IT job seekers cannot spell

zerogames

IT job seekers can't smell spell ? The Register

networker050184

I honestly don't see how people can misspell anything on a resume these days with spell check.

tpatt100

networker050184 wrote: »

I honestly don't see how people can misspell anything on a resume these days with spell check.

The article points out the typos are sometimes for technology they work with. Spell check has a lot of issues with tech abbreviations, names and words. I have to be careful and "check" spell check since it sometimes wants to replace words I know are correct with something totally different. Many times you have to spend a little more time adding words to the custom dictionary to make Word compatible to the work you do.

I think over reliance on spell check is the problem.

networker050184

tpatt100 wrote: »

The article points out the typos are sometimes for technology they work with. Spell check has a lot of issues with tech abbreviations, names and words. I have to be careful and "check" spell check since it sometimes wants to replace words I know are correct with something totally different. Many times you have to spend a little more time adding words to the custom dictionary to make Word compatible to the work you do.

I think over reliance on spell check is the problem.

If its underlined red then double check it. At least thats what I do.

cyberguypr

networker050184 wrote: »

I honestly don't see how people can misspell anything on a resume these days with spell check.

I gotta say I don't see that many typos. What I do see a LOT is company/products improperly presented: CISCO, vmWARE, VSphere, Blackberry, Powerpoint, VIZIO (they weren't talking about the TVs), Itil, etc.

It bugs the heck out of me.

msteinhilber

People need to get the idea one of these day's that spell check and grammar check are not the end all proofing tools that many people seem to think they are. I've not been in a position where I am directly responsible for hiring for 4 years now and even back then I had an awful lot of resumes come through that would have passed spelling and grammar check, but didn't flow well, had correct spellings but the wrong words used instead, etc.

When I draft a resume and cover letter for an organization, at the very least I slowly read it over a couple of times. If possible, I'll fire it off to a friend or family member and have them read it through too.

mikedisd2

Rambling is what I did at my last interview, it just happens.

Spellchecker isn't much help as it typos can often be another valid word. Every line needs to be read and checked.

Almost as important is consistency; every line formatted in the same way, the same tense is always used, punctuation and capitalisation is uniform. We can't afford to give them any excuse to dismiss our resume.

PC509

cyberguypr wrote: »

I gotta say I don't see that many typos. What I do see a LOT is company/products improperly presented: CISCO, vmWARE, VSphere, Blackberry, Powerpoint, VIZIO (they weren't talking about the TVs), Itil, etc.

It bugs the heck out of me.

To be fair, Cisco can't get it right, either. And they ARE Cisco. They have it as cisco, Cisco and CISCO on their own website.

ccnxjr

I have to agree with PC509, we work in an industry that spawned TLA's (which was adopted by the business world, to sound intelligent).
I think that article is overly dramatic about what every other techie know to be fact, techies know tech, not word-speak.
One can argue that poor spelling and grammar is inherently part of the industry we're in.
Would a potential employer be impressed to find "googol" on your resume and be pleasantly amused that your sharing a piece of trivia whereby you can establish a personal connection through your resume or consider it poor writing that you , as techie, mis-spelled google (btw, "googol" has a red-underline on it, my browser is chrome).

Sometimes the branding can get a little confusing
Do you work with MS Windows XP , or is Windows XP also acceptable?
Do you put MS Office 2010, Office 2010 or list the individual applications?
Are you familiar with Tracert or Traceroute (Trace-route)?
(some managers may be familiar with both, some will assume you couldn't get the command write
etc...

I could even argue that article suggests points that are in direct contradiction to one that his colleague wrote
No wonder CompSci grads are unemployed ? The Register
in which he criticizes tech programs which include electives that are there to develop written communication skills.

This might sound like sour grapes, I think several technology managers forget what constitutes a good tech or a good team.
I had one manager who was a p!ss-poor tech, but was promoted into a management position, I think mostly because he could write better than the other techs (I think only quantity, not quality wise...that's a whole other rant).