Document Formats and Recruiting

[Scott Prive]

It's pretty easy to output a .doc from any application.

The problem is guaranteeing it looks at the other end, the way you intended.

I had a WfW resume template. When I (temporarily) ditched Windows and got a Mac for my "desktop", I got Office for the Mac, updated my document and sent to various HR (both using MS Office for Windows).

In ONE case, my "em-dash" between year dates, got translated as another character: a skull-and-crossbones wingding of some sort. LOL. 

In another example, the table/frames for the body text, somehow imported as SMALLER than the text. The result was the last 6 characters of every line were trunc'd before the auto-wrap occured.

I got called on these "error", and let slip it came from a Macintosh. The interviews seemed extremely positive until that revelation... (probably got marked down as "mac/webmaster type"). Ah well. :-/

Granted, this happened from MS Word on the *Mac*, but I learned never to trust loosely-interpreted formats without testing (even PDF). 

Scott



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Derek Atkins [mailto:warlord at MIT.EDU]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 8:21 PM
> To: Scott Prive
> Cc: Chuck Young; discuss at blu.org
> Subject: Re: Document Formats and Recruiting
> 
> 
> Come on, how hard is it to output a .doc from OpenOffice? ;)
> 
> OTOH, I still send my resume in only PostScript, PDF, or TXT formats..
> 
> -derek
> 
> "Scott Prive" <Scott.Prive at storigen.com> writes:
> 
> > I'd agree 100% -- and people who know me know I dislike the 
> Microsoft monopoly.
> > 
> > My company makes UNIX servers based on Linux. When I 
> applied, no document format was specified, so I sent both 
> .rtf and .pdf. 
> > 
> > Had they specifically *requested* .doc, you bet your ass I 
> would have given them one. To knowingly send a different 
> format than requested is to shoot yourself in the foot. 
> That's competition. :-)
> > 
> > I think it's foolish to judge a company by how technical 
> their "administrative" staff is. I've spent 7 out of the last 
> 11 years working in predominantly-UNIX environments, and they 
> all have Microsoft-centric administrative folks. That's just 
> the way it is.
> > 
> > Even *IF* the Linux desktop continues to improve and we see 
> more "Linux everywhere" deployments over the next few years, 
> you're still interfacing with non-technical people. All that 
> will change is we have a desktop that meets their 
> expectations without major retraining.
> > 
> > -Scott
> > 
> > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Chuck Young [mailto:chy at genuity.com]
> > > Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 11:58 AM
> > > To: discuss at blu.org
> > > Subject: Document Formats and Recruiting
> > > 
> > > 
> > > I think you guys are asking a lot of staffing firms, HR and 
> > > "management".
> > > 
> > > Are U kidding?  Those folks typically don't know anything 
> > > beyond windows.
> > > 
> > > Direct managers and engineers may be cool, but the larger places
> > > are firmly entrenched in the current establishment, don't 
> you think?
> > > It's just a tool.  Who cares what kind of car you drive?
> > > 
> > > What is important is that you can get your message across in 
> > > terms and formats
> > > they can easily understand; how you do it is irrelevant.
> > > 
> > > OK hit me for thinking and saying it out loud...
> > > 
> > > ---------------
> > > Chuck Young
> > > Security Consulting
> > > Genuity E-Services
> > > --------------------
> > > 
> > > > | I dunno that I'd want a job at a place that can't figure 
> > > out how to
> > > > | read an RTF file! Any more than I'd want a job at a place 
> > > that required
> > > > | me to wear a tie. I know in this climate it's hard for 
> > > beggars to be
> > > > | choosers, but ya gotta draw the line somewhere, don't you?)
> > > >
> > > > Well, I'd think that the real problem is:  If they want  MS
> > > > Word  format, that implies that they're pretty much a total
> > > > MS shop. If they really used other systems, they'd be aware
> > > > of the problems with Word docs.  So unless you're a Windows
> > > > hacker, you'd probably be a minor player with no connection
> > > > to management.
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Discuss mailing list
> > > Discuss at blu.org
> > > http://www.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> > > 
> > > 
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> 
> -- 
>        Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
>        Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
>        URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
>        warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available
> 
>