Completing Business Messages and Crafting Messages for Digital Channels

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Business Communication Essentials

Eighth Edition

Chapter 13

Building Careers and Writing Résumés

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Learning Objectives (1 of 2)

13.1 List eight key steps to finding the ideal opportunity in today’s job market.

13.2 Explain the process of planning your résumé, including how to choose the best résumé organization.

Learning Objectives (2 of 2)

13.3 Describe the tasks involved in writing your résumé, and list the sections to consider including in your résumé.

13.4 Characterize the completing step for résumés, including the six most common formats in which you can produce a résumé.

13.5 Identify nine tips for creating a successful LinkedIn profile.

Finding the Ideal Opportunity in Today’s Job Market

LO 13.1 List eight key steps to finding the ideal opportunity in today’s job market.

Identifying and landing a job can be a long and challenging process. Fortunately, the skills you’re developing in this course will give you a competitive advantage. This section offers a general job-search strategy with advice that applies to just about any career path you might want to pursue.

Crafting a Personal Strategy

Organize Your Job Search

Get Started Now and Stick to It

Seek Stepping-Stone Opportunities

As you craft your personal strategy, keep these three guidelines in mind:

Get organized. Your job search could last many months and involve multiple contacts with dozens of companies. You need to keep all the details straight to make sure you don’t miss opportunities or make mistakes such as losing someone’s email address or forgetting an appointment.

Start now and stick to it. Even if you are a year or more away from graduation, now is not too early to get started with some of the essential research and planning tasks. If you wait until the last minute, you will miss opportunities, and you won’t be as prepared as the candidates you’ll be competing against.

Look for stepping-stone opportunities. You might need to take a job that doesn’t meet your expectations while you keep looking to get on the right track. But view every job as an opportunity to learn workplace skills, observe effective and ineffective business practices, and fine-tune your sense of how you’d like to spend your career.

Writing “The Story of You”

Explore the Possibilities

What are you passionate about?

What skills do you possess?

Find Your Passion

How can you help the organization?

Identify Career Paths

What experiences have you had?

What do you want in the future?

Take the time you have now to explore the possibilities, to find your passion, and identify appealing career paths.

Writing “the story of you” is a valuable planning exercise that can help you think about where you want to go and how to present yourself to target employers. Begin by writing the things you are passionate about, the skills you possess, your ability to help an organization reach its goals, your experiences so far, and the path you want to follow in the future. Think in terms of an image or a theme you’d like to project. Are you academically gifted? An effective leader? A creative problem solver? A technical wizard?

Learning to Think Like an Employer

Quality of Hire

Your Ability to Perform

Your Overall Reliability

Your Motivation Level

Look at the hiring equation from an employer’s perspective. To begin with, recognize that companies take risks with every hiring decision—the risk that the person hired may not meet expectations and the risk that they could let a better candidate slip through their fingers. Many companies judge the success of their recruiting efforts by quality of hire, a measure of how closely new employees meet the company’s needs.

Of course, your perceived ability to perform the job is an essential part of your potential quality as a new hire. However, hiring managers consider more than just your ability to handle the job. They want to know if you’ll be reliable and motivated; that is, if you’re somebody who “gets it” when it comes to being a professional in today’s workplace.

Researching Industries and Companies of Interest

Company Websites

Customers

Job-Search Websites

Periodicals and Newspapers

Blogs and Podcasts

Job Search Apps

Learning more about professions, industries, and individual companies is a vital step. Don’t limit your research to easily available sources, such as company websites. Companies are likely to be impressed by creative research, such as interviewing their customers to learn more about how the firm does business.

There are many websites where you can learn more about companies and find job openings. Start with The Riley Guide, which offers advice for online job searches as well as links to hundreds of specialized websites that post openings in specific industries and professions. To learn more about contemporary business topics, peruse some periodicals and newspapers with significant business sections. In addition, thousands of bloggers and podcasters offer news and commentary on the world of business. Take advantage of job search apps as well, including those offered by job posting websites and major employers.

