Vitaliy wrote: > SPELLING ERRORS > > Don't be afraid to spend some time on your resume - it is well worth > it. My big pet peeve is spelling errors, and our company follows a > "three strikes and you're out" policy. There's absolutely no reason > why your resume shouldn't be error-free -- you have all the time in > the world to proofread it, not to mention the spell checker. Why is it > important to employers? Because individuals who read a lot make few > spelling mistakes, and there is a direct corellation between reading > and intelligence. Sure, there are exceptions - but they are rare. One major exception is people with learning disabilities like dyslexia. I have a friend who's a self-taught wizard at everything from electronics to programming to Cisco VoIP technology, who can't spell things correctly at all. I learned later that he has struggled with his own dyslexia for his entire career... through getting his degree, to working as a network design engineer. He understands the importance of good spelling, and in this decade, spell-checkers are a lifesaver for day-to-day work for him, and he has friends and collegues proof-read his larger papers. I figure if he can do it, anyone can! I also learned long ago, if I have an idea for a project to run by him, it's useless for me to send him my notes -- but if I call him on the phone and he hears a bit of passion and interest in my voice, he'll listen for hours to my description of what I'm trying to accomplish, and 7/10 times he'll fully "get it" and have a prototype working before I can even find the time to start on it. Truly an amazing guy, and it took me almost 10 years of knowing him before he confided in me about the dyslexia. That particular disability can carry an enormous stigma with it in a technical career! When he was studying for some industry certifications in the IT world, he was truly frightened about the amount of background reading he had to do to see if he was ready to take the exams. Even though I have no reading problems, I've always sided toward auditory learning styles, and traditional mathmatics courses drive me batty. I found in college I had no problem understanding the material if someone could articulate it in understandable English, but the vast majority of math Professors, Teaching Assistants, and helpers are very far on the other side of the spectrum as visual learners, and have a very difficult time articulating what they truly do know and understand about the math they're trying to teach. I say "trying" to teach because my opinion of the matter is that if you can't get a fully-auditory learning person through a standard college level algebra class (just an example of a "simple" math class) with a good grade, you might be good at math, but you're not yet a good *teacher* of math. Professional teachers know about learning styles and adjust accordingly. TA's typically aren't professional teachers and are going to move along as soon as the doctoral or post-doc work at a particular institution is complete. Unfortunately today in the U.S., many math departments also have a large percentage of people from non-English speaking countries who are working their way through academic research here in the U.S. who have heavy accents, and the accent and the inability to clearly articulate their knowledge is a huge detriment for an auditory learner in an already heavily visual environment. It truly can make the student feel overwhelmed by the sensory input on even the simplest topics, if they can't fully understand what the instructor is saying. Luckily I know this about myself, and can plan appropriately if I ever find myself in any math course structured this way. I haven't been in one in a very long time, however. Nate -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist