I am currently taking a business writing class and have been learning about resumes and cover letters. This class is sort of helpful, but not really. My dad helped me out with my resume and I learned far more from him than from the teacher.
Anyway, our teacher has us edit each others papers after we've written our drafts. I typically edit the girl's paper that sits next to me. The other day we were editing our cover letters, which in my opinion is supposed to be a personal brag letter and show the hiring manager why you're the best candidate for the job. Well, I also edited her resume. It was pretty bad. After I edited the resume, I told her that she needed to share experiences showing each skill that she had obtained while performing her job. After I finished with my feedback she nodded her head and said, "Thanks."
So I went to edit her cover letter hoping it would be good, but it was every bit as bad as her resume. For her qualifications, she listed her job responsibilities. I decided that if I were an employer, there would be no chance in the world that I would want to interview her. I later thought, "Why didn't she implement the suggestions that I gave her into her cover letter?" I think that my wife experiences this same kind of thing with editing papers. She often tells me of the same repeated mistakes that she corrected for the very same person.
I have come to conclude that it is shear laziness on the part of the other person. They don't care to educate themselves or put any effort into something that someone else can correct for them. In psychology they call this principle learned helplessness.
I hope that this experience will help you to actually try your best, and use the knowledge that others give to you in order to improve upon your own abilities.
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