# Wanna know why you can't get a job, moron? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 24, 2006, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747 "2006-03-24T18:14:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/41 "2006-03-25T01:07:03Z")
> [@Rasa](#): > > If you turn on formatting symbols, there’s usually a big huge bold paragraph symbol at the end of the doc. Delete it. Boom, pesky extra page gone. I tried that already, and it won’t let me delete the big paragraph symbol. What am I doing wrong? Because I need a job, and I don’t want a blank page to keep me from the career of my dreams. And the red and green squiggly lines? Word doesn’t always have the right answer, you know. It likes to make all sorts of not-so-helpful suggestions for your grammar, and it doesn’t recognize words that aren’t included in its dictionary. So if you’re applying for a job in a field with very specialized vocabulary, there’s a good chance that you’ll get a resume full of squiggly lines. If they annoy you that much, turn off that feature when you’re reading resumes. I’m sure you can find the glaring mistakes on your own, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/42 "2006-03-25T01:08:38Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > This may be a dumb question. But how many here are deaf? If you’re not deaf, is there a reason you’re actually spending time reading the CC? I’ve watched shows with CC on if I’m keeping cursory tabs on it, but if I’m paying close enough attention to the show to catch that, the sound is on. It wasn’t CC, it was subtitles. The characters were speaking Korean, so the show was nice enough to translate for us. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/43 "2006-03-25T01:10:45Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > BAM, two **spellnig** errors. I forgot an ‘e’ in advertisement, and my fingers just messed up and added a ‘w’ to **aquisition**. spelling acquisition :: checks obsessively for Gauderean errors :: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/44 "2006-03-25T01:47:34Z")
> [@Antigen](#): > > It wasn’t CC, it was subtitles. The characters were speaking Korean, so the show was nice enough to translate for us. Crap. i missed that part. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/45 "2006-03-25T01:48:54Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > Crap.\*\* i \*\* missed that part. Sorry. _ **I** _ Fucking keyboard. Where’s that wire? ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/46 "2006-03-25T02:23:34Z")
We burning you’re resume! ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/47 "2006-03-25T02:37:06Z")
What I’m obviously missing is this: Whether or not Microsoft word prints an extra blank page because of a bug, and despite the fact that you can (or cannot) suppress it, what kind of nitwit would print out their resu…CV, see a blank page, \* and then fold it up and stuff it into the envelope?\* ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/48 "2006-03-25T02:43:17Z")
> [@bizzwire](#): > > What I’m obviously missing is this: > > Whether or not Microsoft word prints an extra blank page because of a bug, and despite the fact that you can (or cannot) suppress it, what kind of nitwit would print out their resu…CV, see a blank page, \* and then fold it up and stuff it into the envelope?\* I’m thinking these are e-mailed resumes sent as attachments. ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/49 "2006-03-25T02:45:14Z")
> [@Antigen](#): > > I’m thinking these are e-mailed resumes sent as attachments. wow…you can do that? ---
**Author:** ![ethanwinfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/96bed5/32.png) [@ethanwinfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ethanwinfield)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/50 "2006-03-25T02:52:07Z")
I may never understand the closed-captioning thing. For scripted programs, isn’t there, well, a _script_? Can’t the people making the big bucks writing the captioning go off of that? We were watching the episode of _Seinfeld_ where Kramer spills hot coffee on himself (“The Maestro”). He uses a balm (as in salve). The captioning read, “Who told you to use the bomb? Did I tell you to use the bomb? Why did you use the bomb?” ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/51 "2006-03-25T05:03:20Z")
> [@Antigen](#): > > I tried that already, and it won’t let me delete the big paragraph symbol. What am I doing wrong? That big paragraph symbol is where Word stores all the formatting information for the document. You _can’t_ delete it. Damned poor design on the part of the MS programmer who made that decision, but we’re stuck with it now. What you can do is something the folks on the Word-PC list refer to as a Maggie. To wit, you create a new, blank document, and then copy everything EXCEPT that last paragraph symbol into it. It won’t always fix all problems, but it will fix a distressingly large number of them. Play with the margins and the vertical size of your headers and footers. Word will get rid of the last blank page if that last paragraph mark can be made to fit on the last text-filled page. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/52 "2006-03-25T05:25:49Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > Man, this thread made me realize I will NOT get that job I applied to last night. > > See, I don’t have MS Office on my PC, so as a result, when I make emails, I don’t have those fancy red or green lines telling me I made a mistake. Normally, I would copy and paste it into Open Office and spell check it there…but I forgot to last night. A sense of panic went through me as I opened this thread and I quickly went into my sent mail folder, copy and pasted, and BAM, two spellnig errors. I forgot an ‘e’ in advertisement, and my fingers just messed up and added a ‘w’ to aquisition. > > :smack: > > Well, I guess I’m not getting that job anytime soon. I’m really pissed, too, because it was one of the few jobs that I found that I am actually qualified to do. I wouldn’t worry too much. Where I work everything is printed out by personnel to give to the panel members who are conducting the appointment, so no warning squiggles. Although you see plenty of silly mistakes in resumes it would have to be a pretty poor one to make me stop reading the actual content. I can’t imagine telling an unsuccessful applicant that I culled them because they made a spelling error in their resume. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/53 "2006-03-25T06:00:51Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > This may be a dumb question. But how many here are deaf? If you’re not deaf, is there a reason you’re actually spending time reading the CC? I’ve watched shows with CC on if I’m keeping cursory tabs on it, but if I’m paying close enough attention to the show to catch that, the sound is on. I usually have sound & closed captioning. I got used to it when I used to watch programs with “creative sound design” or better known as “we’re playing background music, adding foley effects, and having the actors whisper - isn’t that cool?” It ends up being like subtitles, I don’t really notice it. Unless it’s really bad (one of my favorites was _Sports Night_ where someone wrote a “pearl script” to run as a background process.) Word’s grammar check sucks. Spelling, I leave on, but the grammar check is just annoying and usually wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Tiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/54 "2006-03-25T06:16:30Z")
> [@don't ask](#): > > Although you see plenty of silly mistakes in resumes it would have to be a pretty poor one to make me stop reading the actual content. I can’t imagine telling an unsuccessful applicant that I culled them because they made a spelling error in their resume. I knew a woman who kept trying to get a job as a legal secretary. Only problem was, in a single sentence complaining about why nobody would hire her, she used “there,” “their,” and “they’re” – and spelled them all as “there.” :wally It depends on the job you’re applying for. If someone can’t spell on their resume and their job requires them to spell, or at least know how to run spell check, why shouldn’t you cull them for failing up front to meet the job requirements? ---
**Author:** ![MissGypsy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@MissGypsy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissGypsy)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/55 "2006-03-25T15:00:13Z")
Back when I worked for a newspaper, we received a resume from a woman applying for the position of “Editor-and-Chief.” She didn’t get the job. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/56 "2006-03-26T20:56:38Z")
Somebody set us up the balm! ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/57 "2006-03-27T18:21:40Z")
Now, see, when I’m reading resumes, I find it so tedious that having spelling and content errors to mock is one of the high points of the effort. And usually we get so many resumes to weed through for one engineering or chemist position that we’re looking for _any_ excuse to weed them down to a manageable number. Although I was sorely tempted to see if we could interview the person who listed only Disneyworld and Hardee’s as her “10 years of experience in the chemical industry”… > [@Morgyn](#): > > What you can do is something the folks on the Word-PC list refer to as a Maggie. To wit, you create a new, blank document, and then copy everything EXCEPT that last paragraph symbol into it. It won’t always fix all problems, but it will fix a distressingly large number of them. Play with the margins and the vertical size of your headers and footers. Word will get rid of the last blank page if that last paragraph mark can be made to fit on the last text-filled page. I’ve also had success by selecting that last paragraph marker, and reducing its font size to 1 or so. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/58 "2006-03-27T19:49:12Z")
> [@bizzwire](#): > > wow…you can do that? Depends whether the prospective employer says you can. Please, people, follow the instructions written in the advertisement or posting. If someone can’t follow the directions posted, I have doubts about whether they can do the job. ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/59 "2006-03-27T19:53:43Z")
C’mon people, you guys don’t honestly think that Word’s non-recognition of names and passive voice and the like are considered true errors. When the job you are applying for requires very detail-oriented work, yes, a single obvious spelling error can screw you when five other people managed not to have any errors. My job requires obsessive attention to detail, from checking data entry and all subsequent calculations and related conclusions to grammar, spelling and formatting as well as conformance to all applicable protocols, rules and regulations. I need to find someone who is capable of doing that. If you can’t even do this with your resume, then yes, your resume ends up in the circular file, if you get my meaning. **closes eyes, holds breath, presses Reply and prays that Gaudere is asleep** ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747/60 "2006-03-27T20:11:40Z")
> [@Robot Arm](#): > > Is it just me? When I was job hunting, I checked all the spelling and grammar, and even put the accent marks on “résumé”. I’m 99% certain that there’s only one accent on resumé. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-know-why-you-cant-get-a-job-moron/349747.md?page=4)