Taking the Initiative to Find Opportunities

Target Companies of Interest

Contact Human Resources

Contact Company Managers

Describe What You Can Offer

Ask to Be Considered for Opportunities

When it comes to finding the right opportunities for you, the easiest ways are not always the most productive. Major job boards such as Monster and classified services such as Craigslist might have thousands of openings—but thousands of job seekers are looking at and applying for these same openings. Moreover, posting job openings on these sites is often a company’s last resort, after it has exhausted other possibilities.

Instead of searching through the same job openings as everyone else, take the initiative and go find opportunities. Identify the companies you want to work for and focus your efforts on them. Get in touch with their human resources departments (or individual managers if possible), describe what you can offer the company, and ask to be considered if any opportunities come up. Reach out to company representatives on social networks. Your message might appear right when a company is busy looking for someone but hasn’t yet advertised the opening to the outside world.

Building Your Network

Reach Out to Your Classmates

Target Professions, Industries, Companies

Use Online Sources and Social Media

Join Student Business Organizations

Attend Industry Trade Shows

Participate in Volunteer Activities

Networking is the process of making informal connections with mutually beneficial business contacts. Networking takes place wherever and whenever people talk: at industry functions, at social gatherings, at alumni reunions, and all over the Internet.

Start building your network now. Your classmates could end up being valuable contacts. Then branch out by identifying people with similar interests in your target professions, industries, and companies. Read news sites, blogs, and other online sources. Follow industry leaders on Twitter. Connect with people on LinkedIn and Facebook, particularly in groups dedicated to particular career interests.

Participate in student business organizations. Visit trade shows to learn about various industries and rub shoulders with people who work in those industries. Don’t overlook volunteering; you not only meet people but also show your ability to solve problems, manage projects, and lead people.

Networking Etiquette

Be Polite

Don’t Speaker Poorly of Employers

Respect the Time of Others

Stay Away from Controversial Topics

Follow Through on Promises

Follow Up after Meeting People

Remember that networking is about people helping each other, not just about other people helping you. Pay close attention to networking protocol.

Be polite. Not only is it the professional way to behave but also people are more inclined to help those who are positive and respectful.

Don’t speak poorly of current or past employers as it harms your reputation.

Respect other people’s time. Don’t inundate people with messages, questions, or requests for help.

Stay away from politics and other volatile topics. You are building a business network, not a circle of friends.

Follow through on promises. If you agree to something make sure you do it.

Follow up after meeting people. If you meet someone with shared interests, send a brief message within a day or two to solidify the connection. To become a valued network member, you need to be able to help others in some way. The more you network, the more valuable you become in your network—and the more valuable your network becomes to you.

Finally, be aware that your online network reflects who you are in the eyes of potential employers, so exercise some judgment in making connections.

Seeking Career Counseling

College Career Centers and Online Sources

Job-Search Techniques

Résumé Preparation

Job Readiness Training

Interview Techniques

Self-Marketing Skills

Your college’s career center probably offers a wide variety of services, including individual counseling, job fairs, on-campus interviews, and job listings. Counselors can give you advice on career planning and provide workshops in job search techniques, résumé preparation, job readiness training, interview techniques, self-marketing, and more. You can also find career planning advice online.

Avoiding Mistakes

Overlooking Résumé Errors

Misspelling the Hiring Manager’s Name

Arriving Late for an Interview

Tweeting Something Unprofessional

Completing Application Forms Incorrectly

Not Doing Your Own Research

While you’re making all these positive moves to show employers that you will be a quality hire, take care to avoid the simple blunders that can torpedo a job search:

Not catching mistakes in your résumé

Misspelling the name of a manager to whom you’re writing

Showing up late for an interview

Tweeting something unprofessional, or failing to complete application forms correctly

Asking for information that you can easily find yourself on a company’s website, or making any other error that could flag you as someone who is careless or disrespectful

Busy recruiters will seize on these errors as a way to narrow the list of candidates they need to spend time on. Don’t give them a reason to toss out your résumé.

