Questions About CV's and Resumes

Question

I've seen a few questions about CV's or Resumes. They generally are something like:

How can I improve this sentence for my resume? "I come to seeks opportunity, and am of bold character, for to have success in all of the goals I desire." Help me with seeks/seek and maybe "strong" instead of "bold"?

I think we do a disservice by answering such questions. We can help someone with fundamental issues with language, but a CV/Resume is a specialized document related to very important outcomes.

If a person asks to make a CV sentence sound better, I get this grating feeling that I don't want to help someone fix a sentence that shouldn't be going into a CV in the first place. Removing grammatical mistakes in something like this simply assures that trash cans get filled with more grammatically correct CV's.

Answer 1

Tough call here. On one hand, the Stack Exchange is supposed to be about helping to solve "actual problems that you face", and it's hard for me to come up with a better example of an "actual problem" than a sentence on a resumé.

On the other hand, I agree with you, and your questions brought to mind several legal disclaimers I've seen throughout the years, such as, "Please consult with your doctor," or "We are not a legal firm."

I wouldn't be in favor of closing questions simply because they are asking about a sentence on a draft CV. However, thanks to your question, I might consider appending one of my answers with a footnote, one that goes something like this:

I'm only addressing the language question you have asked here, and the alternatives I've provided are not necessarily the best sentences to include in a resumé or CV. We can answer questions about English, but you may want a professional career counselor to review your finished product. We cannot do that for you here; proofreading on ELL is considered off-topic.

Moreover, those who come here for advice should keep that in mind. We will answer an English question, even if that question stems from a line on your resumé, but we are not here to help you polish your resumé and get it ready for distribution.