You would think that a Senior Accountant could write a simple business letter. Well, you cannot assume that. One man lost a job offer which was too bad because he was well-qualified.
I used to be a recruiter with Robert Half, placing people in direct-hire finance and accounting jobs.
I set up an interview for a candidate to be hired as a Senior Accountant. The Controller, who would be his boss, liked him.
But one time, he hired a Senior Accountant who was unable to communicate in a professional way to customers. It had never occurred to him that the person couldn’t write in basic business English.
It caused some embarrassing problems for the company.
He decided that in the future, he would always give someone a case history involving both numbers and writing. This time it was an example of figuring out a customer’s past due bills, then explaining what was owed in a letter. It was important to collect the money.
Well, we were both pretty shocked. The candidate did the math correctly, but many of the sentences in the letter had improper punctuation and grammar. A student in eighth grade would be expected to write better than that. The Controller did not extend an offer.
It was embarrassing for the candidate. I suggested that he find a tutor who could help him with this problem. It was too bad that he graduated from college without learning some of the basics that are expected to get a good job.
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