Using a spell checker helps improve your employment chances

Spelling is an important part of many different aspects of life, but no more so than in the world of job hunting. In a time when jobs are in short supply, and the number of unemployed people in America is rising daily, something as simple as correct spelling can help you stand out from the crowd.
If you put yourself in the shoes of a potential employer who has dozens of applications to sort through to create an interview shortlist, the first place you will start is by looking at the quality of the applications. The ability to use a computer is essential in nearly every job, and someone who hasn’t even bothered to use a spell checker will probably not make the cut. Every word processing program, even those that come pre-installed on the most basic machines, will contain a spell checker of some sort, and it is a second’s work to run the program.
Relying too heavily on a spell checker can be dangerous, however. Homophones, which are words that sound alike but are spelled differently (like their and there) slip under the radar. The program will only read each word by itself and compare it to a database of approved words. It does not take into account the context of the piece, nor does it allow for deliberately misspelled words, as you would find in a direct quotation. Grammar checkers will uncover most common mistakes (e.g. it’s and its), but again won’t pick up on the more complex issues.
This is why it is important to go over your own work thoroughly before submitting it, and to get someone else to proofread it for you. They will hopefully pick up on spelling and grammatical errors that you may have missed, or that you may not even be aware of.