Oops!

Pulling up your fly too quickly after taking a tinkle is a painful "oops". Locking your keys in your car is a silly "oops". Screwing up an order at a restaurant is also an "oops". But putting someone else's name one on an employment cover letter is tantamount to calling out someone else's name in bed. Major oops!

And that's precisely the oops I made this week. I sent off another letter to a different architectural firm in Pittsburgh. I did my best to make a good impression. I used recycled silk paper, chose a good typeface, the whole shabang. But when you put the person's name, title and company address at the top left of the page and then type, "Dear wrong name," that's not good.

Luckily, the guy I sent it to had a sense of humor and emailed me a scanned version of my mistake and said maybe I'd like to take a look at this.

I quickly replied and told him that in my haste to make a good first impression, I had made a major oops. He replied to say we're all human and that if I was interested in doing some freelance for his firm, then we should talk.

Wow, talk about lucky. Lesson learned. Write it once. Check it twice.