Bah. I want to review 2 pages. I want the content to be fulfilling. I want the fonts and formats to be spot on. I want to be able to say, promising, has the elements I'm looking for, let's invite him to present his portfolio ....
Why 2 pages? Because I have my regular job to do and, oh by the way, 12 resumes to read, a half-dozen interviews to conduct, for which I have no time, so I want two pages. Why care about fonts? Having received resumes with curiously bad font choices, I have to say if it's the first or second resume, I might not disregard a resume with fonts that I PERCEIVE as difficult to read, but by the time I hit my third resume, forget it, timing was not on your side. Why care about layout? Make the resume easy to read, use indents and white space to help me find my way through, be consistent in the application of styles, reduce, reduce, reduce, the number of fonts used (please, one is fine, sometimes two). Why care about content? I'm interested in seeing how your resume matches my job. In other words, I expect you worked before, and I bet in a lot of those jobs, you did nice things well that I don't really care about. Look at the job description and, where possible, write your resume to tell you about things you've done in the past that apply to your current application. If I get a DOC file, I take a look at style use as an indication of the writer's thought process--I know, it's a resume, why waste time on bothering with styles? Well, because it shows you care about them, and I do, and seeing style use is a plus. If I get a PDF, I look for embedded fonts, scan the metadata to see if anything interesting is in there, and such. Make sure you are consistent. Make sure you spell product names correctly. Make sure there are no typos or spelling mistakes. Cheers, Sean -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Posada Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 9:48 AM To: Sue Heim Cc: tcp@techcommpros.com Subject: Re: [TCP] How long should a resume be? > What works for you may work just fine. But you have two hiring > managers here who've told you "um, nope, don't read 'em if they are > that long." To be honest, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable working with a manager who places more priority on format than on content....are there also any fonts that make you not read a resume? is my resume good if I use Arial, but not Helvetica? What other types of documents do managers such as yourself not read because they don't meet an arbitrary page length standard? As a part of policy, do you ignore Functional Specs if they're over a certain page length? Do you not review department deliverables if they exceede some page length? I'm sure with enough effort, any Functional or Technical spec can be brought down to two pages...of course, it wouldn't say much about the project. Where did this 2-page standard come from, anyway? Is the person behind a 2 page resume also automatically a more qualified writer than one with a 3 page resume? John Posada Senior Technical Writer DISCLAIMER: Important Notice ************************************************* This e-mail may contain information that is confidential, privileged or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not an intended recipient of this e-mail, do not duplicate or redistribute it by any means. Please delete it and any attachments and notify the sender that you have received it in error. Unintended recipients are prohibited from taking action on the basis of information in this e-mail.E-mail messages may contain computer viruses or other defects, may not be accurately replicated on other systems, or may be intercepted, deleted or interfered with without the knowledge of the sender or the intended recipient. If you are not comfortable with the risks associated with e-mail messages, you may decide not to use e-mail to communicate with IPC. IPC reserves the right, to the extent and under circumstances permitted by applicable law, to retain, monitor and intercept e-mail messages to and from its systems. ______________________________________________ Author Help files and create printed documentation with Doc-To-Help. New release adds Team Authoring Support, enhanced Web-based help technology and PDF output. Learn more at www.doctohelp.com/tcp. Interactive 3D Documentation Parts catalogs, animated instructions, and more. www.i3deverywhere.com _______________________________________________ Technical Communication Professionals Post a message to the list: email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, unsubscribe, archives, account options, list info: http://techcommpros.com/mailman/listinfo/tcp_techcommpros.com Subscribe (email): send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe (email): send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Need help? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Get the TCP whole experience! http://www.techcommpros.com
