When I was sending out résumés…

Some 50 years ago, I was writing a letter seeking employment with Look S.A., a French manufacturer of release ski bindings, that I heard from my buddy JP Chatellard that they had an opening in their racing department. 

I don’t recall clearly what I wrote in that letter, whether it probably was a combo cover letter with an embedded résumé, the whole document tooting my horn as best as I could, or how it really looked like. What I remember is when I hand wrote it, so it was in French, in my old literary style and, I’m afraid, chock-full or misspelling and syntax errors … 

It was probably titled “Dear Sir” when the person reading it and deciding on my fate was a strong-willed woman. 

In the letter, I did my best to tell about my skills as a skier, my proficiency in four languages, my technical background and understanding of mechanical devices plus my open-mindedness to different foreign cultures. 

Whatever was written probably hit the person who read the letter positively, as I was granted the job interview almost by return mail for a meeting in the ensuing weeks. I thought I was cool and felt good about myself, but in those early days, half a century ago, competition for good jobs was no way near what it’s become today!