Discussion 4-1
ahhhhhh12345
EssentialFeaturesofaModernResume.pptxTen Steps toward Creating a Resume:
Viewing the Resume as a Response to a Rhetorical Situation
A Few Notes before We Start
Based on multiple human resource workers, professionals, business writing faculty, and executives I know, I want to share with you some information about the purpose of a resume and how resumes are examined:
Resumes are designed to help you move to the next step, which is to be offered an interview. Do not expect to be hired by a resume only.
People who review resumes may have hundreds of documents to read.
Therefore, a resume will be read in about 8 - 15 seconds before a decision is made to move the resume to the “Interview” pile or not.
People who review resumes are looking for reasons to eliminate applicants, not hire them; there will be multiple qualified applicants.
1. Write a Resume for a Specific Position or Career
Approach writing a resume from a rhetorical perspective—understand that you are responding to a specific Rhetorical Situation (revisit the live session for Module 2!)
Consequently, start by locating a posting for a job position
You should consider starting your job posting search at:
1. Write a Resume for a Specific Position or Career
Working with specific job postings is ideal because companies should post the following information:
Summary of the job
Central responsibilities of the position
Qualifications expected of applicants
Any additional requirements for the position
Details about the selection process
Part-time, full-time, internship & location information
Additional instructions for submitting applications
This information is key because it provides understanding about our target audience and their expectations for applicants and values as an organization!
1. Write a Resume for a Specific Position or Career
Responsibilities for an Elementary School Multi-Subject Tutoring Position:
Use available resources to instruct small classes
Supplement an online learning curriculum with worksheets/activities
Be able to differentiate and adapt learning materials to each student
Be positive, encouraging, and provide students a safe and comfortable learning environment
Be prompt, reliable and professional, with strong interpersonal skills
Communicate with parents and address their concerns in a professional manner
Promptly communicate with management and other office team members
Abide by health and safety guidelines as recommended by the California State Department of Health
1. Write a Resume for a Specific Position or Career
Responsibilities for an Elementary School Multi-Subject Tutoring Position:
Use available resources to instruct small classes
Supplement an online learning curriculum with worksheets/activities
Be able to differentiate and adapt learning materials to each student
Be positive, encouraging, and provide students a safe and comfortable learning environment
Be prompt, reliable and professional, with strong interpersonal skills
Communicate with parents and address their concerns in a professional manner
Promptly communicate with management and other office team members
Abide by health and safety guidelines as recommended by the California State Department of Health
1. Write a Resume for a Specific Position or Career
Qualifications for the Position from the Preceding Slide:
Experience teaching small groups in a classroom setting (Grades K-6 or 7-8)
The ability to take an online learning system and integrate them into instruction
Experience with in-person and online instruction
Experience working one-on-one with students both in-person and online
Subject matter expertise in all subjects (Math, ELA, Science, Social Studies, and STEM for grades K-6 or 7-8)
Requirements for the Same Position:
Weekday morning through early evening availability
Complete a criminal background check
1. Write a Resume for a Specific Position or Career
With this understanding of Responsibilities, Qualifications, and Requirements, you want to reflect upon your years in college first.
Create a question for each Responsibility, Qualification, and Requirement.
For the Multi-Subject Tutoring Position, create questions like these:
What experiences do I have leading small groups?
Which experiences show that I am positive, encouraging, and professional?
When have I taught others using face-to-face or online instruction?
Do this for every Responsibility, Qualification, and Requirement listed.
Your goal is to generate information for your resume.
So, what aspects of your life should be covered on your resume?
2. Make Claims/Statements about Your Experiences, Skills, & Training
Looking at a resume from a rhetorical perspective, it is a document that presents an argument about oneself and one’s experiences, skills, and training:
Education
Work experience
Skills (developed through academic classes & personal development)
Internships
Community service
Volunteering
Leadership opportunities
Awards and recognition
3. Replace the “Objective” with an Executive Summary
An objective informs the audience of what you, the applicant, is seeking (typically a specific position with a company).
To obtain a position as an Assistant Events Specialist with a respected company.
Usually, this information can and should be communicated in the first paragraph of a cover letter.
Or, this information will be supplied by the digital technology that receives and processes your application.
Moreover, an objective falls short of helping the audience understand what makes you a qualified applicant for the position.
Which of your experiences meet the employer’s needs?
Which of your achievements are relevant to the position?
Which skills do you possess that are required/expected of the position?
