We’ve Had 1 Tumblr, Yes, What About 2nd Tumblr?

Anyway, the guy from my class was really nice about it--he apologized for having to tell me bad news, and gave me the contact info for the guy who posted it so I could ask for it to be taken down.

Now, the tattoo in question? It's a bird. It's not actually a fandom tattoo, it just coincidentally looks vaguely like a bit of symbolism from a fandom that was popular at the time I got it. But it was enough to unleash a firestorm of "look at this stupid girl with her stupid cringe tattoo" comments.

(Even if it WAS a fandom tattoo...who gives a shit??? It's my body and my tattoo and I don't really give a shit what strangers think.)

The misogyny of my body being put online and circulated for mockery without my consent really fucked me up at the time. I felt awful. I was mortified. I was scared more people would recognize me from the post and give me shit. It sucked so bad.

So I just kinda think you're a fucking douchebag if you participate in tattoo shaming for anything that isn't, like, a blatant hate symbol. I don't really care if you think it's tasteless, or cringe, or badly done, or whatever other justification.

I was trained in the dark arts of the cover letter by my mother, who is a hiring manager. And her training has paid off: I've been consistently told my cover letters are excellent. Let me pass on the wisdom.

The job of a cover letter is to give a prospective employer strictly more information than is on the resume. This is where you take the resume contents and put them into context. You look at the job requirements (you are looking at the job requirements before applying, right?) and look at your resume and ask the question (in your head) "why would a person think this candidate would be good for this job?" and your cover letter is the answer to that question. If you don't answer that question, the hiring manager is going to have to do it themselves, and you have way more information to work with than they do.

This is especially important if you're moving from one industry to another, because then the relevant connections aren't obvious. It's also very important if you're overqualified, because then you can use the letter to say "I know it looks like this job would be too entry-level for me, but I'm interested to pursue it for reasons x, y, and z". You can also use this space to explain away something that might otherwise be disqualifying, like job-hopping or a long break in employment. The tone to strike here is always matter-of-fact and constrained to topic - don't go into detail about health stuff or personal tragedy, just tell them what they need to hear: that this period of your resume was affected by [bad thing] but that it's now in the past and you're looking forward to the next chapter. Remember, one of the things they're trying to learn is whether you'd be content in this role, or whether you'd be miserable and leave after 2 months, which would force them to do all the work of hiring again. You're trying to establish that you will fit right in and not cause problems. Knowing what drew you to this job in particular (and don't just say 'money', that's true for everyone) helps with that.

which, for the unaware, i'm delighted to tell you

Two children ignoring the artwork at the San Francisco Museum of Art. ca. 1960s