Re: Resume Facts

[Zoe Oredson <zoredson -at- MSN -dot- COM>]

Speaking of lying on resumes ... how about submitting samples to prospective
employers that aren't yours?  I recently went to an interview and discovered
that a guide that I had co-authored had also been submitted to my prospective
employer by a former employee of my old company as one of his writing samples.
 Needless to say, this former employee had not contributed one word to this
guide - the nerve!

Zoe

----------
From:   Technical Writers List; for all Technical Communication issues on
behalf of d r
Sent:   Thursday, February 20, 1997 8:12 PM
To:     TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject:        Re: Resume Facts

Eric,

I come to see you. You like me. You like what I've done. I've impressed
you. You ask me if I can start tomorrow. I say yes. I leave. Do you check
my information? I am now about to start work for you. Do you see if I
really worked at the jobs I have down on my resume? And if so, and you
find out that I didn't work there - what do you do then?

Someone wrote in their post that the one thing is to never lie on a
resume. How about "fudging a little"? Reason I bring this up is because
not that long ago I required resumes of some people I had been working
with on a project and then decided to hire for my own projects. I had
known/worked with these people for about a year and it was just a
formality for me to ask for a CV to keep on file since I wanted to write
a press release about the new members of the crew. It was JUST A
FORMALITY nothing more.

It was really just a fluke that as I was filing it I noticed something
that I had taken part in and I *knew* that this other tech editor wasn't
there. So I looked further and there were titles of publications that
didn't seem to exist. I called the library; I searched on the Internet.
No such publications - but I might add that he was rather creative in
what he put. I will tell you what I did and what happened but I would be
very interested in hearing how you (and everyone else here) might have
handled this.

Another time with a fellow I hired as a fact-checker sent an email resume
in which he stated that he had done the same type of work for the
broadcast radio team for the Dallas Cowboys. One call to the COwboys and
he was out of a job with me. And I wondered, WHY pick the Dallas Cowboys?
Had he said the Pawtucket minor league team I probably wouldn't have
(well maybe I would have...) checked - but why lie so blatantly?

D.R.
writeagain -at- juno -dot- com

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