Ultimately, including an Objective on a resume in 2020 shows little consideration of your target audience. Audiences would prefer to know what you will bring to a job.
3. Replace an Objective with an Executive Summary
Once you have decided to ditch the “Objective” statement. What do to?
Easy!
Provide what is called an “Executive Summary” of your own most important skills, knowledge, and competencies that you will bring to the specific position for which you are applying.
A common analogy is “the pitch.” You meet the industry expert of your dreams on an elevator, public transportation, at the checkout of a retail store.
In this situation, you have 30 seconds to pitch to them that you are the right candidate for a job. What do they need to hear to get the initial impression that you are qualified for a position with their firm/company?
3. Replace an Objective with an Executive Summary
Respond to these questions to draft an executive summary:
What have you accomplished through previous experiences?
How do your experiences—whatever they may be—meet the requirements or expectations of the listed position?
Probably the most difficult but certainly the most important question of them all: what differentiates/separates you from other candidates?
Finally, and this is another tough one, but what makes you a “good fit” for the listed position?
Ultimately, you want this Summary of your accomplishments, experiences, distinguishing characteristics, and qualifications to be 3 – 4 sentences in length.
And, this summary should be combined with…
4. Know Your Skills and Know Which Ones to Feature
One way to recognize the skills we possess is to place them within two categories:
Transferrable (soft) skills: personal attributes and characteristics that indicate how you work individually and as part of a group/team
Specific (hard) skills: knowledge or training received through academic, personal, or professional experiences
Certifications (CPR)
Languages (names of languages)
Computer applications
Programming languages
Data management programs/systems
Operating equipment or machinery associated with specific professions
4. Know Your Skills and Know Which Ones to Feature
Here are the 10 most commonly desired transferrable skills for job applicants, based on responses (N = 57) provided by business & corporate executives (2015)
4. Know Your Skills and Know Which Ones to Feature
Concerning which skills should be featured on a resume, do some research:
Talk with faculty that teach courses in your major
Ask professionals in your field about the skills they want to see in their co-workers
Explore online career guides
Read job postings, especially the duties and qualifications sections!
***Visit This: Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
5. Action Verbs That Highlight Specific Value or Accomplishments
Accelerated
Accommodated
Accomplished
Achieved
Acquired
Acted
Activated
Adapted
Addressed
Adjusted
Administered
Admitted
Advanced
Advised
Aided
Alleviated
Allocated
Allowed
Amended
Analyzed
Anticipated
Appointed
Appraised
Approved
Approximated
Arbitrated
Arranged
Assembled
Assessed
Attained
Audited
Augmented
Authored
Authorized
https://sa.sdsu.edu/_resources/files/career/02308-Actionverbs.pdf
6. Know Your Experiences But Feature Accomplishments
Resumes in the 20th century identified a position held and major duties & responsibilities performed in that position:
Events & Operations Specialist | Montana State Univ. Institute of Bioethics (BI) Bozeman, MT | June 2014– Present
Independently develop, lead, manage and evaluate complex BI special events, programs and activities.
Coordinate and assist various development events: donor-lead dinner, Advisory Board meetings and faculty installations.
Correspond with domestic and international guest lecturers and VIP guests
Ensure event schedules and transportation run smoothly.
Facilitate meetings, collaborate with faculty to set agendas, and conduct event evaluations with various offices.
Plan multiple scale and type of events: endowed lectureships, university-wide seminars, symposia and community events.
Perform detailed event planning: vendor contracts, permits, promotion, evaluation, and follow-up.
Work closely with Institute’s Communications department to optimize visibility and marketing of all BI special events.
Project event and operation budgets, initiate internal approval documents, and monitor expenditures.
Conduct recruitment, interview and training process for front desk staff (part-time students, temporary and full-time staff).
Identify, propose, and initiate refinements and generate new approaches to solving operational challenges
6. Know Your Experiences But Feature Accomplishments
Resumes in the 20th century identified a position held and major duties & responsibilities performed in that position:
Events & Operations Specialist | Montana State Univ. Institute of Bioethics (BI) Bozeman, MT | June 2014– Present
Independently develop, lead, manage and evaluate complex BI special events, programs and activities.
Coordinate and assist various development events: donor-lead dinner, Advisory Board meetings and faculty installations.
Correspond with domestic and international guest lecturers and VIP guests
Ensure event schedules and transportation run smoothly.
Facilitate meetings, collaborate with faculty to set agendas, and conduct event evaluations with various offices.
