Today, I received a very intelligent email from a candidate saying "It [the job opportunity in 3D printing I was pitching] piqued my interest."

I have absolutely lost count of the number of times even very bright candidates (engineers and not English majors) incorrectly used the word "peaked" or possibly "peeked" instead.  

However, today's email was the opposite of a 'peeve', really.  Glad to see someone (he was actually Korean, not American, which makes it all the more remarkable, since he is a non-native speaker) using correct spelling.

Applause!