[Sussex] Hi Nik/Geoff/Anyone - can you help?

[Geoff Teale]

Angelo wrote:
----------------
> I tend to agree with Dominic, IT manager bods would probably be more
> impressed with a well laid out formatted text (your right PDF would
> be preferable as it is OS independant) with tasteful use of fonts,
> bold colour and text that gets to the point quickly, rather than lots
> of fluff.  I fail to see how plain text could do this.  Its like
> turning up at an interview in denims - or has office / managerial
> culture changed so much?

Well, I have nothing against good formatting.. but I do have a couple of 
points about how applying for a Unix / Linux developers job differs from 
other job applications you may make:

0. Of course it all depends on who your sending it to.  If you have been 
requested to send it in a specific way then do that - and most agencies will 
ask for Word format, so you're kind of saddled there (See below).  If you are 
sending a CV directly to a company looking for a Unix / Linux person it is 
likely that the person making the decsision is going to be working in that 
environment and will most likely have expectations based on that.  I always 
offer my CV in plain text, HTML, Open Office format or Word .  If you have 
any doubts then it never hurts to ask the person you're sending it to!

1. Most people in IT have their CV's sent to prospective employers via some 
agency who universally reformat it and edit it.  Thus most CV's turn up 
looking like a complete mess (at the very minimum agencies remove your 
contact details from the CV so that they can control the relationship).  This 
problem is only compounded by the modern trend of "on-line applications" - in 
this case you're best bet is to use as little formatting as possible.  
Keeping it simple is what matters.

2. If you can present information clearly and attractively in plain text then 
that will stand out a _lot_ more than the other 50 CV's that have all been 
written using the same Wizard in MS Word.  When we talk about presentation 
skills people too often confuse that with making it look pretty.  What 
matters is that information is presented clearly, intelligently and 
concisely.

3. When I look at a CV what I am looking for is the following (and it _is_ in 
this order and it would be fair to say that each things exponentially more 
important than the one that follows):

	- Relevant experience and skillbase
	- Academic and professional qualifications in support of required aptitudes.
	- Salary requirements (if given).
	- Clear and precise writing style (this is a good indicator of intellect and 
communication skills).
	- Brevity (Partly the same as above).
	- Presentation.

Notice, presentation is last on this list.  That's not to say that it isn't 
important, or that a well presented document won't catch the eye, but 
seriously there are very few people who make it through the first item on the 
list above. If you have all of the rest of the qualities I want to see on a 
CV then the presentation is not going to get in th way.  Sending a CV in Word 
.doc format would just give me doubts about your suitability to meet the 
first requirement before I even start reading - not a good thing. 
	

> Anyhow, thats what I was taught - that presentation is important, as
> it tells potential employers much about your personality and
> organisational skills - assuming YOU wrote the CV in the first place
> not a bespoke CV writing firm!

Just to reitterate the point of my initial post.  Presentation isn't just 
about prettiness.  For me the greatest presentation faux pas a Unix developer 
can make is to indicate that he spends time writing documents in Word.  At 
best it isn't relevant and at worst you come off a someone who doesn't 
actually _use_ Unix / Linux very much.


-- 
GJT
Free Software Foundation
tealeg at member.fsf.org