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Chapter 15 - *

Chapter 15

Building Careers and Writing Résumés

Learning Objectives

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

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

Describe the tasks involved in writing your résumé, and list the major sections of a traditional résumé

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter, you will be able to do the following:

List eight key steps to finding the ideal opportunity in today’s job market
Explain the process of planning your résumé, including how to choose the best résumé organization
Describe the tasks involved in writing your résumé and list the major sections of a traditional résumé

Learning Objectives

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

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter, you will be able to do the following:

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

Finding the Ideal Opportunity in Today’s Job Market

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Whether you’ll be looking for your first professional job on graduation or you’re already in the middle of a career, you need to put as much thought and care into finding the right job as employers put into finding the right employees.

Identifying and landing the ideal job can be a long and difficult process, particularly in today’s tough employment markets. 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.

Securing Employment in Today’s Job Market

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Get Organized

Start Now and Stick to It

As you craft your personal job search strategy, keep these two 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.

Finding Your Ideal Opportunity

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In today’s job market consider paying attention to the following steps to help land the ideal opportunity:

Write your story: Explore possibilities, identify your passion.
Think like an employer: Consider the steps can you take to present yourself as the best candidate.
Do your research: Be creative, consider contacting current customers.
Define your potential: Explain how well your attributes and experience will translate to the challenges of a specific position.
Find opportunities: Focus your efforts on the companies you want to work for instead of going through the traditional sources.
Build your network: Go on and offline to make new business contacts.
Seek career counsel: Go to your career center, job fairs, etc.
Avoid mistakes: Polish your cover letter and résumé, make a good first impression.

Summary of Objectives

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This section covered the following elements involved in Finding the Ideal Opportunity in Today’s Job Market:

Securing Employment in Today’s Job Market
Finding Your Ideal Opportunity

This concludes our discussion of Finding the Ideal Opportunity in Today’s Job Market. The next section will cover Planning a Résumé.

Planning a Résumé

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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 as an e-portfolio, and reuse pieces of it in social networking profiles and online application forms.

Applying the Three-Step Résumé Process

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To distinguish yourself from all the other people looking for work, you need to start with a well-written résumé. Some job searchers are intimidated by the prospect of writing a résumé, but a résumé is really just another specialized business message. 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 to learn what they look for in new hires, 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.

Analyze Your Purpose and Audience

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A résumé is a structured, written summary of a person’s education, employment background, and job qualifications. Before you begin writing a résumé, make sure you understand its true function—as an advertisement intended to stimulate an employer’s interest in meeting you and learning more about you. A successful résumé persuades a prospective employer to invite you to interview with the company. Thus, your purpose in writing your résumé is to create interest—not to tell readers every little detail.

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

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If you haven’t been building an employment portfolio thus far, you may need to do some research on yourself. Gather all the pertinent personal history you can think of, including the dates, duties, and accomplishments from any previous jobs you’ve held. Compile relevant educational experience that adds to your qualifications—formal degrees, skills certificates, academic awards, or scholarships. Also, gather any relevant 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 before you begin composing your résumé.

Organizing Your Résumé Around Strengths

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The most successful résumés convey specific qualities that employers seek. They demonstrate that you think in terms of results and know how to get things done, are well-rounded, show signs of career progress and professional development, have personal standards of excellence, are flexible and willing to try new things, and communicate effectively.

Although you may want to include a little information in all categories, you will naturally want to emphasize the information that does the best job of aligning your career objectives with the needs of your target employers—and that does so without misrepresenting the facts.

Typical Résumé Formats

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Personal

Background

Personal

Objectives

Chronological

Combination

Functional

Work History

Educational Level

Skills and

Accomplishments

To focus attention on your strongest points, adapt the appropriate organizational approach—chronological, functional, or a combination of the two. The “right” choice depends on your background and your goals.

In a chronological résumé, the “Work Experience” section occupies the most prominent slot. This approach is the most common way to organize a résumé. It has three advantages: (1) employers are familiar with it, (2) it highlights growth and career progression, and (3) it highlights continuity and stability. This approach is especially appropriate if you have a strong employment history and are aiming for a job that builds on your current career path.

A functional résumé emphasizes skills and accomplishments, identifying employers and academic experience in subordinate sections. This pattern stresses individual areas of competence, so it is 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.

A combination résumé includes the best of the chronological and functional approaches. Nevertheless, it is not commonly used for two reasons: it tends to be longer, and it can be repetitious if you have to list your accomplishments and skills in both the functional section and the chronological job descriptions.

