1. Building Careers and Writing Résumés
Chapter 18
Building Careers and Writing Résumés
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2. Learning Objectives Finding the ideal job opportunity
Planning your résumé
Organizing your résumé
Writing your résumé
Reviewing major sections of a résumé
Completing and presenting a résumé
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 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
Characterize the completing steps for résumés, including the six most common formats in which you can produce a résumé
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3. Finding the Ideal Opportunity in Today’s Job Market
Finding and landing the ideal job opportunity can be a complex process, with lots of stress and frustration along the way. The good news is that it is all about communication, so 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.
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4. Personal Strategy Get organized Get started Be persistent
As you craft your personal strategy, keep these points 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 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.
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5. Write Your Story Your passions Your skills Your abilities
Your experiences
Your objectives
If all you want to do is get a job, you will struggle to focus your job search efforts and to present yourself as a compelling candidate. If you do get a job, chances are you’ll wind up with something you don’t like and will have to start the process all over again before long.
Take the time you have now to explore the possibilities, to find your passion, and identify appealing career paths. Next, begin writing “the story of you”—the things you are passionate about, the skills you possess, 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 wizard? Writing your story is a valuable planning exercise that can help you think about where you want to go and how to present yourself to target employers.
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6. Employer Perspective Performance Reliability Motivation
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. What steps can you take to present yourself as the low-risk, high-reward choice, as someone who can make a meaningful contribution to the organization?
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.
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7. Internet Research
Learning more about professions, industries, and individual companies is easy to do with the library and online resources available to you. Don’t limit your research to easily available sources, however. Companies are likely to be impressed by creative research, such as interviewing their customers to learn more about how the firm does business.
Table 18.1 in the textbook lists some of the 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. In addition, thousands of bloggers and podcasters offer news and commentary on the business world. To learn more about contemporary business topics, peruse some periodicals and newspapers with significant business sections.
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8. Translate Potential Skills Attributes Experience
Customizing your résumé to each job opening is an important step in showing employers that your skills, attributes, and experience are relevant to an employer’s business challenges. From your initial contact 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.
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9. Take the Initiative 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 ways. The 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. Your message might appear right when a company is busy looking for someone but hasn’t yet advertised the opening to the outside world.
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10. Build Your Network Classmates Workplace contacts Online sources
Student
organizations
Trade shows
Volunteering
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.
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11. Network Etiquette Protocol Value Judgment
Remember that networking is about people helping each other, not just about other people helping you. Pay close attention to networking protocol:
Try to learn something about the people you want to connect with
Don’t overwhelm others with too many messages or requests
Be succinct in all your communication efforts
Don’t give out people’s names and contact information without permission
Never your résumé to complete strangers
Don’t assume you can your résumé to everyone you meet
Remember to say thank you every time someone helps you
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.
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12. Career Counseling College career center Online career planning
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.
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13. 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 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 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.
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14. Summary of Discussion
This section covered the following elements involved in Finding the Ideal Opportunity in Today’s Job Market:
Writing the Story of You
Learning to Think Like an Employer
Researching Industries and Companies of Interest
Translating Your General Potential into a Specific Solution for Each Employer
Taking the Initiative to Find Opportunities
Building Your Network
Seeking Career Counseling
Avoiding Mistakes
This concludes our discussion of Finding the Ideal Opportunity in Today’s Job Market. The next section will cover Planning Your Résumé.
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15. Planning Your Résumé
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.
Writing 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 complete strangers in a brief document. Follow the three-step writing process (see Figure 18.1) and give yourself plenty of time.
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16. Three-Step Process Compose the message
To distinguish yourself from all the other people looking for work, start with a well-written résumé. A résumé is 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, 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.
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17. Purpose and Audience Employers Interviews
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 inspires a prospective employer to invite you to interview with the company.
As you conduct your research on various professions, industries, companies, and individual managers, you will have a better perspective on your target readers and their information needs. 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.
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18. Gather Information Employment Education Personal
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 relevant information about personal endeavors such as offices held in nonprofit organizations or speeches given. You will save time by having all this material readily available before you begin composing your résumé.
