15

Construction has finally begun on the new Fog Creek office. Remember how I said you should start looking for an office nine months before you need it? Make that ten.

Beware National News Magazines Claiming Cycles Are Permanent

Fortune writes, "Professionals have never had a tougher time finding a job. It's not just the economy; the rules of the game are changing." This is, quite frankly, no different than four years ago during the "New Economy" bullshit when they were blabbing about a new, permanently high level for stock prices as if there would never be business cycles again. It's just bullshit. The economy is cyclical and has been for hundreds of years. In fact the sure sign that things are about to change is when the conventional wisdom becomes, "things will never change."

Cover Letters

Here's some advice for people writing cover letters. Don't take any of the standard career-services-office advice for writing cover letters, or your cover letter will look exactly like everyone else's cover letter. If you write one of those "I work great on teams but am also a strong independent worker" cover letters, your cover letter will look just like everyone else's, and you won't stand out. The way to stand out is to write a letter that reflects your unique personality and highlights the reasons why you want to work at the place to which you are applying. 95% of the cover letters I receive do not include anything about Fog Creek and show no sign that they have been customized in any way for the job in question. This sends a signal that you are simply spamming your resume to hundreds of jobs, which, in turn, sends a signal that you are both desperate and not willing to work very hard.

Here's the thing: the very best candidates have come to realize that they have a choice of where to work, and when they apply for a job, they are applying because there's something intriguing about that particular job, not because they'll take any work that comes along. And you can see it in their cover letters. For example, if I were to see something like "I'm happy where I am, but I've always wanted to move to New York and if Fog Creek is anything like you describe it on your website, it sounds like a great place" you would sound a lot more desirable than someone who writes, "You will find that I am a very hard worker." If you make your cover letter interesting, make it personal, and drop hints that you have choices in the world, you will sound more like one of the top 1% candidates.

By the way, we received something like eighty applications for our opening. Probably 50% of those people were qualified and at least ten of them were great. I won't say more because we're still in the interviewing stage.

Oh, and by the way: My company, Fog Creek Software, has paid internships in software development for qualified college students. They're in New York City. Free housing, lunch, and more. And you get to work on real, shipping software with the smartest developers in the business.

About the Author: I’m your host, Joel Spolsky, a software developer in New York City. Since 2000, I've been writing about software development, management, business, and the Internet on this site. For my day job, I run Fog Creek Software, makers of FogBugz—the smart bug tracking software with the stupid name, and Fog Creek Copilot—the easiest way to provide remote tech support over the Internet, with nothing to install or configure.

Enter your email address to receive a (very occasional) email whenever I write a major new article. You can unsubscribe at any time, of course.