As microblogging continues to take a front seat for “hottest communication fad", it's also causing some stress among marketing and public relations employers.Going through a number of informational interviews, career development sessions and my own family’s reflections on my resume, I learned the zero tolerance policy of “typos.” Yet, we are seeing it more and more on resumes. Could it be that this has something to do with how tweets on Twitter are composed? True, SMS or text came long before Twitter was introduced – though people have been chit-chatting it up and sharing information for centuries in coffee shops, sports arenas, office environments, and the online version of this is called Twitter.
The bottom line is this: Twitter wasn’t meant for typos; that’s just what happens when you have 140 characters to get your message across. But “Plz”, “thx”, a miss of the word “the” are not only seen on Twitter feeds. They’re in resumes and cover letters. The lack of consideration or professionalism is also manifested in the utterance of a young/Gen Y job candidate saying, “This is sweet!” instead of “Thanks I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with me.”
What’s more evidence of this concern? This article, and a number of university reports showing communications students graduating with poor writing skills, which has been an ongoing concern. Honestly, what is the other side of this argument? (I’d really like to know in order to be better informed on this issue).
If you are looking for a job at a communications firm, please remember that just because you are ripe on social media in your resume doesn’t make it a guarantee that you are good at communication. “Traditional” still stands, so avoid the typos and lack of consideration for grammatical missteps.
Thx 4 ur consideration!