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Tom Murrell wrote:
>Having said that, there is one piece of information--invariably
>unrelated to my technical communication skills--that I always include
>in my resume. That's my service in Vietnam. If that's going to be a
>problem, I don't suspect I'll want to work there. (And I suspect it has
>been a problem for some.) So I do give what might be considered
>extraneous information on my resume, but that's my choice.
I do the same thing - I worked for Oxfam and for Gay Scotland (bimonthly
magazine), and if my prospective employers are likely to have a problem
working with me because of this, I would rather they found out before they
hired me rather than after.
I've been told several times that I should at least leave Gay Scotland off
the joblist, but (a) for quite a while it was my main work experience as an
editor (b) if I did skip it, there was an awkward 3-year-gap during which I
was, apparently, doing nothing much, and (c) if someone is so prejudiced
they don't want to hire me, I would rather not work for them anyway.
Re. work experience: I've never seen the point of lying about tools. If
someone asks me about a tool that I haven't used yet or have minimal
experience with, I tell them upfront that no, I don't know how to use it
yet, but that I have learned so *many* tools that I have complete confidence
in my ability to learn any tool that they want me to use. That's one reason
why I list all the stuff I've *ever* used in my CV, so that the agencies
will pick up on it, but don't bother explicitly ordering every application
by how well I know it - because that will come up at the interview. (Either
the interviewer will ask me, or if s/he/it doesn't, I'll ask the
interviewer...)
Jane Carnall
O brillig de Twas, e os toves slithy fizeram o gyre e gimble no wabe. Toda
mimsy eram os borogroves, e o outgrabe dos raths do mome.
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