What on Earth Are People Thinking???
It's been awhile since I last tossed an entry up here, but I've been very busy and VERY tired! We still haven't found a new receptionist, and don't get me started on the issues we've had with temps! We have a decent temp now, thank goodness - well, the other ones were decent - they just didn't stick around long. Not their fault - illness, etc. Still, it was very frustrating, as every time I'd get one trained to do what I needed her to do, I had to start all over with another one! Anyhow... The workload is insane, added to by a conference that had to be organized that the bosses kept making changes to. Grrrr. Ah well, the conference is this weekend, so that is now behind me. Thank the gods.
Now, on to the real reason for this little rant. Yes, it's a rant. Absolutely. Guaranteed. The rant is about - get ready for it - resumes. You know, the things on bits of paper that are supposed to help someone get a job. Those little "blow-your-own-horn" epistles that are meant to be reasonably professional, both in looks and in content.
Now, I say "reasonably". And I mean it. I am anal about my own resume, or any other written work I put out. But I am not QUITE as anal about other people's efforts. However, I still expect some thought to go into them. As well as some proof-reading. After going through over 100 resumes in the last few days, it has become very obvious to me that a great many people simply have no concept of the notion of proof-reading. Nor do some of them have the vaguest idea of what spelling is - or grammar - or punctuation - or sentence structure - I could go on with this list, but I shall leave it at that.
Quite frankly, I was astounded and horrified by a great many of the submissions I received for the post we are trying to fill. The position is for a receptionist/administrative assistant. It was clearly stated that experience was required, both with reception, AR/AP, and with a variety of different computer programs. We naturally received several resumes from people who had absolutely no experience whatsoever. I can live with that. Employment counsellors and agencies have a tendency to tell people to apply even if they don't have experience. Fine.
What I am having a very hard time dealing with are those individuals who submitted resumes in which they waxed poetic about the plethora of skills (or as one woman kept putting it, "many skill" - oy) they were endowed with, yet their wee written works of art were littered with spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, and too many other errors to list here. Do people not bother to proof-read their resumes - or for that matter even use spell-check, at the very least? Spell-check is definitely not foolproof, but believe me, a good chunk of the wealth of spelling errors I've come across would definitely have been caught by it.
Two resumes still have me shaking my head - I doubt that I will ever forget them, as they were immediately seared, rather painfully, into my memory banks. Both candidates blithered on and on about the vast array of computer programs they had expert knowledge of. One candidate could not get the names of many of the programs right. Someone needs to tell her that "Simple Accounting", for example, is NOT a computer program. That's just for starters, and the one that was stuck in my brain with a huge ice pick - at least, it felt like an ice pick. Although trust me, she did even worse with mangling some of the other program names.
The other one had a list about 1/3 of a page long - a double column list, mind you! - of the programs she had tackled and wrestled into submission. One of which was meant to read (at least I HOPE it was meant to read) ACCPAC/Simply Accounting. You guessed it - that is not what it read. Instead, my horrified eyes were almost burned out of my head when I saw "ACCPAC/ACCPAC Simply". Yes, you read that right. Don't feel bad, because I had to go back and torture myself by reading it a few times just to make sure that my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, or that someone hadn't snuck some hallucinogenic drug into the HVAC system in the office.
By the way, this woman also had several spelling mistakes and grammatical errors spattered throughout her resume.
Now in both cases, especially the second one, a simple round of proof-reading would have caught the errors, and these ladies could have repaired them and ended up presenting a couple of very good resumes to me. The layouts were professional and eye-catching, and the supposed experience levels would have been perfect for the position. This would also apply to a good chunk of the other resumes that I gleefully fired in the garbage.
Take this next one. Please. You can have her. Honest. The resume itself was fairly good, but the whole effect was shattered by the heading on her resume and cover letter. She had her first name in the left hand corner, and her initials (in a large and very childish-looking font) in the right hand corner. That was it. No surname. Anywhere. A dear friend of mine did say that at one point in time people were told not to use their last names on resumes. That is not a fad that took place where I live, thankfully. But perhaps it is one that this woman encountered in the past. However, that is not a fad that is in existence anymore - in fact, it is highly unprofessional to send anything like that out these days. And even if it HAD ever been in vogue here, I still would not have accepted a resume like that. I'm sorry, but if you are applying for a job, I need to have your name, thank you very much. Otherwise, I am left wondering if you have some sinister past that you are trying to hide, and if I can expect the office to be visited by mobsters wielding semi-automatics in the near future should I hire you.
