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RE: Having fun with your resume - good idea/bad idea
Subject:RE: Having fun with your resume - good idea/bad idea From:"Porrello, Leonard" <lporrello -at- illumina -dot- com> To:Lynne Wright <Lynne -dot- Wright -at- tiburoninc -dot- com>, Milan DavidoviÄ <milan -dot- lists -at- gmail -dot- com>, "Green, Duane" <Duane -dot- Green -at- e-hps -dot- com> Date:Wed, 5 Sep 2012 16:46:29 +0000
Instead of, "a senior tech writer should have an understanding of how to communicate effectively in a very concise way", wouldn't you want to say, "a senior tech writer should understand how to communicate effectively and concisely." In any case, I am sure you wouldn't want your sentence (and idea) reduced to, "a writer should understand how to communicate"; which is really no different from, "a writer should write". For the sake of concision, would you mind if I redacted and revised your original sentence to "a writer should write"?
I understand the two page expectation, and while I respect it for the reality that it is, I also think it is absurd--and apart from giving pragmatic advice, it is the last thing a professional writer should be promoting. Like "any other story" (or a mathematics formula), a resume needs to be as long as it needs to be (and no longer). I've worked in several different industries (telephony, ERP, ILM, elections, and biotech), and I've held each job for a significant period of time. Consequently, while I mention only what is unique and significant to each job, my resume is nevertheless five pages. I have never had a problem finding excellent jobs with variations of this resume.
While I think "keep it to two pages" is probably good advice in general, I don't agree that a senior tech writer should be able to squeeze, say, five pages of genuinely meaningful and pertinent information into two pages. A senior tech writer who can communicate effectively and concisely should understand that over-redacting a document does a disservice to the reader.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+lporrello=illumina -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lporrello=illumina -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Lynne Wright
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2012 8:56 AM
To: Milan DavidoviÄ; Green, Duane
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Having fun with your resume - good idea/bad idea
He shouldn't HAVE to specify those things... its common knowledge that you should try to keep resumes to 2 pages maximum and only stick to the most recent/relevant/significant past jobs; and as Duane pointed out, a senior tech writer should have an understanding of how to communicate effectively in a very concise way.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=tiburoninc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=tiburoninc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Milan Davidovic
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2012 11:50 AM
To: Green, Duane
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Having fun with your resume - good idea/bad idea
On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 11:15 AM, Green, Duane <Duane -dot- Green -at- e-hps -dot- com> wrote:
> I received several resumes that were 8-10 pages long, and included every contact writing assignment they'd worked at for the last 20+ years.
When writing the job posting, had you considered specifying length and/or time range of the resume?
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