Hello XXXXX:
Thank you for applying for the summer internship at our magazine and publishing company on Nantucket Island. We do not serve cocktails in the office
(not even during deadlines), we must decline your offer to tend bar for us,
despite your vast experience in the field.
Each time I search for a summer intern I am impressed by the number of students who apply without bothering to read the job description. Three weeks into this season’s call for applicants, we have six good prospects, and a number of others who appear to think our internship is at an engineering company, an inn, an accounting firm, in a kitchen, and in a cocktail lounge. I even had an interesting email conversation with an applicant who insisted that we must be a restaurant because our ad was posted on http://www.nantucket.net/
I would consider hiring a student majoring in a field other than English or journalism if he demonstrates that he understands we are a publishing company. Some of our most successful employees have been trained in other fields. But there’s no better way to be eliminated at the first stage than to apply for the wrong job. Our staff gets a good laugh every time we receive one of these misguided letters, but I doubt that is the reaction the student is hoping to get.