Summary of Objectives

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This section covered the following elements involved in Planning a Résumé:

Applying the Three-Step Résumé Process
Analyze Your Purpose and Audience
Gathering Pertinent Information
Organizing Your Résumé Around Strengths
Typical Résumé Formats

This concludes our discussion of Planning a Résumé. The next section will cover Writing a Résumé

Writing a Résumé

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As you follow the three-step process to develop your résumé, keep four points in mind. First, treat your résumé with the respect it deserves. A single mistake or oversight can cost you interview opportunities. Second, give yourself plenty of time. Don’t put off preparing your résumé until the last second and then try to write it in one sitting. Third, learn from good models. You can find sample résumés online at college websites and on job boards such as Monster and CareerBuilder. Fourth, don’t get frustrated by the conflicting advice you’ll read about résumés. Résumés are as much art as science, and there is more than one way to be successful with them.

Writing Your Résumé

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As you follow the three-step process to develop your résumé, keep four points in mind. First, treat your résumé with the respect it deserves. A single mistake or oversight can cost you interview opportunities. Second, give yourself plenty of time. Don’t put off preparing your résumé until the last second and then try to write it in one sitting. Third, learn from good models. You can find sample résumés online at college websites and on job boards such as Monster and CareerBuilder. Fourth, don’t get frustrated by the conflicting advice you’ll read about résumés. Résumés are as much art as science, and there is more than one way to be successful with them. Consider the alternatives and choose the approach that makes the most sense to you, given everything you know about successful business communication.

Keeping Your Résumé Honest

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Résumé fraud has reached epidemic proportions, but employers are fighting back with more rigorous screening techniques. Applicants with integrity know they don’t need to stoop to lying. If you are tempted to stretch the truth, bear in mind that professional recruiters have seen every trick in the book, and frustrated employers are working aggressively to uncover the truth.

Adapting Your Résumé to Your Audience

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Your résumé needs to make a positive impression in a matter of seconds, so be sure to adopt a “you” attitude and think about your résumé from the employer’s perspective.

No matter which format you choose or what information you include, the single most important concept to keep in mind as you write is to translate your past accomplishments into perceived future potential. In other words, employers are certainly interested in what you have done in the past, but they are more interested in what you can do for them in the future.

Keep in mind that you may need to “translate” your skills and experiences into the terminology of the hiring organization. Moreover, educational achievements in other countries might not align with the standard U.S. definitions of high schools, community colleges, technical and trade schools, and universities.

Regardless of your background, it is up to you to combine your experiences into a straightforward message that communicates what you can do for your potential employer.

Composing Your Résumé

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The first thing an employer needs to know is who you are and where you can be reached: your name, address, phone number, email address and the URL of your personal webpage, e-portfolio or social media resume.

The brief introductory statement that follows your contact information can take one of three forms. A career objective identifies either a specific job you want or a general career you want to pursue. A qualifications summary offers a brief overview of your key qualifications. A career summary offers a brief recap of your career, with the goal of presenting increasing levels of responsibility and performance.

If you are still in school, education is probably your strongest selling point. Present your educational background in depth, choosing facts that support your “theme.” The education section also includes off-campus training sponsored by business or government. Education is usually given less emphasis after you have worked in your chosen field for a year or more. Whether you list your GPA depends on the job you want and the quality of your grades.

The work experience section focuses on your overall theme. When describing your work experience, highlight the relationship between your previous responsibilities and your target field. List your jobs in reverse chronological order, with the current or last one first.

Describe volunteer activities that demonstrate your abilities. List projects that required leadership, organization, teamwork, and cooperation.

Experts advise you to leave personal interests off your résumé—unless including them enhances the employer’s understanding of why you would be the best candidate for the job. Also prepare a list of references (in the same format as your résumé), as you will be asked for them at some point.

Summary of Objectives

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This section covered the following elements involved in Writing a Résumé:

Writing Your Résumé
Keeping Your Résumé Honest
Adapting Your Résumé to Your Audience
Composing Your Résumé

This concludes our discussion of Writing a Résumé. The next section will cover Completing a Résumé.

Completing a Résumé

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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.

Completing Your Résumé

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The last step in the three-step writing process is no less important than the first two. As with any other business message, you will need to revise your résumé, produce it in an appropriate form, and proofread it for any errors before distributing it to your target employers.

