Re: Hobbys [sic] (and other stuff) on resumes (long!)

[Robert Plamondon <robert -at- PLAMONDON -dot- COM>]

Tracy Boyington writes:

>-- I want to see *perfect* spelling, grammar, and punctuation. It's
>one thing to misspell a word or split an infinitive on this list (we
>all do that!), it's quite another to do it on your resume.

Since many of us, seasoned, eagle-eyed professionals that we are,
can't avoid misspellings even when we are complaining about them,
I hardly think that disqualifying applicants on the basis of a minor
error or two is fair.

But, more important than fairness, it discards writers who aren't
good self-editors.  Since most writers aren't good self-editors, I
figure that focusing excessively on perfect execution will throw out
those writers who revise their resumes for a given opportunity (which
is otherwise considered to be a good practice), and favor those who
write one, have someone edit it, and never touch it again.

So I think that focusing on textbook perfection in a resume selects
for over-fussiness and a low level of interest in the position, where
someone who dashes off a new edition of his resume as soon as he hears
about the job has already demonstrated valuable traits.

        -- Robert

--
Robert Plamondon * President/Managing Editor, High-Tech Technical Writing, Inc
36475 Norton Creek Road * Blodgett * Oregon * 97326
robert -at- plamondon -dot- com * (541) 453-5841 * Fax: (541) 453-4139