Chapter 13 Building Careers and Writing Resumes

Chapter 13 Building Careers and Writing Resumes
Title Slide Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Learning Objectives After studying this chapter, you will be able to List eight key steps to finding the ideal opportunity in today’s job market Explain the process of planning your resume, including how to choose the best resume organization Describe the tasks involved in writing your resume and list the sections to consider including in your resume Characterize the completing step for resumes, including the six most common formats in which you can produce a resume After studying this chapter, you will be able to: List eight key steps to finding the ideal opportunity in today’s job market. Explain the process of planning your resume, including how to choose the best resume organization. Describe the tasks involved in writing your resume and list the sections to consider including in your resume. Characterize the completing step for resumes, including the six most common formats in which you can produce a resume. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Finding the Ideal Opportunity in Today’s Job Market
Identifying and landing a job can be a long and difficult 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. As you craft your personal strategy, keep these three guidelines in mind: Get organized. Start now and stick to it. Look for stepping-stone opportunities. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Writing the Story of You
Whether you’re about to begin your career or are already well into it, writing or updating your résumé is a great opportunity to step back and think about where you’ve been and where you’d like to go. Do you like the path you’re on, or is it time for a change? Are you focused on a particular field, or do you need some time to explore? You might find it helpful to think about the “story of you”: the things you are passionate about, your skills, your ability to help an organization reach its goals, the path you’ve been on 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 well-rounded professional with wide-ranging talents? A creative problem solver? A technical guru? Writing your story is a valuable planning exercise that helps you think about where you want to go and how to present yourself to target employers. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Learning to Think Like an Employer
When you know your side of the hiring equation a little better, switch sides and look at it from an employer’s perspective. To begin with, recognize that companies take risks with every hiring decision—the risk that the person hired won’t meet expectations and the risk that a better candidate has slipped 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. Given this perspective, what steps can you take to present yourself as the low-risk, high-reward choice? Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Researching Industries and Companies of Interest
Learning more about professions, industries, and individual companies is a vital step in your job search. It also impresses employers, particularly when you go beyond the easily available sources such as a company’s own website. “Detailed research, including talking to our customers, is so rare it will almost guarantee you get hired,” explains the recruiting manager at Alcon Laboratories. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Translating Your General Potential into a Specific Solution for Each Employer An important aspect of the employer’s quality-of-hire challenge is trying to determine how well a candidate’s attributes and experience will translate into the demands of a specific position. As a job candidate, 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 all the way through the interviewing process, in fact, you will have opportunities to impress recruiters by explaining how your general potential translates to the specific needs of the position. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Taking the Initiative to
Find Opportunities When it comes to finding the right opportunities for you, the easiest ways are not always the most productive ways. To maximize your chances, 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. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Building Your Network Networking is the process of making informal connections with mutually beneficial business contacts. Networking is more essential than ever, because the vast majority of job openings are never advertised to the general public. To avoid the time and expense of sifting through thousands of applications and the risk of hiring complete strangers, most companies prefer to ask their employees for recommendations first. The more people who know you, the better chance you have of being recommended for one of these hidden job openings. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Seeking Career Counseling
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 advise on career planning and provide workshops on job search techniques, résumé preparation, job readiness training, interview techniques, self-marketing, and more. You can also find career planning advice online. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Avoiding Mistakes While you’re making all these positive moves to show employers you will be a quality hire, take care to avoid the simple blunders that can torpedo a job search, such as not catching mistakes in your résumé, misspelling the name of a manager you’re writing to, showing up late for an interview, tweeting something unprofessional, 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. Assume that every employer will conduct an online search on you. Busy recruiters will seize on these errors as a way to narrow the list of candidates they need to spend time on, so don’t give them a reason to toss out your résumé. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Planning Your Resume Developing a résumé is one of those projects that really benefits from multiple planning, writing, and completing sessions spread out over several days or weeks. You are trying to summarize a complex subject (yourself!) and present a compelling story to strangers in a brief document. Follow the three-step writing process and give yourself plenty of time. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Analyzing Your Purpose and Audience
Planning an effective résumé starts with understanding 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 rather to get you an interview. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Gathering Pertinent Information
If you haven’t been building an employment portfolio thus far, you may need to do some research on yourself at this point. Gather all the pertinent personal history you can think of, including all the specific dates, duties, and accomplishments from any previous jobs you’ve held. Compile all your educational accomplishments, including formal degrees, training certificates, professional and technical certifications, 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 before you begin composing your résumé. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Selecting the Best Medium
You should expect to produce your résumé in several media and formats. “Producing Your Résumé” discusses your options. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Organizing Your Resume Around Your Strengths
Although there are 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. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Addressing Areas of Concern
Many people have gaps in their careers or other issues that could be a concern for employers. Here are some common issues and suggestions for handling them in a résumé: Frequent job changes. Gaps in work history. Inexperience. Overqualification. Long-term employment with one company. Job termination for cause. Criminal record. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Writing Your Resume With the necessary information and a good plan in hand, you’re ready to begin writing. If you feel uncomfortable writing about yourself, you’re not alone. Many people, even accomplished writers, can 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 idea flow more easily. You can also find a classmate or friend who is writing a résumé and swap projects for a while. Working on each other’s résumés might speed up the process for both of you. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Keeping Your Resume Honest
Estimates vary, but one comprehensive study uncovered lies about work history in more than 40 percent of the résumés tested. 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 all sorts of fraud by job applicants, and frustrated employers are working aggressively to uncover the truth. Nearly all employers do some form of background checking, from contacting references and verifying employment to checking criminal records and sending résumés through verification services. Employers are also beginning to craft certain interview questions specifically to uncover dishonest résumé entries. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Adapting Your Resume to Your Audience
The importance of adapting your résumé to your target readers’ needs and interests cannot be overstated. In a competitive job market, the more you look like a good fit—a quality hire—the better your chances 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. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Composing Your Resume Write your résumé using a simple and direct style. Use short, crisp 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. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Completing Your Resume
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. Be prepared to produce several versions of your résumé, in multiple formats and multiple media; these are discussed later in this section. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Revising Your Resume Ask professional recruiters to list the most common mistakes they see on résumés, and you’ll hear the same things over and over again. Take care to avoid these flaws: Too long or too wordy Too short or sketchy Difficult to read Poorly written Displaying weak understanding of the business world in general or of a particular industry or company Poor-quality printing or cheap paper Full of spelling and grammar errors Boastful Gimmicky design Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Producing Your Resume 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 want to skim your essential information in a matter of seconds, and anything that distracts or delays them will work against you. Depending on the companies you apply to, you might want to produce your résumé in as many as six formats (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 Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Proofreading Your Resume 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. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Distributing Your Resume
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 their websites, so verify this information and follow it carefully. Beyond that, here are some general distribution tips: Mailing printed résumés. ing your résumé. Submitting your résumé to an employer’s website. Posting your résumé on job websites. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Learning Objectives: Check Your Progress
List eight key steps to finding the ideal opportunity in today’s job market. Explain the process of planning your resume, including how to choose the best resume organization. Describe the tasks involved in writing your resume and list the sections to consider including in your resume. Characterize the completing step for resumes, including the six most common formats in which you can produce a resume. Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

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