diff --git a/from_the_web/README b/from_the_web/README index 357c63d..bc758b3 100644 --- a/from_the_web/README +++ b/from_the_web/README @@ -14,3 +14,51 @@ Plain text example: Plain text formatting guide: http://www.constructionjobs.com/careercenter_content/creatingaplaintextresume.cfm + +Steve Yegge on Plain text: + http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/09/ten-tips-for-slightly-less-awful-resume.html + + Relevant excerpt: + + Your resume is going to go through a bunch of automated transformation tools and + will be mangled horribly along the way. Any non-ASCII character, such as those + nonstandard Microsoft Word bullets, or any accented character, or (heaven help + you) Unicode will be turned into our old favorite, the question-mark character ("?"). + + You don't want your resume to look like this: + + Resum? for Bob?T???Moblin + ?Experience + 1997?Present? Vice?F???**??didn?t?do?sh???for?ten?yea??? + + So write it in plain text. Yes. Text. You know. Like from a typewriter, or + Windows Notepad. ABCs, not PDF. + + Don't expect any whitespace to make it through except newlines and single spaces. + And don't assume your resume will be viewed in a fixed-width font. If you make + a nice pretty formatted table using tab characters, it will look like ascii-art + smoke signals by the time a human being looks at it. + + The maximum amount of ASCII art you can get away with, and even this is + stretching it, is hyphenated lines and bullets. For instance, this might be OK: + + Education + --------- + * B.S. Computer Science, University of Wherever, 1997 + * M.S. Resume Writing, 2003 + – graduated .357 magnum + + But I wouldn't overdo it. + + If your name has accent characters in it, your best bet is to change your name. + For instance, if your name is Pièrre l'Éléphant, think about whether you'd + prefer to have it seen as "Pi?rre l'?l?phant" or "Pierre l'Elephant". Sure, + your accented characters might make it through, but I'd play it safe. + + HTML formatting usually makes it through safely because it's plain text. However, + even if your tags are left alone by the automated mangler, there's no guarantee + that your resume will be viewed from a browser, and nobody wants to read through + a bunch of ugly markup while they're trying to assess your skills. So you + shouldn't use HTML either. + + Text! All the best resumes are plain text. Use text.