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>We could debate this issue into the next millenium, but it comes down to the
>personal style of the manager. Robert would probably prefer to see more
>relevant examples of a writer's ability (a portfolio). I tend to screen
>prospective employees based on their resume, but I have known some very
>competent technical communicators who had less than exceptional editing
>skills.
Actually, I don't mind screening resumes, it's just that there's no
need to look a fine points. It's a triage situation. Once you toss out
all the resumes that are suffering from more than one mortal injury, there
are so few left that it's time to set up interviews.
(As an experiment, I'd suggest that hiring managers test their ability
to predict who they will eventually hire by ranking the resumes they
receive. My experience is that the writer of the top-ranking resume
has a less than 50% chance of being the person you decide to hire. The
correlation between my impression of the candidate (based on the resume)
and the candidate (based on the interview) is weak. To me, this suggests
that it would be easy to reduce your chances of finding the best candidate
by over-screening.)
The whole process is greatly complicated by headhunters who insist on
gratuitously rewriting resumes. I once demanded that headhunters send
me original resumes (with the writers' names and addresses blacked out).
They had never heard of such a thing.
-- Robert
--
Robert Plamondon, High-Tech Technical Writing, Inc.
36475 Norton Creek Road * Blodgett * Oregon * 97326
robert -at- plamondon -dot- com * (541) 453-5841 * Fax: (541) 453-4139 http://www.pioneer.net/~robertp
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