RE: Applying On-Line

["Beilby, Margaret" <MBeilby -at- ebuilt -dot- com>]

<<A resume is an individual, one or two-page, one-off document.>>

A resume is a tool for marketing yourself. If you want to market yourself
successfully, put out the very best marketing material possible always
keeping in mind that you can't ever be entirely sure what the buyer is
looking for.

I don't know about anyone else, but I view a person's resume as the very
first writing sample I see. Besides telling what kinds experience he/she
has, a resume tells me a lot of other things. For example:

1. It tells me whether you can lay out an easy-to-read page. 

2. It tells me whether you know how to use white space. 

3. If I have a resume file in native format (Word, FM, and so forth), it can
tell me whether you know how to use the tool. For example, if you created
your resume in Word using a tabular format, did you use tabs to get the look
or did you use tables? Did you use styles and use them consistently
throughout the resume? I'm much more likely to interview the person who uses
tables and styles. 

4. It can tell me whether you can write a clear, meaningful sentence.

5. It can tell me whether you know the difference between a sentence
fragment and a complete sentence.

6. It can tell me whether you know how to punctuate a bulleted list.

7. It can tell me whether you know how to use active and passive voice. 

8. It can tell me whether you pay attention to formatting details (such as
line length) and use tools like the spelling checker. I deliberately look
for mistakes in resumes. Resumes with spelling/grammatical errors are edited
and returned to the candidate (usually by mail because if the errors are
serious enough, I don't interview the person). 

So do I have too much time on my hands. No way! I simply want the very best
people I can find to work with. I don't have time to hold someone's hand
because he/she doesn't know how to use a tool. I don't have time to clean up
another person's work because he/she doesn't know how to use templates and
styles or doesn't know the difference between active and passive voice.
Spending time weeding out candidates to get the really good ones can save me
a lot of time when I'm looking at a tight deadline and need someone else's
help.

BTW, I do have resume templates (Word, FrameMaker)and have had them as long
as I can remember. 

Margaret        


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

Have you looked at the new content on TECHWR-L lately?
See http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ and check it out.

---
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.