2w ago

I've noticed a lot of UK job applications use the American MM/DD/YYYY date format and some also say "resume" instead of CV. Does that annoy you if you're British?

It annoys me even though I'm still in the U.S.

Edit: For everyone saying CVs and resumes are different, that might be literally the case, but that is not how job applications are using them. I just went to this one:

82 comments

The only correct format is from greatest to smallest: yyyy-mm-dd
This is, in my mind, verifiable by noting the way that lists are ordered when using this format. They are sequential. This isn’t true for either of the other formats.
- As a programmer I agree. I have fucked around with trying to parse unrestricted user inputs of dates and I have found out.
  Year first is the only way I can actually know which value is day vs. month.
- Yep, most to least significant is great because you can sort dates temporally with a numeric/string sort.
- Yes.
  If I saw that in a job advert I might just apply without reading the rest. I don't think I ever have though.
- It's great for lists but I don't know a single person who's gonna say "hey let's meet up on 2024 December 11th."
  
  Dates written in a numbers only format are not about matching the spoken language. You also would not say, "let's meet on twelve eleven twenty twentyfour."
  
  You must not know many programmers that have had to deal with American date formatting then.

When you are writing the date, the only correct way is ISO8601 (YYYY-MM-DD). If you’re speaking to someone (verbal communication) then do whatever you want.
- when making someone a cup of tea, the only correct way is ISO3103. if youre making it for yourself then do whatever you want.
  
  Holy shit, that ISO is real. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3103
- There is a reason though. It’s because you probably want to put dates in order and when you ask a computer to sort things for you, it will automatically order things correctly when the date follows this format. If you put the month first, then the day, then the year, the default sorting behavior will order things incorrectly chronologically speaking.
  
  when you ask a computer to sort things for you, it will automatically order things correctly when the date follows this format
  I'd go even further than that, and point out that the reason why computers sort things in this order is because that's the most logical way to convey specific dates.
  Most significant digits on the left, descending left to right, in order, is how we do all other numerical representations. It's only dates that we have different norms.
  
  Any important document I have is named 'yyyymmdd(number)(briefdescription)'. Sort by name or date, I don't care

MM/DD/YYYY would annoy me wherever it’s from, because it’s wilfully perverse.
- It's from the country that elected a pervert, so...
  
  Do you have any idea how little that narrow it down?
- It matches the speech order in English. Today is December eleventh, 2024.
  
  Where did you get this idea from? In British English 11th of December is more common. I'm open to the idea that American English does it differently and that's fine but to assert that the entire English speaking world does it like that is incorrect and ignorant.
  
  Maybe where you live, but no. Today is actually the 12th of december. Yanks like to say thats how it is but I have never, or rather rarely, heard them call their independence day July 4th. It's always 4th of July. So, no. Its not the speech order.
  
  Is there a Lemmy community for /c/ShitAmericansSay
  
  Nope. It's the 12th of December . Just like the 4th of July, or having Christmas "on the 25th"
  
  Not in nz

The date thing is infuriating because the American date format just shouldn't exist
- ISO is best. There's no debate there. From a data science perspective, YYYY/MM/DD is the only reasonable choice.
  But most of the time you're using dates, you're only concerned with the month and day. That's the very reason we don't use ISO in our daily lives. If you started every mention of a date with the year, people would think you're a crazy person, or a time traveler, or perhaps a recently-awakened coma patient. There's just no need to begin with the year. Next Wednesday, 2024 December 18.
  If you exclude the year, then the choice is month/day or day/month. Between the two, month/day is far more useful for the same reasons ISO is best. If I need both the month and the day, then I want the month first. The only time I would want the day first is if the month doesn't matter, and I can omit the month in that case. Giving me the day first and then the month forces me to wait for the month and then remember the day. It's inefficient transfer of information. If you exclude the year, MM/DD is objectively, if only marginally, better than DD/MM.
  But then why would anyone use MM/DD/(YY)YY? Because we're already using MM/DD.
  
  Ahem - there is a debate... it's over / vs. -. As is proper - all true debates should be over minor formatting decisions (soft tabs over my fucking dead body).
  
  I’ll see you on the 1st of the 1st.
  I see nothing wrong with that. The day number moves most frequently, so that should go first. The month moves second most frequently, so that should go second. Putting the month first makes it odd.
- The dates are written to match how it's said. In the US we say our dates as month day year, and before you say "But the 4th of July" my counterpoint is that the 4th of July takes place on July 4th. And Cinco de Mayo takes place on May 5th. And May the Fourth Be With You takes place on May 4th.
  
  I never thought of that. Thanks for the clarification.
- It just depends on how you say it out loud.
  Here in the us, we would say today is December 11th, so we write it the same way, 12/11.
  Other parts of the world would say today is the 11th of December, so they write it that way, 11/12.
- Its the ISO format everyone loves but from the time before digital computers needed to sort our dates, so we put the year at the end as it's generally the least important if something isn't digital
  I get not liking something cuz it's different, but it amazes me how many people pretend it's bad

I'm not from either place.
I was under the impression that a CV and a resume are different things. A CV is a general compilation of all things you've done, and a resume is a curated list used for applying to jobs.
I do know that they're used interchangeably for the most part, but this is how I was explained the difference in practice.
- They seem to be used interchangeably in the UK at the jobs I'm applying for, but what I have is definitely CV and not resume.
- No, they are the same thing.
  
  They are not
  
  Oh. Okay. So just different words? Like sidewalk & footpath?

It doesn't "annoy" me.
I like employers to be open and honest about their various incompetencies. Saves time.
There's a few other warning signs in that statement too - nice of them sift themselves out so quickly.
- This.

Without going into the rabbit hole of explaining:
Curriculum Vitae: all your education, training, experience, skills. Can be multiple pages. Resume: the highlights + relevant for the application. Preferred on one page. Resume goes on top of the CV.

They're similar, but used for different purposes. According to UC Davis (University of California), these are the differences
- "CV" is definitely not only used for academic positions in the UK. They almost always say CV instead of resume. That's much less common than the date format.

As for dates, it's possible it's stored as a raw date and downstairs for display. If that's the case it could be up to the browser to suggest a localization for form input and display. I can't say for that site you are using but it is possible.

I am from Europe. About the dates, for me it depends.
In personal things, I generally use the American date format because I got used to it. And when going through a list of things month first is often nicer to look at.
When giving something to someone else, I use date compatible with RFC3339 and ISO8601 standards (YYYY-MM-DD).
Quick comparison between the two: https://ijmacd.github.io/rfc3339-iso8601/
But people have questioned me about both, since DD. MM. [YY]YY is basically the only format used in my country, but I don't like it.

It's the same shit as the kids saying "candy" instead of sweets in the UK, and getting british accents from Peppa Pig in the US.
The date stuff is super stupid though :
Fuck the US date scheme
You don't need fucking day numbers for anything on your CV, except your DOB.
7th Jan 2007 . You're welcome, now it doesn't really matter which order you put the DD/MM
- 7th Jan 2007 . You're welcome, now it doesn't really matter which order you put the DD/MM
  But do you write September as Sep, or Sept? I’ve heard that this is also a British/USA thing
  
  doesn't matter in this context, both can be interpreted as the ninth month

academia in the us tends to use curiculum vitae.
- That's a different thing
  
  For everyone downvoting me, an American CV is different from a standard British CV or an American resume

Im british and yes that annoys me.

82 comments