Summary of Discussion (1 of 8)

In this section, we discussed the following:

Creating a Personal Strategy

Writing “The Story of You”

Learning to Think Like an Employer

Researching Industries and Companies of Interest

Translating Your Potential into a Specific Solution for Employers

Summary of Discussion (2 of 8)

Taking the Initiative to Find Opportunities

Building Your Network

Networking Etiquette

Seeking Career Counseling

Avoiding Mistakes

The next section will cover Planning Your Résumé.

Planning Your Résumé

LO 13.2 Explain the process of planning your résumé, including how to choose the best résumé organization.

Although you will create many messages during your career search, your résumé will be the most important document in this process. You will be able to use it directly in many instances, adapt it to a variety of uses such an e-portfolio or a social media résumé, and reuse pieces of it in social networking profiles and online application forms.

You will find a wide range of opinions about résumés. When you hear conflicting advice, remember the most important question in business communication: What is the most effective way to adapt your message to the individual needs of each member of your audience? Get inside the heads of the people you are trying to reach—try to think the way they think—and then apply the principles of effective communication you are learning in this course.

Three-Step Résumé Process

Plan

Analyze Situation

Gather Information

Choose Media and Channels

Get Organized

Write

Adapt to the Audience

Compose the Message

Complete

Revise Message

Produce Message

Proofread Message

Distribute Message

Writing a résumé is one of those projects that really benefits from multiple planning, writing, and completing sessions. Follow the three-step writing process, and it will be easier than you think:

Planning résumés. First, analyze the situation, recognizing that the purpose of your résumé is to get an interview, not to get a job. As you gather information, research target industries, learn about various jobs and what to expect, and learn about the hiring managers, if possible. In order to choose the best medium, start with a traditional, paper résumé, then develop scannable, plain text, HTML, and PDF versions, as needed. Choose a model of organization that highlights your strengths and downplays your shortcomings; use the chronological approach, unless you have a good reason not to.

Writing résumés. Adapt to your audience by planning to catch a recruiter’s eye within seconds. In order to do so, translate your education and experience into attributes that employers value. Write clearly and succinctly as you compose your message by using language that is appropriate to the companies and industries you are targeting; moreover, use a professional tone.

Completing résumés. After writing your first draft, revise your résumé to make sure it is clear, concise, and correct. Next, produce your résumé, giving it an attractive, professional appearance. Proofread the final product for typos, spelling errors, and other mechanical problems. Finally, distribute your résumé following the specific instructions of each employer or job-search website.

The Three-Step Writing Process for Résumés

Use the three-step writing process to develop a resume, much like you would any other document.

Analyzing Your Purpose and Audience

Understanding Purpose of a Résumé

A Brief Persuasive Business Message

Stimulate Interest; Get You an Interview

Learning About Your Audience

Professions, Industries, and Companies

Those Who May be Reading Your Résumé

Before you begin writing a résumé, make sure you understand its true function—as a brief, persuasive business message intended to stimulate an employer’s interest in meeting you and learning more about you. In other words, the purpose of a résumé is not to get you a job but to get you an interview.

As you conduct your research on various professions, industries, companies, and individual managers, learn as much as you can about the individuals who may be reading your résumé. Many professionals and managers are bloggers, Twitter users, and LinkedIn members, for example, so you can learn more about them online even if you’ve never met them. Any bit of information can help you craft a more effective message.

Gathering Pertinent Information

Employment

Dates and Duties

Accomplishments

Education

Degrees and Certificates

Awards and Scholarships

Volunteering

Offices You’ve Held

Presentations/Publications

If you have not been keeping a log or journal of your accomplishments so far, you may need to do some research on yourself.

Gather all the information you need to document your work and education history, including all the specific dates, duties, and accomplishments from any previous jobs you have held.

Itemize your educational experience, including degrees, skills certificates, academic awards, and scholarships.

Also, gather information about school or volunteer activities that might be relevant to your job search, including offices you have held in any club or professional organization, presentations given, and online or print publications.

You probably won’t use every piece of information you come up with, but you’ll want to have it at your fingertips.

