Xref: utzoo misc.jobs.misc:11501 comp.misc:12387 Newsgroups: misc.jobs.misc,comp.misc Path: utzoo!sq!msb From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: Re: experience vs. other things on resume Message-ID: <1991May4.093811.29686@sq.sq.com> Followup-To: misc.jobs.misc Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada References: <24378@well.sf.ca.us> <1991Apr24.084653.1208@weyrich.UUCP> Distribution: usa Date: Sat, 4 May 91 09:38:11 GMT Lines: 29 This topic has nothing in particular to do with computers, so I have directed followups to misc.jobs.misc > > .... Otherwise, some folks advise not providing > > names or letters until requested. ... > > I've never really understood this. I've always given names of people at the > company who already knew me. The concept I tried to portray was, "You will > want me. And it's inevitable that you'll request the references." That's exactly why you *shouldn't* give them. Remember, if you give your former boss Gillian as a reference, you're inviting the prospective employer to pursue it -- to phone Gillian and ask her how you were as an employee. You don't want this happening until both you and the prospective employer agree that it's likely you'll be joining them. Otherwise, if you're such a hot prospect, Gillian is going to be wasting her time answering many calls from companies whose offers you would have rejected anyway. And then what if she changes her mind about just how smart you are? This argument does not apply to letters of reference; the decision as to whether to include those or not is simply a subdivision of the "terse or detailed resume" issue. Some employers will like one, some the other. -- Mark Brader "The job of an engineer is to build systems that utzoo!sq!msb people can trust. By this criterion, there exist msb@sq.com few software engineers." -- John Shore This article is in the public domain.