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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:Dan Goldstein <DGoldstein -at- riveraintech -dot- com>, "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 5 Sep 2012 16:56:42 +0000
I would cut "get over it". It's superfluous; "by definition" is also arguably superfluous. "We're terse" beautifully communicates the idea semantically and syntactically.
-----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 Dan Goldstein
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2012 9:48 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Having fun with your resume - good idea/bad idea
"We're terse by definition. Get over it."
â Kim Roper, TECHWR-L, June 2003
-----Original Message-----
From: Porrello, Leonard
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2012 12:46 PM
To: Lynne Wright; 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
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.
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