Today a CV landed on my boss' desk. While reading it, we came across the 
following phrase:

   "...designing B-spoke software for there pacific needs."

I don't even know where to start with this. How could someone get basic 
English words so badly wrong?

Needless to say, we didn't bother interviewing this person.

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On Wed, 05 Jun 2013 20:54:09 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

> I don't even know where to start with this. How could someone get basic
> English words so badly wrong?

Must've been educated in the US. ;)

(I had someone send me an e-mail today that used "no" instead of "know" - 
seriously....)

Jim

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On 05/06/2013 10:19 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Wed, 05 Jun 2013 20:54:09 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>
>> I don't even know where to start with this. How could someone get basic
>> English words so badly wrong?
>
> Must've been educated in the US. ;)
>
> (I had someone send me an e-mail today that used "no" instead of "know" -
> seriously....)

Maybe. But that's an email. We're talking about a CV here - a document 
that is a) only a page long, and b) should have been proof-read to 
within an inch of it's life many, many times over. WHAT THE HELL?!

We had another amusing one, actually... Instead of listing all the 
skills he DOES have, he listed all the skills he DOES NOT have. (??!)

In fact, on closer inspection, what he *actually* did was make a 
bullet-point for each requirement in the job spec. It's just that most 
of them here "no experience with X", which made it seems like a list of 
non-skills.

My boss nearly replied to the job agent pointing out that the CV had 
missed out the non-skill of "CV writing"...

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On Wed, 05 Jun 2013 22:27:45 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

> On 05/06/2013 10:19 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Wed, 05 Jun 2013 20:54:09 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>>
>>> I don't even know where to start with this. How could someone get
>>> basic English words so badly wrong?
>>
>> Must've been educated in the US. ;)
>>
>> (I had someone send me an e-mail today that used "no" instead of "know"
>> -
>> seriously....)
> 
> Maybe. But that's an email. We're talking about a CV here - a document
> that is a) only a page long, and b) should have been proof-read to
> within an inch of it's life many, many times over. WHAT THE HELL?!

The person who sent it is a marketing person - a field that should have 
people in it who write what they mean and need to communicate effectively.

But yeah, on a CV is particularly bad.  One thing I was taught to look 
for when reviewing applications was sloppy handwriting, too.

> We had another amusing one, actually... Instead of listing all the
> skills he DOES have, he listed all the skills he DOES NOT have. (??!)

That's kinda weird.

> In fact, on closer inspection, what he *actually* did was make a
> bullet-point for each requirement in the job spec. It's just that most
> of them here "no experience with X", which made it seems like a list of
> non-skills.

Ah, that makes more sense (though still a bad thing to do).  When doing a 
cover letter and a custom CV, it's generally recommended that you tie 
your CV to the job requirements by using key words and phrases from the 
job posting.

So maybe he was trying to "beat" the automated system.  But in a very 
ineffective way.

> My boss nearly replied to the job agent pointing out that the CV had
> missed out the non-skill of "CV writing"...

LOL

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On 06/05/2013 05:30 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> So maybe he was trying to "beat" the automated system.  But in a very
> ineffective way.

automated systems ... don't get me started!!!!

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On Wed, 05 Jun 2013 19:32:14 -0400, James Holsenback wrote:

> On 06/05/2013 05:30 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> So maybe he was trying to "beat" the automated system.  But in a very
>> ineffective way.
> 
> automated systems ... don't get me started!!!!

Someone once suggested that it would be interesting to include the job 
posting in small white-on-white text in a CV/Resume that was submitted.  
I hate to think, though, what the employer's reaction would be if they 
discovered it....

Jim

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On 06/06/2013 12:32 AM, James Holsenback wrote:
> automated systems ... don't get me started!!!!

I think I may have mentioned before, how all job adverts seem to be 
appallingly badly written. Like, if my CV was written as badly as the 
job adverts, nobody would ever hire me.

Well, now I think I know why. We recently placed an advert on some job 
site. The text we have the agent was written just fine. But, for no 
defined reason, the agent went and changed a bunch of text, so now the 
grammar and punctuation is all screwed up. They also removed a critical 
legal requirement from the text.

We yelled at them to change it back, or at least fix the more glaring 
errors. They changed it a bit, but it was still broken. So we yelled at 
them some more, and managed to get them to fix a few more things. But 
eventually we let the advert go out still broken, because it was just 
too difficult to convince the agent to fix it properly.

I can't even begin to comprehend why the agent changed the text in the 
first place. One of the guys outs point that the agent's registered 
company address is actually a residential estate though...

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On 06/06/2013 03:51 AM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> On 06/06/2013 12:32 AM, James Holsenback wrote:
>> automated systems ... don't get me started!!!!
>
> I think I may have mentioned before, how all job adverts seem to be
> appallingly badly written.

I recently did a bit of web page design, and spent more time being the 
grammar police than I did on the actual layout and style-sheet. The 
grammar was to say the least atrocious ... for example a six clause 
comma separated list, that I cleaned up with a well crafted lead in 
sentence, followed by a bullet list. The copy was also littered with 
sentences that ended with prepositions. I was shocked, considering what 
the web-site was selling! Ms Bonham, my 5th grade English teacher, must 
be rolling over in her grave.

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Most Americans wouldn't know what bespoke means.

-Shay

"Jim Henderson"  wrote in message news:51afab72$1@news.povray.org... 

On Wed, 05 Jun 2013 20:54:09 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

> I don't even know where to start with this. How could someone get basic
> English words so badly wrong?

Must've been educated in the US. ;)

(I had someone send me an e-mail today that used "no" instead of "know" - 
seriously....)

Jim

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On Thu, 06 Jun 2013 08:17:01 -0500, Shay wrote:

> Most Americans wouldn't know what bespoke means.

That's true enough.  The first time I heard it, I had no idea what it 
meant - but most Americans wouldn't bother to look it up or ask, 
either. :)

Jim

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