CVs and "proper grammar"

["Mark Harrison" <Mark.Harrison@xxxxxxx>]

Guys,

We started this thread with some advice that anyone seriously looking
for work should have their CV proof-read by someone with good language
skills before sending it to a potential employer.

We then started off a round of diatribe about why this meant that
employers were missing out on highly skilled people solely because they
did not have the same "language skills" as the person viewing
their
application.

Please let's not lose sight of the fact that while most of us believe
that this is not fair, and shortsighted, it DOES HAPPEN. Potential
employers MAY WELL "downgrade" your application because of poor
grammar
in your CV.

I say "downgraded" instead of "rejected", because, in
my experience,
this is what happens.

Poor recruitment process is a common problem faced by business. Pretty
much all modern management reseach on recruitment shows that the
"interview" is a poor process to follow when selecting staff.
However,
it is still the most common process!

When I am applying for jobs, I will ask three or four friends to read
through my CV for comment. Generally, I ask people who are more senior
to me, and have the kind of position I am aspiring to, for their advice.
This is on the basis that you should always ask the advice of succesful
people, however you choose to define "successful".

I have, embarassingly often, had CVs come back from this review marked
up with small grammatical errors, and the unanimous advice has been to
take the time to correct them.

Whether anyone looking on would choose to use my own career progression
as a model for their own is debatable ;-) However, I do write as someone
who has had success (in my terms) in job-hunting, and as someone who
has, over the years, interviewed and recruited many staff.

Have I made any mistakes or typos in this eMail? Maybe... probably in
fact... but my next job doesn't depend on getting it right! Your next
job may depend on getting your CV right...

Regards,

Mark Harrison
Head of Systems, eKingfisher