothered to change the name of a law firm in an email, they probably don't want to hire you.

At this point, I would say they certainly don't want to hire me.

[spanktheduck]

Just send a corrected one. If it is a big firm, they might not even notice.

[CanadianWolf]

What if they send an offer with someone else's name?

[270910]

Just send a corrected one. If it is a big firm, they might not even notice.

This is smart. The person who receives your info in many cases really doesn't have a say in whether or not you get hired. If you correct it quickly, nobody will hold it against you. Or at least, most won't. Welcome to the real world where mistakes get made and corrected and humans understand one another's occasional missteps.

[IzziesGal]

I've almost done this several times. I make it a point to double and triple check firm names and recruiting contact names in both my cover letter and body of the email. I can't tell you how many times I've been about to hit send, only to check it one more time and realized I missed something.

Also gotta remember to change city names...."I have family in Chicago, so I am really interested in working in the Philadelphia office" usually doesn't work too well....

[IzziesGal]

Just send a corrected one. If it is a big firm, they might not even notice.

This is smart. The person who receives your info in many cases really doesn't have a say in whether or not you get hired. If you correct it quickly, nobody will hold it against you. Or at least, most won't. Welcome to the real world where mistakes get made and corrected and humans understand one another's occasional missteps.

Unfortunately, this description of the real world does not apply to the big law firm world....

[270910]

Just send a corrected one. If it is a big firm, they might not even notice.

This is smart. The person who receives your info in many cases really doesn't have a say in whether or not you get hired. If you correct it quickly, nobody will hold it against you. Or at least, most won't. Welcome to the real world where mistakes get made and corrected and humans understand one another's occasional missteps.

Unfortunately, this description of the real world does not apply to the big law firm world....

Sure it does, if you follow up promptly and professionally.

[Renzo]

Just send a corrected one. If it is a big firm, they might not even notice.

This is smart. The person who receives your info in many cases really doesn't have a say in whether or not you get hired. If you correct it quickly, nobody will hold it against you. Or at least, most won't. Welcome to the real world where mistakes get made and corrected and humans understand one another's occasional missteps.

Unfortunately, this description of the real world does not apply to the big law firm world....

Sure it does, if you follow up promptly and professionally.

Maybe.

I listened to an attorney go on a tirade the other day about how she was not even reading any resumes that had typos in the cover letter.

[270910]

I listened to an attorney go on a tirade the other day about how she was not even reading any resumes that had typos in the cover letter.

You all might be missing my point.

Here's how MOST Law Firm resume sending works:

You write a bunch of stuff. You send it to somebody at a law firm. Somebody who is not an attorney and not making hiring decisions likely receives and processes that information, which will then at some point be seen by an attorney or group of attorneys who decided what to do.

If you send a correction before it gets to an attorney, the (often non-attorney) in charge of such things will just switch the letters. Even if they arrive contemporaneously, you have a chance of surviving because even an attorney will understand the stresses of these applications and look at your new materials.

If you don't correct it, then it's probably an auto-ding. If you get unlucky about the timing or the office handling process, it might be an auto-ding. But it's completely feasible that you could correct it without error as well.

[Kohinoor]

I listened to an attorney go on a tirade the other day about how she was not even reading any resumes that had typos in the cover letter.

You all might be missing my point.

Here's how most law firm resume sending works:

You write a bunch of stuff. You send it to somebody at a law firm. Somebody who is not an attorney and not making hiring decisions likely receives and processes that information, which will then at some point be seen by an attorney or group of attorneys who decided what to do.

If you send a correction before it gets to an attorney, the (often non-attorney) in charge of such things will just switch the letters. Even if they arrive contemporaneously, you have a chance of surviving because even an attorney will understand the stresses of these applications and look at your new materials.

If you don't correct it, then it's probably an auto-ding. If you get unlucky about the timing or the office handling process, it might be an auto-ding. But it's completely feasible that you could correct it without error as well.