Ooooooooooh, yes. I almost forgot about this little gem. I received a resume from a woman who sounded fairly professional and conscientious, and her resume would have reflected that but for one wee detail. Okay, it wasn't exactly a wee detail. This lady had to make some changes on her resume. Instead of taking the time to find a computer, or even a typewriter, for crying out loud, she opted to simply cross out the outdated information and write the new stuff in by hand. Yes, that one went in the garbage pile too.
Now, these are only a few examples of the nastiness I had to wade through. Believe it or not, some of them were much worse than the ones I've reviewed here. It's bad enough to get severe eye strain by scouring through 100+ resumes, but I can deal with that if the resumes are of a reasonable quality. However, it annoyed the heck out of me to have to strain my eyes over a lot of the garbage that I received. Do these people honestly expect to get hired with resumes like that? Yes, that is a serious question, folks.
To begin with, why would anyone think that a resume full of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors is appropriate in applying for a receptionist/administrative assistant position? The applicant would have to answer phones, type correspondence, and deal with many aspects of the accounting functions. Do they honestly think that if they cannot make the effort to ensure that their resumes are error-free they would have a chance in hell of being considered for the position? Honestly, if their resumes are that bad, I shudder to think of how many errors one would find in their work! I for one do not wish to hire someone to do the work, then have to re-do it all myself in order to ensure that she or he hasn't screwed it up. The whole point here is to hire someone who can be trained and will be capbable of doing the work on her or his own.
Everyone makes mistakes. I would not be surprised to find a few spelling errors in this blog entry, even though I've proof-read as I go along, and will have gone back and proof-read again before posting. But since it is only a blog entry, I am not going to get as anal as usual about errors. My work is another matter, though. I am very meticulous in ensuring that it is error-free, and yes, I do expect the same conscientiousness from whoever ends up being my assistant. I don't expect that there will never be errors, but I do expect the person to check, then check again, to catch her or his errors. And yes, even then, some might get missed at times - it happens to all of us. However, the point is that if someone is too lazy to make sure that their resume is at its best, she or he will most likely be too lazy to ensure that her or his work is at its best.
Okay, I think I am done now. I know, I can hear you all saying "well, it's about damned time already!" That's all right though. It's my blog, and I can be as wordy as I want to be. Nyah! Nyah! Seriously, though, I feel a little better after ranting, so hopefully this will have put me in the proper frame of mind to begin filtering through the "acceptable pile" in order to narrow that down so we can start interviewing next week. Wish me luck! Oh, and thanks for letting me rant! (((hugs)))
Now, on to the real reason for this little rant. Yes, it's a rant. Absolutely. Guaranteed. The rant is about - get ready for it - resumes. You know, the things on bits of paper that are supposed to help someone get a job. Those little "blow-your-own-horn" epistles that are meant to be reasonably professional, both in looks and in content.
Now, I say "reasonably". And I mean it. I am anal about my own resume, or any other written work I put out. But I am not QUITE as anal about other people's efforts. However, I still expect some thought to go into them. As well as some proof-reading. After going through over 100 resumes in the last few days, it has become very obvious to me that a great many people simply have no concept of the notion of proof-reading. Nor do some of them have the vaguest idea of what spelling is - or grammar - or punctuation - or sentence structure - I could go on with this list, but I shall leave it at that.
Quite frankly, I was astounded and horrified by a great many of the submissions I received for the post we are trying to fill. The position is for a receptionist/administrative assistant. It was clearly stated that experience was required, both with reception, AR/AP, and with a variety of different computer programs. We naturally received several resumes from people who had absolutely no experience whatsoever. I can live with that. Employment counsellors and agencies have a tendency to tell people to apply even if they don't have experience. Fine.
What I am having a very hard time dealing with are those individuals who submitted resumes in which they waxed poetic about the plethora of skills (or as one woman kept putting it, "many skill" - oy) they were endowed with, yet their wee written works of art were littered with spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, and too many other errors to list here. Do people not bother to proof-read their resumes - or for that matter even use spell-check, at the very least? Spell-check is definitely not foolproof, but believe me, a good chunk of the wealth of spelling errors I've come across would definitely have been caught by it.
Two resumes still have me shaking my head - I doubt that I will ever forget them, as they were immediately seared, rather painfully, into my memory banks. Both candidates blithered on and on about the vast array of computer programs they had expert knowledge of. One candidate could not get the names of many of the programs right. Someone needs to tell her that "Simple Accounting", for example, is NOT a computer program. That's just for starters, and the one that was stuck in my brain with a huge ice pick - at least, it felt like an ice pick. Although trust me, she did even worse with mangling some of the other program names.
