Ask a Manager

should you attach writing samples, transcripts, and other extra items when applying for a job?

A reader writes:

When applying for a job, should I provide supplemental materials such as sample writings, projects done, and/or transcripts when they are not asked for in the job description? I want to include one of my writing samples in the application, as the job I’m applying for asked for proficient written communication skills, but I’m afraid sometimes HR gets annoyed by extra materials.

Don’t provide stuff that isn’t asked for. They don’t want it at this stage, or they would have asked for it. (They know that they can request it when they’re ready for it, believe me.)

You can demonstrate strong writing in your cover letter. And as for transcripts, most sane people don’t care about them — and the ones who do will tell you. To the rest of us, it’ll just come across as a little naive and a little strange to offer them unsolicited.

A cover letter, a resume, and that’s it, unless they specifically ask for more.

That means, of course, that those two items need to be awesome. So please make them so.

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1. Jamie * March 22, 2013 at 3:33 pm I think your cold is affecting your italic-ing. :)

1. Ask a Manager * Post author March 22, 2013 at 3:34 pm I know! I fixed it. I am just one large germ.

1. Jamie * March 22, 2013 at 3:37 pm Ha – if it makes you feel better something is going around here, too, but it’s nothing like the flu from a couple of months back. People are stuffy and sneezy and sore throaty (it’s a word) for a couple of days and back to normal. It’s the good kind of sick where you don’t feel that bad, but still look pathetic enough that people bring you soup, tea, and cinnamon toast and leave you alone to lie in bed with TV and Sudoku. I hope it’s mild – feel better!

1. ExceptionToTheRule * March 22, 2013 at 4:40 pm Just hope it isn’t the croup. That’s been going around my workplace. Yes, I know. It’s a small child disease. Except when it’s not and you sound like some strange combination of a dying seal and James Earl Jones.

1. Ask a Manager * Post author March 22, 2013 at 4:43 pm My sister got croup last year at the age of 42! She had to go to the ER because she couldn’t breathe! We had no idea it could happen to adults.

1. Rana * March 22, 2013 at 5:23 pm A couple of years ago my husband had whooping cough. Similar deal – and it was very weird telling people that my husband had a Victorian-era childhood disease. (It is, by the way, a nasty, nasty disease. If you’ve not updated your boosters in the last ten years, do so!)

1. Ask a Manager * Post author March 22, 2013 at 5:26 pm I had whooping cough a few years ago! Apparently my family gets old-timey diseases. I hope none of us get syphilis next.

1. Andie * March 22, 2013 at 8:45 pm OMG!! Just laughed out loud!! :-)