TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
| A couple of folks mentioned they wouldn't hire tech writers who
| formatted their resumes in Normal style. Thanks for the warning
| about your screening practices. I hope it gets you the kind of
| tech writers you want.
When I post an opening, I usually receive dozens of resumes. I don't
specify a format in which resumes should be submitted, and I really
don't care if they come in Word, Frame, HTML, or plain ASCII format or
by fax or snail mail for that matter. However a candidate chooses to
submit a resume, though, it is the first sample I have of the
candidate's work. If it's sloppy, that's a bad sign. If it's manually
formatted, that's usually also a bad sign. I have *never* had trouble
filling a position with a highly qualified writer. I may indeed have
missed some qualified candidates whose resumes were manually formatted,
but neither our projects nor our clients have suffered. So, yes, I guess
this practice has worked just fine for us.
| You are assuming that a Word resume was created with Word.
I'm not assuming anything at all about how the resume was created; I'm
merely observing the form in which it was submitted.
| That's not necessarily true. My Word resume is formatted with
| Normal style. That's because I don't format it or maintain it
| with Word. I write my resume in HTML/CSS and import it into Word
| (el cheapo single-sourcing), and Word formats it correctly. It
| actually does use structured CSS, but the Word styles are all
| Normal.
In that case, I'd probably be more interested in your resume if you
submitted it in HTML/CSS format.
| Sorry, I'm not going to retag my resume with Word styles.
OK, your choice. But if you won't spend 5 or 10 minutes on your Word
resume, what do you want me to infer about you as a candidate?
| There are also a lot of people who create Word (or rtf) resumes
| with TeX/LaTeX or something other markup tool. I doubt those
| resumes end up with elegantly layered Word styles.
As I said, I don't care what format you use to submit your resume, and I
don't care what tools you use to create it. But it is the first sample
of your work that I will see.
In response to Laura Lemay's post, kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com added:
| It's pretty funny/ironic that a writer who has (I'm guessing
| here, but I
| feel pretty safe) sold more copies of technical books than the rest of
| this list put together would not make it past the initial
| resume screening
| process maintained by many members of this list.
|
| Like Laura said, your loss.
I'm not dumb. If Laura Lemay ever decides to submit her resume to us, I
will certainly interview her. But that's because she's Laura Lemay. Not
all candidates have that advantage when submitting a resume.
RoboHelp MVP & Certified RoboHelp Instructor
WebWorks Publisher Certified Trainer
Member, JavaHelp 2.0 Expert Group
Member, RoboHelp Community Advisory Board
Co-moderator, HATT & wwp-users
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Collect Royalties, Not Rejection Letters! Tell us your rejection story when you
submit your manuscript to iUniverse Nov. 6 -Dec. 15 and get five free copies of
your book. What are you waiting for? http://www.iuniverse.com/media/techwr
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