Selecting the Best Media and Channels

Printed Traditional

Printed Scannable

Electronic Plain Text

MS Word File

Online Version

PDF File

You should expect to produce your résumé in several media and formats—printed traditional résumé, printed scannable résumé, electronic plain-text file, MS Word file, online résumé, or PDF file. Whatever the format may be, remember that effective résumé designs are simple, clean, and professional.

Organizing Your Résumé Around Your Strengths

Typical Résumé Formats

Chronological Style

Functional Style

Combination Style

Although you will see a number of ways to organize a résumé, most are some variation of chronological, functional, or a combination of the two. The right choice depends on your background and your goals.

The Chronological Résumé

Emphasize Employment Experience

Name and Location of Employers

Job Titles and Dates of Employment

Highlights of Your Accomplishments

Use Reverse Chronological Order

The chronological approach is the most common way to organize a résumé. Many employers prefer this format because it presents your professional history in a clear, easy-to-follow arrangement. If you’re just graduating from college and have limited professional experience, you can vary this chronological approach by putting your educational qualifications before your experience.

The work experience section dominates and is placed immediately after your contact information and introductory statement. Develop your work experience section by listing your jobs in reverse chronological order, beginning with the most recent one and giving more space to the most recent positions you’ve held. For each job, start by listing the employer’s name and location, your official job title, and the dates you held the position. (Write “to present” if you are still in your most recent job.) Next, in a short block of text, highlight your accomplishments in a way that is relevant and understandable to your readers.

Each section should be written in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent and working backwards.

The Functional Résumé

Emphasize Skills and Accomplishments

Show What You Can Do

Emphasize Earlier Job Experience

Deemphasize Gaps in Work History

A functional résumé emphasizes skills and accomplishments, identifying employers and academic experience in subordinate sections. This pattern stresses individual areas of competence, so it’s useful for people who are just entering the job market, want to redirect their careers, or have little continuous career-related experience.

The functional approach also has three advantages: (1) without having to read through job descriptions, employers can see what you can do for them; (2) you can emphasize earlier job experience; and (3) you can deemphasize any lack of career progress or lengthy unemployment.

However, you should be aware that because the functional résumé can obscure your work history, many employment professionals are suspicious of it. Moreover, it lacks the evidence of job experience that supports your skills claims.

The Combination Résumé

Blend Chronological and Functional

Highlight Your Capabilities

Highlight Your Education

Minimize Employer Concerns

A combination résumé meshes the skills focus of the functional format with the job history focus of the chronological format. The chief advantage of this format is that it allows you to highlight your capabilities and education when you don’t have a long or steady employment history, without raising concerns that you might be hiding something about your past.

Addressing Areas of Concern

Slow Career Growth

Frequent Job Changes

Gaps in Work History

Overall Level of Experience

Long Term with One Employer

Job Termination for Cause

Record of Criminal Activity

Many people have career issues that could be a concern for employers. Here are some common issues and suggestions for handling them in a résumé:

Frequent job changes. If you’ve had a number of short-term jobs of a similar type, such as independent contracting and temporary assignments, try to group them under a single heading. Also, if past job positions were eliminated as a result of layoffs or mergers, find a subtle way to convey that information (if not in your résumé, then in your cover letter). Reasonable employers understand that many professionals have been forced to “job hop” by circumstances beyond their control.

Gaps in work history. Mention relevant experience and education you gained during employment gaps, such as volunteer or community work.

Experience level. If you are inexperienced, mention related volunteer work and membership in professional groups. List relevant course work and internships. To avoid being perceived as overqualified, tone down your résumé, focusing exclusively on the experience and skills that relate to the position.

Long-term employment with one company. Itemize each position held at the firm to show “interior mobility” and increased responsibilities.

Job termination for cause. Be honest with interviewers. Show that you are a hard-working employee. Counter their concerns with recommendations and examples of completed projects.

Criminal record. Consider sending out a “broadcast letter” about your skills and experience, rather than a résumé and cover letter. Prepare answers to questions that interviewers will probably pose.

