(Un)Solicited Feedback

tl;dr: when do you offer it and when not?

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of recruiting for Gtmhub. My team has grown by more than 150% since January 1, so that’s a lot of resumes and emails.

One thing that continuously baffles me is when I get a note asking me to consider someone for a position and it has more than 1 typo or obvious grammatical error.

I recognize that we all make mistakes, but if you’re serious about applying for a position, it’s worth a tighter review.

Here’s the part I struggle with.

When I get one of these, should I say anything about it?

My sincere desire is to provide useful feedback, not to be a jerk, but I realize it can come off that way.

And another question, does it matter how old the person is?

For example, one high school senior sent me a note asking for an internship that had a few errors in it, including the subject line and name of the company. I had already filled the position, but I thought it was a teachable moment, particularly for a Senior.

So, I threw in a P.S. that “it’s always a good idea to check spelling and grammar in notes like this.”

In that scenario, I thought it was ok, even if tough feedback, but what about others?

If feedback is unsolicited, is it always also unwelcome?