In my experience, attorneys have dealt with being terrorized over artificial deadlines and typos for years and consider it one of the hallmarks of a good attorney.

[270910]

I listened to an attorney go on a tirade the other day about how she was not even reading any resumes that had typos in the cover letter.

You all might be missing my point.

Here's how most law firm resume sending works:

You write a bunch of stuff. You send it to somebody at a law firm. Somebody who is not an attorney and not making hiring decisions likely receives and processes that information, which will then at some point be seen by an attorney or group of attorneys who decided what to do.

If you send a correction before it gets to an attorney, the (often non-attorney) in charge of such things will just switch the letters. Even if they arrive contemporaneously, you have a chance of surviving because even an attorney will understand the stresses of these applications and look at your new materials.

If you don't correct it, then it's probably an auto-ding. If you get unlucky about the timing or the office handling process, it might be an auto-ding. But it's completely feasible that you could correct it without error as well.

In my experience, attorneys have dealt with being terrorized over artificial deadlines and typos for years and consider it one of the hallmarks of a good attorney.

Sure. But at my law firm, all recruiting materials go to somebody who isn't an attorney. And I know the person, I'd bet my life that if they got an email with a cover letter and resume at 5:10, then at 5:12 got an "Oops! Sent wrong file! MY BAD BRO" they'd ignore the first email and copy the information from the second email into the info they pass on to the attorney.

[Anonymous User]

So, I sent a correction email. As Disco said, the materials were sent to a non-attorney, and I apologized for the mistake, etc. and was very polite and appropriately self-deprecating about the whole affair. I'm hoping for some forgiveness since the firm is located in a secondary market that doesn't get a lot of applicants from T30 schools, and my grades are pretty good (this is likely wishful thinking, but hey).

[NYAssociate]

.

[Anonymous User]

A recruiter might not have a say in recommending a candidate for hire, but he/she can definitely ruin one's chances. Typos, especially other firm names, are a great way to make sure to ruin one's chances.

Since when did people think only attorneys matter? Everyone you encounter at the firm matters: assistants, receptionists, tech support, cleaning staff, recruiting, whatever. While they can't barge into a recruiting meeting and make hiring partners give you an offer, they can give a nasty report about you. Attorneys will take it seriously. There are thousands of other qualified law students who would gladly love your spot, and will not make a similarly stupid mistake.

Yeah, there's no way this isn't a fatal error.

[spanktheduck]

You should have sent a corrected one and not mentioned it and hoped they did not notice.

[270910]

Since when did people think only attorneys matter?

Sigh. I never said or implied that. Thanks for the lecture though.

The point is that there is a non-zero chance that prompt correction will mean the people who make the hiring decision never see the typo. That is true. That's all I was trying to say. Now, there's also a chance the non-attorney will think your mistake is hilarious and forward your error to every attorney in the office and publish it on the cover of the next edition of Am Law.

But again, there are two courses of action: Not correcting the mistake, where the odds of it being fatal are nearly 100%, and correcting the mistake, where the odds of it being fatal drop. To what? I don't know. I was merely describing the circumstances under which it could pan out.

[KMaine]

Since when did people think only attorneys matter?

Sigh. I never said or implied that. Thanks for the lecture though.

The point is that there is a non-zero chance that prompt correction will mean the people who make the hiring decision never see the typo. That is true. That's all I was trying to say. Now, there's also a chance the non-attorney will think your mistake is hilarious and forward your error to every attorney in the office and publish it on the cover of the next edition of Am Law.

But again, there are two courses of action: Not correcting the mistake, where the odds of it being fatal are nearly 100%, and correcting the mistake, where the odds of it being fatal drop. To what? I don't know. I was merely describing the circumstances under which it could pan out.

Yeah, I usually like when NYAssociate rips Disco a new one, but in this case it is not warranted. The point being made was that a prompt apology and correction may mean that your mistake is never noticed by the people who will be responsible for making the hiring decision. I hope that we all know to treat support staff with respect both during and after the hiring process. It can go a long way to making your life easier/better.