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19. Choose the Medium Multiple media Multiple formats
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.
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20. Organize the Résumé Chronological Functional Combination
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.
In a chronological résumé, the "Work Experience" section dominates and is placed in 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 career path.
A functional résumé emphasizes skills and accomplishments, identifying employers and academic experience in subordinate sections. It 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 de-emphasize 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.
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21. Areas of Concern
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 on experience and skills that relate to the position.
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22. Areas of Concern
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.
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23. Summary of Discussion
This section covered the following elements involved in Planning Your Résumé:
Analyzing Your Purpose and Audience
Gathering Pertinent Information
Selecting the Best Medium
Organizing Your Résumé Around Your Strengths
Addressing Areas of Concern
This concludes our discussion of Planning Your Résumé. The next section will cover Writing a Résumé.
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24. Writing a 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, find a classmate or friend who is also 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.
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25. Résumé Writing Tips
As you follow the three-step process to develop your résumé, keep four points in mind:
Treat your résumé with the respect it deserves. Until you're able to meet with employers in person, your résumé is all they have of you. Until that first personal contact occurs, you are your résumé, and a single mistake or oversight can cost you interview opportunities.
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. Try out different ideas and phrases until you hit on the right combination.
Learn from good models. You can find thousands of sample résumés online at college websites and job sites such as Monster.com.
Don't get frustrated by the conflicting advice you'll read about résumés; they are more art than science. Consider the alternatives and choose the approach that makes the most sense to you, given everything you know about successful business communication.
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26. Keep Résumés Honest Workplace references Employment history Criminal
records
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.
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27. Adapt to Audience
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.  
Adapting to your readers can mean customizing your résumé, sometimes for each job opening. However, the effort can pay off in more interviewing opportunities. In addition, use what you’ve learned about your target readers to translate your experience into the terminology of the hiring organization.
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28. Compose the Résumé Direct style Short phrases Action verbs 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. Start your phrases with strong action verbs. Providing specific supporting evidence is vital, but make sure you don’t go overboard with small details.
The particular words and phrases in your résumé are also important. The majority of résumés are searched for keywords that 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 technical terms, industry-specific jargon, names or types of products or systems, job titles, and college degrees. However, be sure to avoid clichés, such as proven track record, team player, fast-paced, and extensive experience.
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29. Résumé Components
Name and contact information
Introductory statement
Educational background
Work experience and skills
Activities and achievements
Personal data and references
Start the résumé with your name, address, phone number, and address.
In the brief introductory statement that follows your contact information, include one of the following: A career objective identifies either a specific job you want or a general career you want to pursue. A qualifications summary encapsulates 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're still in college or have graduated recently, education is probably your strongest selling point. Present your educational background in depth, choosing facts that support your theme. 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.
In the work experience section, use keywords to call attention to the skills you’ve developed on the job and your ability to handle increasing responsibility. List your jobs in chronological order, with the current or last one first.
List activities and achievements outside of a work context, only if they make you a more attractive candidate. Include activities that highlight communication skills, leadership, teamwork, or other valuable attributes.
As a rule, your résumé should not include any personal data beyond the information described in the previous sections. The availability of references is usually assumed, so don’t put “References available upon request” at the end of your résumé. However, be sure to have several references ready when you begin applying for jobs.
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30. Summary of Discussion
This section covered the following elements involved in Writing a 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.
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31. Completing 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. Producing and distributing a résumé used to be straightforward; you printed it on quality paper and mailed or faxed it to employers. However, applicant tracking systems, social media, and other innovations has dramatically changed the nature of résumé production and distribution. Be prepared to produce several versions of your résumé, in multiple formats and multiple media.
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32. Traditional Résumé Organize background information
Identify your unique strengths
Generate reusable blocks of text
Maximize in-person networking
Even if most or all of your application efforts take place online, starting with a traditional paper résumé is still useful, for several reasons. First, a traditional printed résumé is a great opportunity to organize your background information and identify your strengths. Second, the planning and writing tasks involved in creating a conventional résumé will help you generate blocks of text that you can reuse in multiple ways throughout the job search process. Third, you never know when someone might ask for your résumé during a networking event or other in-person encounter, and you don’t want to let that interest fade in the time it might take for the person to get to your information online.
