Blog Indiana 2008

Resume Foible

Back in the day when I actually interviewed potential programmers, a spelling error on a resume was almost always grounds for a “no thanks” from me. This was particularly true for programming languages, such as spelling “COBOL” as “Cobol”. If you really knew the language, you could at least spell it in the right case.

Now I’ve been schooled. In an interview, it was pointed out to me that I had not one, but TWO spelling errors on my resume. Not just the wrong word, but an actual, bona fide typo. “Framwork” instead of “framework” and “documens” instead of “documents”.

I ran the spell checker on my resume as I thought I had before sending it out. It didn’t find it. I ran it again. Nada. I ran through the settings in the spell checker. On a whim I turned “Ignore words in UPPERCASE” off and tried the spell check again. Bingo. It seems that sometimes Word confuses Small Caps with UPPERCASE and ignores words it doesn’t want to spell check.

Moral of the story: Don’t get all funky with the formatting on your resume, it will only bite you in the end.

Posted on August 10, 2006 in Business.    

2 Comments

  1. Dan said:

    DOH! It is frustating, isnt it? Being juged not on your prommising progaming prowes, but sumthing that isnt relayted. You can bee the gratest programir on the planett and stil loose a job oportoonity doo two speling and gramm0rz.

    Also, isn’t it amazing how, no matter how many times you look over the resume, you miss things like that? It makes me tremble at the thought. Resume nights are stressful as hell for me because of that. “Is the watermark correct,” I worry about. “Are there any grammar errors? Should I use that word or does it sound cheesy?” Then, I usually go into my, “Damnit, if that is why the pass me up, I don’t want to work there anyway!” rant and go to bed.

    If the manager is not competent enough to judge you on what they are actually hiring you for, it is a good thing they don’t hire you, right? They are saving you the hell of having to go through a performance review with them.

    One of my supervisors had an interesting rationale for docking a raise once. “You doodle in meetings.” After a small daydream of snapping his neck while laughing like a madman, I just shook my head and sighed.

    August 15th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
  2. y0mbo said:

    Heh. I doodle in meetings all of the time. I guess that explains it.

    August 15th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
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