FIRST IMPRESSIONS

In the past few weeks I have seen more than 100 resumes. One thing that has amazed me is the number of simple mistakes that appear, and I am not just talking about spelling or grammar. I always take into account that English is not the candidates first language, but someone who has graduated from the Thailand equivalent of Oxford or Cambridge with an degree in Business English should not be making those kind of errors.
Pretty much all of the applications include a photo - which is not especially common in the UK. I didn't specify a photo in the advertisement, and it's not a beauty contest so I don't pay any attention to it. I've received resumes in many formats including excel, PDFs and even one PowerPoint document. More than 95 per cent are plain and uninteresting, which means the other five per cent stand out, and stand a better chance of being selected for an interview.
Recruitment on the whole is progressing and I made three job offers on Friday; all to translators.