Method of Resume Reproduction and Evaluations of Employment Suitability

Abstract

Personnel professionals and college undergraduates evaluated the credentials of jobcandidates whose résumés had been reproduced under four distinct conditions: professionallytypeset and printed on tan paper; professionally printed on high-quality white paper buttaken from a camera-ready typed original; photocopied on a high quality, clean machine; andphotocopied on a poor quality, somewhat dirty machine. Professionals judged an individualmore negatively when a poor photocopy was presented and showed modest preferences forthe professionally prepared résumés over the good photocopy. Students' evaluations, however, did not differ reliably as a function of the four methods of reproduction. Implicationsof this difference in the reactions of students and professionals are discussed.