Document Formats and Recruiting

[warlord at MIT.EDU (Derek Atkins)]

Come on, how hard is it to output a .doc from OpenOffice? ;)

OTOH, I still send my resume in only PostScript, PDF, or TXT formats..

-derek

"Scott Prive" <Scott.Prive at storigen.com> writes:

> I'd agree 100% -- and people who know me know I dislike the Microsoft monopoly.
> 
> My company makes UNIX servers based on Linux. When I applied, no document format was specified, so I sent both .rtf and .pdf. 
> 
> Had they specifically *requested* .doc, you bet your ass I would have given them one. To knowingly send a different format than requested is to shoot yourself in the foot. That's competition. :-)
> 
> I think it's foolish to judge a company by how technical their "administrative" staff is. I've spent 7 out of the last 11 years working in predominantly-UNIX environments, and they all have Microsoft-centric administrative folks. That's just the way it is.
> 
> Even *IF* the Linux desktop continues to improve and we see more "Linux everywhere" deployments over the next few years, you're still interfacing with non-technical people. All that will change is we have a desktop that meets their expectations without major retraining.
> 
> -Scott
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Chuck Young [mailto:chy at genuity.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 11:58 AM
> > To: discuss at blu.org
> > Subject: Document Formats and Recruiting
> > 
> > 
> > I think you guys are asking a lot of staffing firms, HR and 
> > "management".
> > 
> > Are U kidding?  Those folks typically don't know anything 
> > beyond windows.
> > 
> > Direct managers and engineers may be cool, but the larger places
> > are firmly entrenched in the current establishment, don't you think?
> > It's just a tool.  Who cares what kind of car you drive?
> > 
> > What is important is that you can get your message across in 
> > terms and formats
> > they can easily understand; how you do it is irrelevant.
> > 
> > OK hit me for thinking and saying it out loud...
> > 
> > ---------------
> > Chuck Young
> > Security Consulting
> > Genuity E-Services
> > --------------------
> > 
> > > | I dunno that I'd want a job at a place that can't figure 
> > out how to
> > > | read an RTF file! Any more than I'd want a job at a place 
> > that required
> > > | me to wear a tie. I know in this climate it's hard for 
> > beggars to be
> > > | choosers, but ya gotta draw the line somewhere, don't you?)
> > >
> > > Well, I'd think that the real problem is:  If they want  MS
> > > Word  format, that implies that they're pretty much a total
> > > MS shop. If they really used other systems, they'd be aware
> > > of the problems with Word docs.  So unless you're a Windows
> > > hacker, you'd probably be a minor player with no connection
> > > to management.
> > 
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> > 
> > 
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-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available