Revising Your Résumé

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Ask professional recruiters to list the most common mistakes they see on résumés, and you will hear the same things over and over again. Keep your résumé out of the recycling bin by avoiding these flaws:

It is too long or too wordy, verbose rather than concise, relevant, and to the point.
It is too short or sketchy, not giving enough information for a proper evaluation of the applicant.
It is difficult to read, lacking white space and devices such as indentations and boldfacing to make the reader’s job easier.
It is amateurish, indicating the applicant has little understanding of the world of business.
It is poorly produced, being difficult to read or on cheap paper.
It contains spelling and grammar errors, showing that the candidate lacks communication skills.
The boastful tone makes the reader doubt the applicant’s self evaluation.
The gimmicky design departs widely from accepted standards.

Producing Your Résumé

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Hardcopy

Résumé

Scannable

Résumé

Plain Text

File

PDF File

MS Word

File

Online

Résumé

Design Elements

Keep It

Simple

Avoid

Excess

Good design is a must, and it is not difficult to achieve. Good designs feature simplicity, order, effective use of white space, and clear typefaces. Make subheadings easy to find and easy to read, placing them either above each section or in the left margin. Use lists to itemize your most important qualifications. Color is not necessary by any means, but if you add color, make it subtle and sophisticated, such as a thin horizontal line under your name and address. The most common way to get into trouble with résumé design is going overboard.

Depending on the companies you apply to, you might want to produce your résumé in as many as six forms (all are explained in the following sections):

Printed traditional résumé
Printed scannable résumé
Electronic plain text file
Microsoft Word file
Online résumé, also called a multimedia résumé or social media résumé
PDF file

Producing a Traditional Printed Résumé

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High-Quality

Paper

Professional

Image

The traditional paper résumé still has a place in this world of electronic job searches, if only to have a few copies ready whenever one of your networking contacts asks for one. Avoid basic, low-cost white 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. This paper is more expensive than general office paper, but you don’t need much, and it’s a worthwhile investment.

Printing a Scannable Résumé

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Keyword Summary

Simple

Format

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. A scannable résumé differs from the traditional format in two major ways: it should always include a keyword summary, and it should be formatted in a simpler fashion that avoids underlining, special characters, and other elements that can confuse the scanning system. If you need to produce a scannable résumé, search online for “formatting a scannable résumé” to get detailed instructions.

Creating Digital Résumé Formats

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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, or other special formatting. 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. (Although there are certainly other word processors on the market, Microsoft Word is the de facto standard in business these days.) This method of transferring information preserves the design and layout of your résumé and saves you the trouble of creating a plain-text version. Creating a PDF file is a simple procedure, but you need the right software. Adobe Acrobat (not the free Adobe Reader) is the best-known program, but many others are available, including some free versions. A variety of terms are used to describe online résumés, including personal webpage, e-portfolio, social media résumé, and multimedia résumé. Whatever the terminology used on a particular site, all these formats provide the opportunity to expand on the information contained in your basic résumé with links to projects, publications, screencasts, 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.

Proofreading Your Résumé

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Strive for

Perfection

Attend to

the Details

Review Personal Data

Spelling and Word Choice

Grammar and Punctuation

Headings and Lists

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

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How you distribute your résumé depends on the number of employers you target and their preferences for receiving résumés. Employers usually list their requirements on the career pages of their websites, so verify this information and follow it carefully. Beyond that, here are some general distribution tips:

Mailing printed résumés. Take some care with the packaging. Spend a few extra cents to mail these documents in a flat 9 by 12 envelope, or 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, including most large companies, now 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 (or create one online, on some sites) on general-purpose job websites such as Monster (http:// home.monster.com and http://college.monster.com) and CareerBuilder (www .careerbuilder.com), on more specialized websites such as Jobster (www.jobster.com) or Jobfox (www.jobfox.com), or with staffing services such as Volt (http://jobs.volt .com).

Summary of Objectives

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This section covered the following elements involved in Completing a Résumé:

Completing Your Résumé
Revising Your Résumé
Producing Your Résumé
Producing a Traditional Printed Résumé
Printing a Scannable Résumé
Creating Digital Résumé Formats
Proofreading Your Résumé
Distributing Your Résumé

This concludes our discussion Completing a Résumé. The presentation will close with a review of this chapter’s learning objectives.

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Chapter 15

Building Careers and Writing Résumés

This concludes the PowerPoint presentation on Chapter 15, “Building Careers and Writing Résumés.” During this presentation, we have accomplished the following learning objectives:

Listed eight key steps to finding the ideal opportunity in today’s job market
Explained the process of planning your résumé, including how to choose the best résumé organization
Described the tasks involved in writing your résumé,́ and listed the major sections of a traditional résumé
Characterized the completing step for résumés, including the six most common formats in which you can produce a résumé

For more information about these topics, refer to Chapter 15 in Excellence In Business Communication.

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