Re: Resume screening

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

Eric writes:

>* Resumes or cover letters with mispelled words were out.
>* Resumes or cover letters with grammatical errors were out.

These are dangerous rules, as they assume that all good writers are
perfect self-editors.  I know I'm not -- I cannot guarantee that
ANY work of mine is letter-perfect, since my view of the actual
work is obscured by its representation in my mind.

Sure, you can probably find someone to proof your monolithic, unchanging
resume, but if you target your resumes, errors will slip in now and
again, and you will not see them.

So I think you throw baby out with the bathwater if you apply the
"ain't gonna have no errors" rule too harshly, and toss out anything
with random typos or errors of construction.

Otherwise, I thought your approach was dead-on.  My experience in hiring
was that most of the usual criteria were nonsense:  years of experience
are irrelevant in an industry where most writing is poor, for instance,
and discriminating against an applicant because they lack a one-week
training course in a desktop-publishing package is pathetic.

        -- Robert
--
Robert Plamondon, High-Tech Technical Writing, Inc.
36475 Norton Creek Road * Blodgett * Oregon * 97326
robert -at- plamondon -dot- com * (541) 453-5841 * Fax: (541) 453-4139
http://www.pioneer.net/~robertp

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