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33. Revise Your Résumé Length issues Hard to read Poorly written
Uninformed
Cheap paper
Grammar and spelling
Boastful tone
Gimmicky design
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 or a particular company
Poor-quality printing or cheap paper
Full of spelling and grammar errors
Boastful
Gimmicky design
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 general guideline, if you have fewer than 10 years of professional experience, try to keep your conventional résumé to one page. For online résumé formats, you can always provide links to additional information. 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 qualifications for such jobs can require more description.
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34. Produce Your Résumé Order Simplicity White space Clear typeface
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 scan your essential information in a matter of seconds, and anything that distracts or delays them will work against you. No matter how many different media and formats you choose for producing your résumé, a clean, professional-looking design is a must. Good résumé design features order, simplicity, effective use of white space, and clear typefaces.
Unfortunately, no single format or medium works for all situations, and employers’ expectations will change as technology evolves. Depending on the companies you apply to, you might want to produce your résumé in any or all of the following formats (explained in the following slides): printed traditional résumé, printed scannable résumé, electronic plain-text file, Microsoft word file, PDF file, and online résumé. Your best bet is to find out what each employer or job-posing website expects and provide your résumé in that format.
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35. Printed Résumés Traditional Scannable
The traditional paper résumé still has a place in this world of electronic job searches. When printing a traditional résumé, use a heavier, higher-quality paper designed specifically for résumés and other important documents. White or slightly off-white is the best choice. Make sure the printer 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. A scannable résumé differs from the traditional format in two major ways: it should always include a keyword summary, and it should not include underlining, special characters, and other elements that can confuse the scanning system.
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36. Digital Résumés
An increasingly common way to get your information into an employer’s database is by entering a plain text version (or ASCII text version) of your résumé into an online form. This approach has the same goal as a scannable résumé, but it’s faster, easier, and less prone to errors than the scanning process. If you have the option of mailing a scannable résumé or submitting plain text online, go with plain text.
In some cases, an employer or job-posting website will let you upload a Microsoft Word file directly. This method of transferring information preserves the design and layout of your traditional printed résumé and saves you the trouble of creating a plain text version. Before you submit a Word file to anyone, make sure your system is free from viruses.
A safe and simple electronic alternative for your résumé is PDF format. PDF files are viewable on virtually any computer, and recipients generally aren’t reluctant to view them.
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37. Online Résumés
You have numerous options for creating an online résumé (an e-portfolio, a personal webpage, a social media résumé, and a multimedia résumé). These formats allow you to expand on the information contained in your basic résumé with links to projects, publications, screen-casts, online videos, social networking profiles, and other elements that give employers a more complete picture of who you are and what you can offer.
Remember that your online presence is a career-management tool. The way you are portrayed online can work for you or work against you, and it’s up to you to create a positive impression.
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38. Proofread the Résumé Headings and lists Grammar Spelling Punctuation
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 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. 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.
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39. Distribute the Résumé Mail E-mail Website
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 some care with the packaging. Spend a few extra cents to mail these documents in a flat 9 x 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.
ing your résumé. Some employers want applicants to include the text of their résumés in the body of an 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 message.
Submitting your résumé to an employer’s website. Many companies 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.
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40. Summary of Discussion
This section covered the following elements involved in Completing a Résumé:
Revising Your Résumé
Producing Your Résumé
Proofreading Your Résumé
Distributing Your Résumé
This concludes our discussion of Completing a Résumé. The presentation will close with a review of this chapter’s learning objectives.
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41. Building Careers and Writing Résumés
Chapter 18
Building Careers and Writing Résumés
This concludes the PowerPoint presentation on Chapter 18, “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 steps for résumés, including the six most common formats in which you can produce a résumé
For more information about these topics, refer to Chapter 18 in Business Communication Today.
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42. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.
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