Summary of Discussion (3 of 8)

In this section, we discussed the following:

The Three-Step Résumé Process

Analyzing Your Purpose and Audience

Gathering Pertinent Information

Selecting the Best Media and Channels

Organizing Your Résumé around Your Strengths

Summary of Discussion (4 of 8)

The Chronological Résumé

The Functional Résumé

The Combination Résumé

Addressing Areas of Concern

The next section will cover Writing Your Résumé.

Writing Your Résumé

LO 13.3 Describe the task involved in writing your résumé and list the sections to consider including in your résumé.

If you feel uncomfortable writing about yourself, you’re not alone. Many people, even accomplished writers, find it difficult to write their own résumés. If you get stuck, imagine you are somebody else, writing a résumé for this person called you. By “being your own client” in this sense, you might find the words and ideas flow more easily. You could also find a classmate or friend who is writing a résumé and swap projects for a while. By working on each other’s résumés, you might be able to speed up the process for both of you.

Keeping Your Résumé Honest

Background Checks

Workplace References

Criminal Records

Verify Employment History

Interview Questions

Somehow, the idea that “everybody lies on their résumés” has crept into popular consciousness, and dishonesty in the job search process has reached epidemic proportions. A recent study uncovered lies about work history in over 40 percent of the résumés tested.

If you are tempted to stretch the truth, bear in mind that professional recruiters have seen every trick in the book, and employers who are fed up with the dishonesty are getting more aggressive at uncovering the truth. Nearly all employers do some form of background checking, such as contacting references, verifying employment, checking criminal records, and sending résumés through verification services. Furthermore, employers are beginning to use interview questions specifically intended to uncover dishonest résumé entries.

Over 90 percent of companies that find lies on résumés refuse to hire the offending applicants. Even if you get past these filters with fraudulent information, you’ll probably be exposed on the job when you can't live up to your own résumé. Given the networked nature of today’s job market, lying on a résumé could haunt you for years.

Adapting Your Résumé to the Audience

Adjust Your Terminology

Translate Your Experience

In a competitive job market, the more you look like a good fit, the better your chances will be of securing interviews. Address your readers’ business concerns by showing how your capabilities meet the demands and expectations of the position and the organization as a whole.

An essential step in adapting your résumé is using the same terminology as the employer uses to describe job responsibilities and professional accomplishments. With the rise of automated applicant tracking systems, matching your language to the employer’s will help you get past the keyword filters these systems use to rank incoming résumés. In addition, use what you’ve learned about your target readers to translate your experience into the terminology of the hiring organization.

Reposition Yourself For Available Opportunities

Every time you send out a copy of your resume, it should be adjusted so that it highlights those skills and abilities that will be of most interest to the audience. Mirror key words and phrases from the job posting.

An important aspect of an employer’s quality-of-hire challenge is determining how well a candidate’s attributes and experience will translate into the demands of a specific position. Customizing your résumé to each job opening is an important step in showing employers that you will be a good fit. From your initial contact and all the way through the interviewing process, you will have opportunities to impress recruiters by explaining how your general potential translates to the specific needs of the position.

Composing Your Résumé

Use a simple, direct style.

Use short phrases, not whole sentences.

Start phrases with action verbs.

Provide specific supporting evidence.

Include business or technical keywords.

Write your résumé using a simple and direct style. Use short phrases instead of whole sentences and focus on what your reader needs to know. Avoid using the word I, which can sound both self-involved and repetitious by the time you outline all your skills and accomplishments. Instead, start your phrases with strong action verbs.

Providing specific supporting evidence is vital. Select the most compelling evidence so that your message is clear and immediate.

The particular words and phrases in your résumé are critically important. The majority of résumés are now subjected to keyword searches, in which a recruiter searches for résumés most likely to match the requirements of a particular job. In contrast to the action verbs that catch a human reader’s attention, keywords are usually nouns. Keywords can include the business and technical terms associated with a specific profession, industry-specific jargon, names or types of products or systems used in a profession, job titles, and college degrees.

Essential Résumé Elements

Name and Contact Information

Brief Introductory Statement

Educational Background

Experience, Skills, Accomplishments

Activities and Achievements

Avoid Personal Data and References

The first thing an employer needs to know is your contact information: your name, address, phone number, and email address.

