I do contracting in NYC (similarly to what you do) and even though I submit my resume through email, I was always asked to come with printed version when I was called for an in-person interview.
It helps to have multiple printed copies of your resume, references, and the position you're applying for. The printed resume is the most essential because you may interview with several people in succession and go through 3+ copies of your resume easily.
Absolutely true. Several years ago I had a recruiter hounding for nearly two months(calling me multiple times per week) me to go on interviews that didn't appeal to me despite the fact that I made my expectations clear. I finally relented and went on one that seemed the most reasonable of the bunch. Late in the interview, we found a few a changes that the recruiter had made, including lying about my education history. The interviewer must have chewed them out because I didn't hear back from them at any point after that.
This just happened to me a week ago. One interviewer I spoke to didn't have a copy and luckily I had a few in my folder with me. It shows preparedness on your part as an interviewee.
Not to mention that A) they might go through your CV there and then, and it's easier for you to answer questions if you have a copy and B) recruitment agencies tend to mangle CVs, I like to turn up with a nice LaTeX produced CV to replace the pasted-into-Word monstrosity they usually have before them.
Same here, happened today.
Over the past few weeks I had pretty much decided my printed resume was a waste, but I kept bringing them 'just in case'.
Today, first case out of maybe 10-15 where I needed a printed copy. However, I was talking to the founder... so it definitely was worth it. Again, it would have taken a minute to print a copy in the office, but it shows a nice touch of forethought... IMO.
At the very least, I like to have a copy to help meyself follow along.
When I interviewed at Google one of the interviewers asked me for a copy of my resume. I gave them one of the five that I had printed out the night before and placed into my notebook.
> That was funny but seriously, when you go for your interview, it's common courtesy to have a printed copy of your resume on hand in case the interviewer didn't have time to print out a copy to review before meeting you.
> I went for an interview recently and was berated by the interviewer when I didn't come with a printed copy - he had come straight from a meeting to interview me in the lobby and had neither access to his email nor a hard copy of the resume on hand and felt it was my responsibility to provide it - which i agree with.
> The interview was kind of a disaster because I had to recount my entire work history without anything that he could use to keep track of what I was talking about while I spoke - or even to make notes.
I respectfully disagree.
If a potential employer berated me for not doing his preparation for him I'd simply get up and walk out.
An interview is a two-way process. The prospective employee's responsibility is to show up on time, be respectfully presented and to be prepared and attentive (eg turn off your damn phone). The employer likewise has a responsibility to show up on time and be prepared.
I don't really care if you came from a meeting or have a bunch of interviews and can't remember who is who. That's your problem. If you're not organized to know who you're going to be spending 30-60 minutes talking to then why on earth would I, as the candidate, have any faith in your ability to manage what you're actually meant to be doing?
While that may be desirable, reality would depend on whether unemployment is high or low. If there's too few people to fill jobs, then this will absolutely be the result. If there's too many people to fill jobs, then it won't.
It's like an article I read a while ago about the dating scene in universities. A few years ago, there came to be more girls than guys in universities, and so the average guy could afford to become a slob and still attract the attention of pretty girls. It's just a matter of supply and demand.
As we often are in HN, you are really bogged down in this techie world we live in. In most places, for most jobs, people are expected to come in with a paper resume (I volunteer at a place that does job placement for international visitors, and we had some stats on it).
This is a great service/brand builder at low cost.
In the UK, a CV is the catch-all term for what's called a resume in the US. Conventional wisdom is that it shouldn't be longer than 2 sides of A4 paper.
I wish some of the people that have submitted CVs to me knew that "conventional wisdom". There's nothing quite like trawling through someone's entire detailed job history, including an exhaustive list of their responsibilities at Big Fat Burger when they were at college.
I once applied for a job that stipulated "all CVs longer than one side will be ignored". I got through to the interview and commented on what a good idea that was. He said, "you wouldn't believe how many we get that are still 5 sides long......".
What if your job history is relevant to the position at hand? Do you submit a shortened resume with the points that you would like the respective company to see and bring a copy of the longer one in case they ask?
This appears to be UK only. Apparently Staples did a similar promotion for US-based stores a couple of years ago (along with free business card printing)
Do they also allow you to browse Altavista, Lycos, Excite and AskJeeves and use ICQ for free too?