Steve_

I would just avoid the issue altogether and get a US address. No point in making it needlessly complicated.

hungryhorace

But that doesn't prove status to work does it? Or is it a case of they will presume you're a US citizen / PR at the initial paper shift?

Steve_

What I do (with limited success) is submit it on A4 in countries that use letter-size paper and use letter-size paper in countries that use A4. That way if you put it in a stack it sticks out.

I wouldn't say it's helped me get jobs exactly but it did help me get interviews.

On the other hand, I've reviewed applications where people use coloured paper or use flowery imagery around the edges and that didn't impress me.

One of the worst things you can do imo is submit a résumé either using the default font (i.e. Times New Roman 12-point or Calibri 11-point) in Word or using one of the default templates. I remember once going through a stack of them and so many people had used the default Word résumé template they all came across as crap.

You want it to be unique enough that it stands out but not so unique that it is annoying and makes you think the person is a nutcase.

However the absolute #1 mistake you can make with your résumé is to not tailor it to the job you're applying for. I haven't got all day to read up on what the hell you did when you worked in a totally unrelated job or your degree in microbiology etc. Or references that are totally unrelated.

A lot of people just print off a stack and send them to all and sundry. If you don't care who you're sending them to, the people you're sending them to aren't going to care either.

Steve_

You don't have to prove legal status to apply for work. Moreover it's not legal for them to ask, because it can be construed as discrimination on the basis of national origin under the Civil Rights Act. National Origin Discrimination

The legality comes in at the point of signing the I-9, where the employer is then required by law to establish your eligibility.

Pulaski

The latter. Initial filtering and selection for interviews is, IME, rarely sophisticated. As a would-be immigrant, your goal is to blend in with the demographic herd, so far as possible, but be outstanding with respect to qualifications and experience.

hungryhorace

Have to say, I fundamentally disagree with this. Both fonts are 'default' for a reason. They are clear and legible. I would never penalise an applicant for using TNR or Calibri.

hungryhorace

Appreciate that, but don't employers think about that when performing a paper sort? I'm not condoning it, just being realistic.

Pulaski

It is entirely down to the screener/ interviewer. Funky fonts and coloured paper look naff to me, and "wrong" sized would just be irritating, but obviously these are personal factors, so it is a bit of a crap shoot.

My guess would be that applications for roles requiring creativity might be more effective with quirky résumés, whereas applications for roles requiring the stolid and reliable candidate might do better in Arial or TNR on white letter stock.

FWIW I use a heavy bond cotton paper for my CV/ résumé.

hungryhorace

But neither Calibri nor Times New Roman are 'funky' fonts. They are standard serif fonts that are widely used for legibility. If the person was using Arial Narrow for example - a font designed for headlines - I'd dismiss their CV. But TNR or Calibri? Absolutely not. They are specifically designed for body text.

Pulaski

Agreed on all counts, and I didn't (mean to appear to) say otherwise.

If I was working in marketing I might look favourably on a résumé in Comic Sans Serif or Blackadder ITC, but personally I find anything that is not in Arial, TNR, or something very similar to be irritating in a "Hey! Look at me!" kind of way.

scrubbedexpat099

I live on the edge, Arial for me.

Would not someone with all these awards etc have many contacts to be utilised in such circumstances?

Also amused about the biter bit.

Pulaski

I can explain it better, most people apply for jobs they are not qualified for.

My experience is, going back more than 15 years in the UK, and the US, that 90-95% of applications are from people who have ZERO relevant skills, experience, or qualifications gor the position they're applying for. I have heard/ read reports/ studies that say the same thing, that the overwhelming majority of applications are a waste of time, and paper/postage, or electrons.

yellowroom

My favourite (not) practice is when agencies are used to recruit for a difficult position, and they don't make that clear in the job advert.

I once turned up for a job interview and unknown to me the agency had "re-presented" my CV in the agency template. Luckily it was my listed experience that got me the interview, as the agency had riddled the document with typos in the re-presenting - for a job where attention to detail was absolutely key!

Once I worked out what had happened, I gave the interviewers a copy of my version of the CV that I had taken with me and it seemed to go ok after that - well it must have done because I got the job.

Shouted a lot at the agency afterwards though, and they didn't seem overly concerned either.

For the purposes of the ongoing discussion - this was in the UK, so my version was a standard 2 page format in Arial on white A4, tweaked to match the requirements laid out in the job advert. I do find that in the US, candidates' resumes are more generic and can run on a bit to several pages with way more detail than you'd get in the UK.

md95065

Sorry, but the idea of hard copy resumes printed out on actual dead trees just seems really quaint.

I do a lot of resume screening and interviewing and, by the time that I see them they are all online - and its been that way for pretty much the last 10 years.

As for fonts and layout I really don't care unless they depart so far from the norm that they make the thing hard to read - in which case, of course, it is a negative ...

Bob

Which is great in theory.

Reality is, you're in the bin and have no explanation of it and can't afford to sue them over it.

So you might as well make it easy for them to not automatically discount you, which when all the experience is outside of the US, will likely be doing.