In the brief introductory statement that follows your contact information, include one of three types of statement:

A career objective identifies either a specific job you want or a general career you want to pursue.

A qualifications summary offers a brief capsule view of your key qualifications.

A career summary recaps your career with the goal of presenting increasing levels of responsibility and performance.

If you're a student or recent graduate, education is probably your strongest selling point. Present your educational background in depth, choosing facts that support your theme. The education section also can include off-campus training sponsored by business or government. If you don’t state your GPA, be prepared to discuss it during the interview process.

Focus the work experience section on your overall theme in a way that shows how your past can contribute to an employer’s future. Call attention to your workplace skills and your ability to handle responsibility. Emphasize your accomplishments in each position, not just the generic responsibilities of the job.

List your jobs in reverse chronological order. Devote the most space to the jobs that are recent or closely related to your target position. Include military service, internships, and part-time or temporary jobs related to your career objective. Include the name and location of the employer. If readers won’t recognize the organization, briefly describe what it does.

List activities and achievements outside of a work context, if they’re relevant to the job you’re seeking. Include activities that highlight your skills as a leader, communicator, or team player. If you don’t have much job experience, include involvement in athletics or other organized activities, as well as publications or projects that required relevant business skills.

As a rule, your résumé shouldn’t include personal data beyond the information noted in the previous sections. Don’t put “references available upon request” at the end of your résumé. However, be sure to have a list of several references ready when you begin applying for jobs.

Summary of Discussion (5 of 8)

In this section, we discussed the following:

Keeping Your Résumé Honest

Adapting Your Résumé to the Audience

Composing Your Résumé

Essential Résumé Elements

The next section will cover Completing Your Résumé.

Completing Your Résumé

LO 13.4 Characterize the completing step for résumés, including the six most common formats in which you can produce a résumé.

Completing your résumé involves revising it for optimum quality, producing it in the various forms and media you’ll need, and proofreading it for any errors before distributing it or publishing it online.

Revising Your Résumé

Ease of Finding Information

Your Top Skills

Your Current Job

Your Education

Overall Length

Years of Experience

Higher-Level Jobs

Technical Jobs

Remember the fundamental purpose of the résumé—which is to get you an interview, not to get you a job.

Recruiters and hiring managers want to find your top skills, your current job, and your education in a matter of seconds. If this information is hard to find, they’ll toss your résumé aside and move on to the next one. Therefore, revising your résumé for clarity and conciseness is essential. Weed out details and irrelevant information until your résumé is tight, clear, and focused.

The ideal length of your résumé depends on the depth of your experience and the level of the positions for which you are applying.

As a rule, if you have fewer than five years of professional experience, keep your conventional résumé to one page.

If you have more experience and are applying for a higher-level position, you may need to prepare a somewhat longer résumé.

For highly technical positions, longer résumés are often the norm because the qualifications for such jobs can require more description.

For online résumé formats, you can always provide links to additional information.

Producing Your Résumé

Optimal Résumé Design

Clean

Professional Looking

Skimmable

No matter how many media and formats you eventually choose for producing your résumé, a clean, professional-looking design is a must. Recruiters and hiring managers typically want to skim your essential information in a matter of seconds, and anything that distracts or delays them will work against you.

Choosing a Design Strategy

Focus on These

Audience

Goals

Resources

Avoid These

Trendy

Flashy

Different

You’ll find a wide range of résumé designs in use today, from text-only examples that follow a conventional layout to full-color infographics with unique designs. Don’t choose a style just because it seems trendy, flashy, or different. Instead, keep your audience, goals, and resources in mind. If the intended audience expects you to have design skills, you can show them in your résumé. In most cases, however, use a classic, conservative design that features a simple, easy-to-read layout, effective use of white space, and clear typefaces.

You can produce your résumé in a variety of formats—printed traditional, printed scannable, plain-text file, MS Word file, online résumé, PDF file. Find out what each employer or job posting website expects, and provide your résumé in that specific format.