Plan multiple scale and type of events: endowed lectureships, university-wide seminars, symposia and community events.
Perform detailed event planning: vendor contracts, permits, promotion, evaluation, and follow-up.
Work closely with Institute’s Communications department to optimize visibility and marketing of all BI special events.
Project event and operation budgets, initiate internal approval documents, and monitor expenditures.
Conduct recruitment, interview and training process for front desk staff (part-time students, temporary and full-time staff).
Identify, propose, and initiate refinements and generate new approaches to solving operational challenges
This List Is Boring & Redundant!!!
6. Know Your Experiences But Feature Accomplishments
Specific accomplishments that you have realized that can be qualified (through short examples) or quantified (by percentages or numbers) are not boring.
Organization | City, State
Job Title (Beginning Year – Separation Year)
This section should provide a mini-paragraph account of the applicant’s principal job duties and responsibilities. Although not necessary, offer one sentence that captures the essence of the job followed by one sentence for each of the categories—communication, creation, technical, etc.—of skills demanded by the applicant’s duties/responsibilities
Quantify (or qualify) a 1st accomplishment realized by the applicant
Quantify (or qualify) a 2nd achievement made by the applicant here
Quantify (or qualify) a 3rd accomplishment realized by the applicant
6. Know Your Experiences But Feature Accomplishments
MSU DISASTER RELIEF PROJECT / Bozeman, MT
Disaster Relief Coordinator / (June 2015 – January 2017)
Directed fundraising efforts for Montana fire relief. Responsible for developing a strategic fundraising plan and collaborating with local communities and Montana State University organizations to publicize the fundraising gala. Supervised meetings and activities that recruited and trained volunteers. Created and maintained donor database to identify prospects, managed large-scale donation collections, and organized ticket sales.
Achieved $550,000 in pre-event donations from Bozeman businesses and University alumni and another $375,000 from the 2015 annual silent auction.
Directed merchandise sales from the 2016 We Need Relief gala at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, realizing $400,000 in additional donations.
7. Arranging Information on the Resume
Three recommended guidelines here:
Establish four sections for your resume from top to bottom:
Heading (Your Name / LinkedIn / Contact Telephone # / Professional Email Address)
No personal street/home addresses!
Do create a LinkedIn account (to complement a resume and add extra details about yourself)
Summary and Skills
Information that Responds Directly to Qualifications and Responsibilities
Information that is Related to Qualifications and Responsibilities
Strive to keep all pieces of information in their respective categories—refer back to # 2, Make Claims about Your Experiences…
Present this information top to bottom in reverse chronological order;
current experiences past, oldest experiences
8. Document Format
Five considerations here:
Information presented on the resume must be aligned neatly
Default alignment is left alignment
Use bullet lists
Activate the “ruler” function on your word processing application,
Use standard size font sizes and styles
Font size: 11 point for paragraphs / 12 for sub-headings / 14 for section headings
Font style: one that is easy to read (Arial, Times New Roman, Lato, Calibri),
Aim for margins that are 0.7 – 1.0 inches on all sides of the document,
Arrange information in chunks that are easily readable—refer back to the final slide from # 6 (Know Your Experiences but Feature Accomplishments),
Use bold and italics to make company names, position titles, and single words pop; underlining in a sentence can make resumes more difficult to skim.
By the way, did you notice where alignment is off on this slide?
9. Proofread and Edit
Seriously, use all your knowledge and available sources to proofread and edit because resume readers are looking for reasons to eliminate applicants.
Here are resources you should utilize:
Your own knowledge,
Professionals you know (because they also write and read resumes),
Anyone you know with a degree in languages and literature, linguistics, communications, or human resources,
Word processing applications,
Purdue University Online Writing Lab’s Grammar page: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/grammar/index.html
10. Relevant Information Only! Any Last Words?
Here is a simple but effective measurement for determining whether information on your resume is relevant:
Does the information about each experience respond in some way to the Responsibilities, Qualifications, or Requirements listed on the job posting?
With the exception of your name and contact information, you must be able to provide an “Yes” (affirmative) answer for every other piece of information on your resume.
And a few final recommendations:
As college students, emphasize experiences accumulated during your undergraduate years
One-page resume if you are covering 5 or fewer years of experiences
Two-page resume if you possess 7+ years of experiences
Resume readers will examine the first page of a resume; no guarantees after that.
From First to Best!
First Draft
Fifth Draft (Yes, 5 drafts)
