That’s pretty funny. 
I am really quoting an actual cover letter I received.
I agree. I’ve never seen it either. It just sounds absurd.
'cos if there’s one thing we hate, it’s butt-kissers.
By all means, politely (but coolly - no overtones of ‘I’m not worthy’) thank the person for having given you the opportunity to discuss the job as you’re leaving the interview, but don’t go sending a thank-you note as a follow-up, as though they invited you to their wedding or something.
The thing to realise is that you (generic ‘you’ - not you personally, twickster!) don’t have a personal relationship with the interviewer, so a twee little thank-you indicates you have no understanding of social vs professional boundaries. It’ll immediately quick the interviewer out big-time and get you mentally stamped: “arse-kisser”. Your resume will be placed in the circular file.
We’re a weird mob, I know. 
But if you’re sitting there thinking ‘Wow, they’re so rude/ungrateful/ill-mannered’, please remember we’re sitting here going ‘Wow, that looks so desperate’.
How many potentially great employees do we lose this way? I’d be prepared to state that it’s bugger-all from Aussie sources (it’s a VERY reliable yardstick for those born here), but I’m starting to wonder if we don’t accidentally weed out some potentially marvellous Americans.
Personally, I love the idea of a resume written in 3rd person. It’d really brighten up the office, after reading a heap of generic resumes, to come across one where the person refers to themselves like that throughout.
Oh, we’d laugh and laugh.
But it’d probably half-work, you know. I reckon we’d have to at least bring them in for an interview, if only to establish whether they’d do it in the interview too.
BWP: “So, tell us about your experience with computers”
Joe Bloggs: “Joe Bloggs is highly experienced. Joe Bloggs worked for seven years on computer help desk. Joe Bloggs very popular with customers. Many customers ring in, specifically ask to speak to Joe Bloggs. Customers very happy, sometimes laughing all through customer service call. Joe Bloggs not entirely sure why.”
Of course, in post #23, I meant ‘squick’ instead of ‘quick’.
Bites When Provoked not type good. 
I would be much more interested in seeing that the person was able to communicate in complete sentences, which would necessitate use of the first person pronoun.
I’m almost certain this is a whoosh. A resume written in third person would look like a joke.
Addressing a larger issue, a resume is really just for culling people with respect to their qualifications and experience … basic facts, in other words. Trying to use it to divine any other characteristic of an applicant is surely laughable. That kind of stuff comes out in an interview.
Just taking a quick glance at all of the replies, I notice the people who are shocked at the concept of writing a resume in the third person are mostly non-Americans.
Obviously this is a cultural difference.
I used to be the position of hiring teachers for colleges here in the US. I would get hundreds of resumes every year and I cannot remember getting more than one or two that used the first person in any of those resumes.
Huh? The other 599 people wrote in the third person? About themselves, like:
*Mr. CookingWithGas was responsible for spanking monkeys, riding llamas, and singing with Elephants. He accomplished all three simultaneously on one occasion. This earned him great acclaim from his executive management.
And wow, I never thought of writing a thank-you note as ass-kissing. It’s not tellig them what a great job they did interviewing me, just thanking them for the opportunity and their time. Luckily other threads have proven that the majority of people don’t bother anymore.
JFK High School
Anytown, USA
Taught English, French and Italian. Created the first foreign language debate teams and coached soccer. Awarded the honor of “Teacher of the Year” six times and “Coach of the Year” twice during the ten years working for JFK High.
Billy’s Restaurant
Othertown, USA
Hired staff, ordered supplies, made daily bank deposits and helped with serving tables during busy weekends.
Shyster & Shyster
Big City, USA
Assisted in the creation of a large database, saving the firm $800,000 per year in fees for temporary employees. Organized the filing system to interface with new software technology.
(Is this really such a difficult concept to understand?)
This is not a whoosh. I am not recommending that style for a job application, although I would not reject one out of hand if I received it.
The time I have seen this used most is by companies I have worked for when preparing a proposal and including staff resumes. In this case it is part of a document presented by one company to another and it makes perfect sense to speak about your staff in the third person. But that’s a much different situation than a job app.
Not laughable at all. Happens every day. That’s just reality, regardless of whether you think it’s fair or wise. And if a candidate can’t get the basic facts across to me in a clear, organized way, I don’t have time to figure it out and I’m going to move on to one of the other 100 resumes sitting on my desk. I can’t interview them all.
What you wrote is not third person. It’s no person or first person implied, as **middleman ** mentioned above. Third person would be
- John Smith taught French…
or
- He taught French…
I’m also wondering if that’s what all of the other posters who are talking about submitting/reading resumes in the third person are talking about.
The only time I could imagine that third person resume writing would be effective is if it is:
[ul]Bo knows football.[/ul]
Which has absolutely to do with bizarre shibboleths like not using the word I, a perfectly appropriate word to use in both formal and informal contexts.
Well, it looks like my example from above has finally clarified the difference in semantics:
It is more specifically called abbreviated third person, if you want to Google the term, but it is still considered writing in the third person.
In any case, that is the style I have been talking about and assume it is the “third person writing style” others meant as well.
Back to the OP, generally go with implied first person. But in a choice between an “up with which I will not put” type of sentence and a personal pronoun, I’d go with the personal pronoun.
Huh. At first I thought “I don’t remember hearing that you shouldn’t you ‘I’ on a resume.” But looking at my resume, I don’t use I, so I must have learned this at one point.
You know, I googled “implied first person” and got all of 400 hits. “abbreviated third person” scored a mere 24 hits…
As I said above, in theory I guess I agree, but I am still waiting for somebody to give me an example of a statement in a resume would be awkward without the first person pronoun.
Resumes, like newspaper headlines, are meant to be scanned quickly. So it’s best to eliminate as many words as possible. Also, pretty much every line in a resume could begin with the word “I” since it is, after all, about what the writer did, so it really adds nothing to use the pronoun.
IMO it looks officious to use the accent graves on ‘resume’. It makes it look as though it should be pronounced “RAY-zew-MAY”.
Unless it’s in French of course.
Just did that. Friends from my old office sent me a letter they received from someone applying to be a writer:
Sorry, that’s a hijack. But that’s what I have framed on the wall by the desk where I do all my editing.