Considering Photos, Videos, Presentations, and Infographics

Support for Résumés

Opportunities

Social Media

Flexible Format

Multimedia Elements

Compelling Content

Challenges

Discrimination

Ease of Evaluation

Habits of Recruiters

Applicant Tracking

As you produce your résumé, you will encounter the question of whether to include your photograph on or with your résumé.

For print/electronic résumés that you will be submitting to employers or job websites, the safest advice is to avoid photos. Seeing photos of candidates early in the selection process exposes employers to complaints of discriminatory hiring practices. However, photographs are acceptable and expected for social media résumés and other online formats where you are not actively submitting a résumé to an employer.

Some applicants create PowerPoint or Prezi presentations to supplement a conventional résumé. Two key advantages of presentations are flexibility and multimedia capabilities.

A video résumé can be a compelling supplement as well, but be aware that some employment law experts advise employers not to view videos. In addition, videos are more cumbersome to evaluate than paper or electronic résumés, and some recruiters refuse to watch them. However, not all companies share this concern over videos, so you’ll have to research their individual preferences.

An infographic résumé attempts to convey a person’s career development and skill set graphically through a visual metaphor. An infographic could be appropriate for certain situations and professions. However, infographics are likely to be incompatible with most applicant tracking systems and with the screening habits of most recruiters.

Printing a Traditional or Scannable Résumé

Traditional

Important Elements:

High Quality Paper

Neutral Color Paper

Scannable

Important Elements:

Keyword Summary

Simple Format

The traditional paper résumé still has a place in this world of electronic job searches, if only to have a few ready whenever one of your networking contacts asks for a copy. When printing a traditional résumé, avoid the low-cost, bond paper intended for general office use and gimmicky papers with borders and backgrounds. Choose a heavier, higher-quality paper designed specifically for résumés and other important documents. White or slightly off-white is the best color choice. Make sure the printer you use is well maintained and has adequate toner or ink.

You might encounter a company that prefers scannable résumés, a type of printed résumé that is specially formatted to be compatible with optical scanning systems that convert printed documents to electronic text. These systems were quite common just a few years ago, but their use is declining rapidly as more employers prefer email delivery or website application forms. A scannable résumé differs from the traditional format in two major ways: it should always include a keyword summary (employers search on these terms to find promising candidates), and it should be formatted in a simpler fashion that avoids underlining, special characters, and other elements that can confuse the scanning system.

Creating a Plain-Text File of Your Résumé

Include Your Résumé in the Body of an Email

Cut and Paste Résumé Parts into an Application

A plain-text file (sometimes known as an ASCII text file) is an electronic version of your résumé that has no font formatting, no bullet symbols, no colors, no lines or boxes, and no other special formatting. The plain-text version can be used in two ways. First, you can include it in the body of an email message, for employers who want email delivery but don’t want file attachments. Second, you can copy and paste the sections into the application forms on an employer’s website.

Creating a Word File of Your Résumé

Preserve Design and Layout of Your Résumé

Make Sure Your Computer Is Free from Viruses

In some cases, an employer or job-posting website will want you to upload a Microsoft Word file or attach it to an email message. This method of transferring information preserves the design and layout of your résumé and saves you the trouble of creating a plain-text version. However, before you submit a Word file to anyone, make sure your computer is free of viruses. Infecting a potential employer’s computer will not make a good first impression.

Creating a PDF Version of Your Résumé

Preserves the Formatting of Your Résumé

Files are Less Vulnerable to Computer Viruses

Creating a PDF file is a simple procedure, but you need the right software. The advantages of creating PDFs are that you preserve the formatting of your résumé (unlike pasting plain text into an email message) and you create a file type that is less vulnerable to viruses than word processer files.

Creating an Online Résumé

E-Portfolios, Interactive Résumés, Social Media Résumés

Create a Positive Online Impression

Make Use of Social Networking

Provide Your Résumé to Employers

A variety of terms are used to describe online résumés, including e-portfolio, personal webpage, social media résumé, and multimedia résumé. All these formats provide the opportunity to expand on the information contained in your basic résumé with links to projects, publications, screen-casts, online videos, course lists, social networking profiles, and other elements that give employers a more complete picture of who you are and what you can offer.

Regardless of the approach you take to creating an online résumé, keep these helpful tips in mind:

Remember that your online presence is a career-management tool. The way you are portrayed online can work for you or against you. It’s up to you to create a positive impression.

Take advantage of social networking. Use whatever tools are available to direct people to your online résumé.

During the application process, don’t expect or ask employers to retrieve a résumé from your website. Submit your résumé using whatever method and medium each employer prefers.

Proofreading Your Résumé

Headings and Lists

Sentence-Level Issues

Essential Numerical Data

Employers view your résumé as a concrete example of your attention to quality and detail. Your résumé doesn’t need to be good or pretty good—it needs to be perfect. Although it may not seem fair, just one or two errors in a job application package are enough to doom a candidate’s chances.

Your résumé is one of the most important documents you’ll ever write, so don’t rush or cut corners when it comes to proofreading. Check all headings and lists for clarity and parallelism, and be sure that your grammar, spelling, and punctuation are correct. Double-check all dates, phone numbers, email addresses, and other essential data. Ask at least three other people to read it, too. As the creator of the material, you could stare at a mistake for weeks and not see it.

Distributing Your Résumé

Mail Your Résumé

Post on Employer Websites

Email Your Résumé

Post on Job Websites

How you distribute your résumé depends on the number of employers you target and their preferences for receiving résumés. Beyond that, here are some general distribution tips:

Mailing printed résumés. Take care with the packaging. Spend a few extra cents to mail these documents in a flat 9 × 12 envelope. Better yet, use a Priority Mail flat-rate envelope, which gives you a sturdy cardboard mailer and faster delivery for just a few more dollars.

Emailing your résumé. Some employers want applicants to include the text of their résumés in the body of an email message; others prefer an attached Microsoft Word file. If you have a reference number or a job ad number, include it in the subject line of your email message.

Submitting your résumé to an employer’s website. Many employers prefer or require applicants to submit their résumés online. In some instances, you will be asked to upload a complete file. In others, you will need to copy and paste sections of your résumé into individual boxes in an online application form.

Posting your résumé on job websites. You can post your résumé on general-purpose job websites such as Monster and CareerBuilder, on more specialized websites such as Jobster or Jobfox, or with staffing services such as Volt. Before you upload your résumé to any site, however, learn about its confidentiality protection.

Summary of Discussion (6 of 8)

In this section, we discussed the following:

Revising Your Résumé

Producing Your Résumé

Choosing a Design Strategy

Considering Photos, Videos, Presentations, and Infographics

Producing Printed Résumés

Summary of Discussion (7 of 8)

Creating Digital Résumés

Creating an Online or Social Media Résumé

Proofreading Your Résumé

Distributing Your Résumé

The next section will cover Completing Your Résumé.

Building an Effective LinkedIn Profile

LO 13.4 Identify nine tips for creating a successful LinkedIn profile.

Socially Networked Multimedia Résumé (1 of 2)

Photos

Headline

Summary

Experience

Photos: Add a photo that says “professional” without being overly formal. Dress appropriately for the job you are pursuing and remember to smile.

Headline: Express who you are or aspire to be as a professional. Include keywords that target employers are likely to search for.

Summary: Write a summary that captures where you are and where you are going. Express in terms of meeting an employer's business needs.

Experience: Use material from your conventional resume. Make sure details of your employment match the resume; employers may cross-check. Expand beyond the basics, including photos or videos or work-related accomplishments

Socially Networked Multimedia Résumé (2 of 2)

Recommendations

Featured Skills

Education

Accomplishments

Volunteer Experience and Causes

Recommendations: Ask for recommendations from others you know.

Featured sills: List your top skills and areas of expertise

Education: Make sure your educational listing is complete and matches the conventional resume

Accomplishments: There are a variety of categories that let you highlight academic achievements, special projects, and other important attributes

Volunteer experience: Add volunteering activities and charitable organizations you support

Summary of Discussion (8 of 8)

In this section, we discussed the following:

Nine tips for building an effective LinkedIn profile

This concludes our discussion of Chapter 13: Building Careers and Writing Résumé.