Comments on: What Doc Managers Look for in a Résumé

By: Richard Hamilton

Richard Hamilton — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:03:14 +0000

MM,

If I’m evaluating the resume of someone who claims to be an expert in layout/design or in the particular tool the resume was written in, then I will look at those things. I will also in most cases consider the overall look of the resume; after all, it’s easy to get an acceptable look from any word processor, so there’s no excuse for having a truly ugly resume.

At the same time, for writers, I’m much more interested in the structure and writing. Chance are they will be using a corporate style guide that will make any design skills moot. Yes, if the resume was written using the tool that person will need to use on the job, I may dive deeper, but that will only happen for candidates I’m serious about interviewing.

Regarding the second part, I do expect technical writers to use styles and clean formatting when using tools that allow it. Most of my recent teams have used XML, so I’m more concerned about good semantic markup. But for a job that uses Word or asimilar word processor, I expect them to use the styles and formatting defined by whatever style guide we are using.

All that said, if you can’t write, I don’t care how well you format, I’m not interested.

By: MM

MM — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:49:02 +0000

I’m curious about how closely you look at resumes in terms of formatting. Specifically I’m thinking about the use or not of Styles, extra paragraph breaks, use of spaces when tabs would be cleaner… Do you expect technical writers to use Styles and clean formatting? Do you turn on hidden characters to check, or do you think this stuff is unimportant (ie. I’m being overly fussy)?

By: Jenny

Jenny — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:27:03 +0000

Thanks for your response. That’s really interesting! Having worked in XML myself, I think that the use of Styles and clean formatting is a good indication of whether a writer could work well in a structured environment. Great post, thanks!

By: rlhamilton

rlhamilton — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:05:50 +0000

I do expect technical writers to use styles and clean formatting, but to tell the truth, I haven’t applied that expectation to resumes. That’s partly neglect, but also a result of having seen many more resumes in hard-copy or pdf form, rather than Word or some similar form.

Also, almost all of my recent hires (last 5 years or so) have been to write XML, so I’m more interested in good use of XML.

That said, if I were hiring someone who claimed to be an expert in the same word processor that his or her resume was written it, I would want to look and would not consider that overly fussy.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 06:46:21 +0000

By: Alistair Christie

Alistair Christie — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:29:24 +0000

A very useful article, thanks. We’re hiring right now, so I’ve been reading lots of resumes recently.

It never ceases to amaze me the number of resumes (“CVs” to us Brits) that are full of careless mistakes. I got one recently where the writer claimed to have “an obsessive eye for detail” and then made a spelling mistake in the very next sentence.

I can forgive some grammatical errors and bad judgement in layout/organisation, but I find it very hard to see past simple spelling mistakes in the CV of someone who is trying to get a job as a technical writer.