Law Firm MP Asks Miss Manners About ‘Shot in the Dark’ Resumes

The managing partner of a law firm has turned to Miss Manners for advice on a vexing question: Is a personal reply required when lawyers send “shot in the dark” resumés?

Miss Manners' reply differentiates between what etiquette requires and what behavior is courteous. Here is the managing partner’s letter, published in the Washington Post:

“As the managing partner of a law firm, I receive a steady stream of (mostly) unsolicited letters from attorneys seeking a position at the firm. I say ‘mostly’ because occasionally we advertise for an attorney with specific qualifications, e.g., expertise in water law.

“Yet, even when the advertisement is very specific, I receive dozens of letters and resumés from attorneys who do not meet the specified qualifications. Clearly, these people are simply taking a shot in the dark and hoping for the best. Do good manners and etiquette require me to respond to all these letters?”

Miss Manners replies that etiquette does not require a response to unsolicited job applications. But she goes on to ask the MP to “consider the state of mind of the job seeker: hope, followed by increasingly painful doubt. Finally, the silence indicates that the application, complete with this person's professional history and hopes, was regarded as trash.” She suggests a polite response would help, because “even people who don't follow instructions have feelings.”