resume fondling -- am I being too picky?

Subject: resume fondling -- am I being too picky?
From: "T.W. Smith" <techwordsmith -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 13:31:14 -0400


Am seeing quite a few resumes these days--telephony technical writing,
mostly books, a little online help, using FM and WWP mostly, some
Word. We receive mostly Word docs, to which I do not object (I prefer
reviewing these to reviewing PDFs). Here are some common things I trip
over, some are mostly harmless, but I trip on them anyway. Am I being
too picky?

1) Run-on sentences, especially in the objective/summary section.

2) Incorrect capitalization of the tools the candidate has said
they've used. For example, "Framemaker."

3) Everything tagged Normal. Or, a hodge-podge of style use. (Which is
why I prefer to receive Word files; I look at the structure of the
content in the resume and style use and evaluate the author based on
the sample.)

4) Failure to indicate which tools were used at which jobs.

5) Failure to indicate size of documentation projects at various jobs;
was it a long doc or short one? (I can infer some of this from the
tools used, PPT for example would cause me to believe the doc was
short, but I cannot infer that a user guide is either short or long.)

6) Oddly inconsistent case. For example, "I wrote User Guides and
online help"; I find it odd that User Guides and help differ in case.

7) Ambiguous employment descriptions anf an odd mix of sentences and
non-sentences in employment descriptions.

8) Poor font choice, manual kerning changes, that combined with
run-ons (1.) makes the resume hard to read.

9) Failure to embed fonts in PDFs.

10) Document properties that list an author other than the candidate.

I'll stop there. Thoughts?

======
T.

Remember, this is online. Take everything with a mine of salt and a grin.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

WEBWORKS FINALDRAFT - EDIT AND REVIEW, REDEFINED
Accelerate the document lifecycle with full online discussions and unique feedback-management capabilities. Unlimited, efficient reviews for Word
and FrameMaker authors. Live, online demo:
http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.



Follow-Ups:

Previous by Author: Re: Period/comma then close quote, or vice versa?
Next by Author: Re: resume fondling -- am I being too picky?
Previous by Thread: Re: ADMIN Gremlins in the server
Next by Thread: Re: resume fondling -- am I being too picky?


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads