Where I work we are hiring a few people. I saw 2 resumes today and the first line on both of them contained major grammar mistakes. Nobody seemed to care about this. I should add that both of these people are Chinese. I wonder why they did not get someone to proofread their resume. (or if they did it was another person who does not know English well)
I have seen cases in the past where foreign people are cut slack on things like this - bad grammar, bad speech, etc. Is that common? If you are curious the position is for software development.
It’s fine. When it comes to resumes, just type out whatever comes to mind and print it out, no need to get fancy. And don’t worry if you spill stuff on it before handing it to the person interviewing you. Just try to wipe it on your shorts before you give it to them and give them a heads up so they know what to expect, e.g. “careful, there’s coffee/peanut butter/semen on that. Sorry.”
In general, yes, I’d say it definitely matters. It’s sloppy and unprofessional not to at least have someone spend two minutes glancing over your CV for language errors.
Not quite an instant rejection, but if I’m interviewing you and you have a spelling/grammar mistake in your resume, you’ve already got one strike against you.
For most positions, it would matter. For this, it doesn’t. It’s not a sign that the people are undereducated or unprofessional like it is for most people. It’s merely a sign that they’re Chinese. The question you need to answer is whether or not a not-so-great English speaker can be a great employee. If they can, then their mistake shouldn’t hurt them. If they can’t, then you should hold it against them.
That seems like a double standard. We should lower requirements based on where somebody grew up?
Also if somebody is using bad grammar it is a sign they are undereducated in the English language. And it certainly shows they were not smart enough to get somebody to proofread their resume.
If you can’t bother to make sure the one document I’m judging you by is correct, I don’t want to trust you to make sure that important project is correct before you send it to the customer.
Basically this. Even if you were being hired to do a job where spelling and grammar didn’t matter all, it reflects your attitude toward the job in question.
If the job is important to you, you will take the time to make sure you’ve done things properly in the application process, even just a basic spell check and grammar check. If you don’t give a rat’s ass trying to get the job, then I may assume you won’t give a rat’s ass when you’re working it either.
Depends on the job, but in general: no. One or two mistakes are understandable, but put some damn effort in, and have someone proof-read if you need to.
ETA: For software development: I have reviewed applicants for that type of position, and I personally would not hire someone with really bad grammar. Too many bad experiences with developers who couldn’t manage to speak or write or read or understand English or Dutch. Software Development depends on having a good grasp of requirements and design documents. If you can’t write decent English, you can’t understand it well enough to implement design docs.
Exactly. If I were writing a CV in German, I’d have a native speaker check it for me. Hell, if I were writing a CV to use in the US, I’d have an American check it over for me to ensure it meets US norms.
No. Never. There are too many applicants for too few jobs right now. If an applicant can’t be bothered to submit a perfect resume, I don’t need to be bothered with them. Next. It’s a really easy way to do the first round of weeding out.
It says worse things about someone if they’re undereducated in their first language than in their second. I’ll put it this way: the first guy has only learnt 0.9 languages, while the second guy has learnt 1.9 languages. The former says there’s something wrong with you, while the latter only says you’re at a handicap by looking for a job in a foreign country.
