Why do people suck at writing resumes?

Frustrated interviewer wrote:

Why am I interviewing this guy?

He probably has the right connections, which is more important than resume writing.

You mentioned that this is a technical position. Does this position require interaction with the public and/or will the position ever be in a situation where writing skills are on display as a spokesperson for the company? If not, perhaps your company should be more worried about the applicant's technical aptitude rather than their email acumen.

I too Interview wrote:

You mentioned that this is a technical position. Does this position require interaction with the public and/or will the position ever be in a situation where writing skills are on display as a spokesperson for the company? If not, perhaps your company should be more worried about the applicant's technical aptitude rather than their email acumen.

Communication is important in the job, both written and verbal. And I'm looking for someone who can move up in 3-5 yrs. The next level requires considerably more communication.

Bill Gates' resume would be pretty short actually.

The one page thing seems to really depend on the industry and region. It's a hard rule in some places, and pretty much ignored in others.

I put my volunteer/unpaid work on the back of the resume. I figure that if someone doesn't feel like flipping the thing over, they'll still get the important points, but I might as well put it on there in case anyone is interested.

Because most people suck at writing in general.

I see that you received my resume. We should totally connect since we are both runners.

Their resumes are designed to filter out certain management types. They don't want to work for managers who view resume wording as being more important that their technical competence.

You failed the test. Sorry.

One word: Millennials

Frustrated interviewer wrote:

I had several principles drilled into me when I was in school, and each of these are being violated like the women in Donald Trump's life:

1) Keep it to 1 page unless you are Bill Gates or equivalent

It was drilled into you in school because entry level positions only need one-page resumes. No one expects someone with 30 years experience at 8 different jobs to keep it to one page - although it sounds like someone like that would not be a good fit for your position. All the rest of your principles are just the most basic qualifiers for anyone.

John Lawson wrote:

I see that you received my resume. We should totally connect since we are both runners.

This person is NOT a runner.

asdfasdcsdfdasfasdfasdf wrote:

Because most people suck at writing in general.

This.

TAA wrote:

asdfasdcsdfdasfasdfasdf wrote:

Because most people suck at writing in general.

This.

I absolutely LOVE it when people's linked page says they are CLEVER

ROFLCOPTER!!!

link?

We recently tried to fill in a writing position internally and locally due to budget (federal government). We could not find anyone. Maybe two people did OK, and that was a stretch. We're going to have to train someone to do some basic editing, and it's going to be a very painful process.

The marketplace doesn't value writers. They get paid the least out of everyone in any large organization except for maybe administrative staff.

Also, in most areas if they have the skills you need, you will overlook the poor writing skills. At the end of the year, I have to re-write executive appraisals, people paid much more than I am, because they are atrocious to read.

Our public school education in action people. Trump, poor writing, etc ...

Writer-slash-runner wrote:

We recently tried to fill in a writing position internally and locally due to budget (federal government). We could not find anyone. Maybe two people did OK, and that was a stretch. We're going to have to train someone to do some basic editing, and it's going to be a very painful process.

The marketplace doesn't value writers. They get paid the least out of everyone in any large organization except for maybe administrative staff.

Also, in most areas if they have the skills you need, you will overlook the poor writing skills. At the end of the year, I have to re-write executive appraisals, people paid much more than I am, because they are atrocious to read.

Our public school education in action people. Trump, poor writing, etc ...

You didn't find anyone because the amount of money you were offering was too low.

I'm an engineering professor and have hired about a dozen engineering professors and several staff over the past decade. I have to say that the resumes I get are pretty good. For academia, you have to have a long resume with all your publications and grants and stuff, but most people do a good job putting the important stuff on the first page.

In addition to the cover letter, we ask for several written pieces on their teaching and their research philosophies. I've found the writing quite good overall. Each search there are several odd ones from international applicants, and there occasionally is a poorly written one from a US or international applicant, but most are good. By the time you get to applying for faculty positions, you've written lots of peer-reviewed papers and proposals in addition to other correspondence, so they're seasoned writers.

I used to get really flowery grad school applications from international students ("dear distinguished and respected professor, I am the devotee of your esteemed research and it would be of the highest honor..."), but that has fallen off. I think the word got around that we didn't like that.

The employers who recruit and hire our students sometimes complain about bad communication skills, but we do work with the students. The biggest mistake on resumes is that they can be too cutesy or template-y. We have had students lose jobs they had in the bag because they sent unprofessional e-mails with mistakes and textspeak.

The liberal arts school where I am now the engineering students do a lot more writing than at the state school where I was before. They take writing classes in the major and outside the major. I teach writing in the major and I had to go through training on campus and am being sent to a national conference to learn how to teach writing better.

I love the articles on bad or mistake-ridden resumes, but the ones I've seen are pretty good for the most part.

asdfasdcsdfdasfasdfasdf wrote:

Because most people suck at writing in general.

The best part is that everyone thinks their writing is great and everyone else's sucks.

Jean~Baptiste Lamarck II wrote:

asdfasdcsdfdasfasdfasdf wrote:

Because most people suck at writing in general.

The best part is that everyone thinks their writing is great and everyone else's sucks.

And, that they are an expert at rating other person's writing ability.