The other one had a list about 1/3 of a page long - a double column list, mind you! - of the programs she had tackled and wrestled into submission. One of which was meant to read (at least I HOPE it was meant to read) ACCPAC/Simply Accounting. You guessed it - that is not what it read. Instead, my horrified eyes were almost burned out of my head when I saw "ACCPAC/ACCPAC Simply". Yes, you read that right. Don't feel bad, because I had to go back and torture myself by reading it a few times just to make sure that my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, or that someone hadn't snuck some hallucinogenic drug into the HVAC system in the office.
By the way, this woman also had several spelling mistakes and grammatical errors spattered throughout her resume.
Now in both cases, especially the second one, a simple round of proof-reading would have caught the errors, and these ladies could have repaired them and ended up presenting a couple of very good resumes to me. The layouts were professional and eye-catching, and the supposed experience levels would have been perfect for the position. This would also apply to a good chunk of the other resumes that I gleefully fired in the garbage.
Take this next one. Please. You can have her. Honest. The resume itself was fairly good, but the whole effect was shattered by the heading on her resume and cover letter. She had her first name in the left hand corner, and her initials (in a large and very childish-looking font) in the right hand corner. That was it. No surname. Anywhere. A dear friend of mine did say that at one point in time people were told not to use their last names on resumes. That is not a fad that took place where I live, thankfully. But perhaps it is one that this woman encountered in the past. However, that is not a fad that is in existence anymore - in fact, it is highly unprofessional to send anything like that out these days. And even if it HAD ever been in vogue here, I still would not have accepted a resume like that. I'm sorry, but if you are applying for a job, I need to have your name, thank you very much. Otherwise, I am left wondering if you have some sinister past that you are trying to hide, and if I can expect the office to be visited by mobsters wielding semi-automatics in the near future should I hire you.
Ooooooooooh, yes. I almost forgot about this little gem. I received a resume from a woman who sounded fairly professional and conscientious, and her resume would have reflected that but for one wee detail. Okay, it wasn't exactly a wee detail. This lady had to make some changes on her resume. Instead of taking the time to find a computer, or even a typewriter, for crying out loud, she opted to simply cross out the outdated information and write the new stuff in by hand. Yes, that one went in the garbage pile too.
Now, these are only a few examples of the nastiness I had to wade through. Believe it or not, some of them were much worse than the ones I've reviewed here. It's bad enough to get severe eye strain by scouring through 100+ resumes, but I can deal with that if the resumes are of a reasonable quality. However, it annoyed the heck out of me to have to strain my eyes over a lot of the garbage that I received. Do these people honestly expect to get hired with resumes like that? Yes, that is a serious question, folks.
To begin with, why would anyone think that a resume full of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors is appropriate in applying for a receptionist/administrative assistant position? The applicant would have to answer phones, type correspondence, and deal with many aspects of the accounting functions. Do they honestly think that if they cannot make the effort to ensure that their resumes are error-free they would have a chance in hell of being considered for the position? Honestly, if their resumes are that bad, I shudder to think of how many errors one would find in their work! I for one do not wish to hire someone to do the work, then have to re-do it all myself in order to ensure that she or he hasn't screwed it up. The whole point here is to hire someone who can be trained and will be capbable of doing the work on her or his own.
Everyone makes mistakes. I would not be surprised to find a few spelling errors in this blog entry, even though I've proof-read as I go along, and will have gone back and proof-read again before posting. But since it is only a blog entry, I am not going to get as anal as usual about errors. My work is another matter, though. I am very meticulous in ensuring that it is error-free, and yes, I do expect the same conscientiousness from whoever ends up being my assistant. I don't expect that there will never be errors, but I do expect the person to check, then check again, to catch her or his errors. And yes, even then, some might get missed at times - it happens to all of us. However, the point is that if someone is too lazy to make sure that their resume is at its best, she or he will most likely be too lazy to ensure that her or his work is at its best.
Okay, I think I am done now. I know, I can hear you all saying "well, it's about damned time already!" That's all right though. It's my blog, and I can be as wordy as I want to be. Nyah! Nyah! Seriously, though, I feel a little better after ranting, so hopefully this will have put me in the proper frame of mind to begin filtering through the "acceptable pile" in order to narrow that down so we can start interviewing next week. Wish me luck! Oh, and thanks for letting me rant! (((hugs)))
posted by Fullmoondolphin at 11:18 AM
7 comments
