Electronic résumés have an attractive highly formatted appearance

Chapter 11

Employment Communication

Goals

· Plan employment communication

· Format and organize a resume

· Choose a type of resume

· Compose a resume

· Compose employment letters

Terms

· chronological resume, p. 257

· cover letter, p. 251

· electronic resume, p. 259

· follow-up letter, p. 251

· functional resume, p. 257

· keywords, p. 261

· online resume, p. 262

· parallel structure, p. 265

· priority order, p. 257

· resignation letter, p. 251

· resume, p. 251

· reverse chronological order, p. 257

· scannable resumes, p. 261

· solicited letter, p. 267

· text file, p. 261

· unsolicited letter, p. 267

WRITE TO LEARN

Place yourself in the future, ten years from now. Write a one-page description of your life. Where do you live? What talents and interests have you pursued? What kind of job do you have? Are you happy with your job? How much money do you make? How did you create this life? In other words, how did you get here?

Focus on Employment Communication

Read the sample resume on the next page and answer these questions:

· Glance at the resume for ten seconds and then look away. What do you remember? In other words, what stands out?

· Does the resume look balanced and attractive? Explain.

· What information is included in each major section?

· How does Matt’s work experience relate to his job objective?

· What impression does his earning some of his college expenses make? What kind of impression does his volunteer work make?

What If?

· Matt had 15 years experience in the computer industry? 10 years in the restaurant business? 5 years of military experience?

· Matt had won an academic scholarship or an award for web design?

· Matt were applying for a faculty position or a graphic arts position?

Sample Resume

Writing@Work

Kate Houck manages the Implementation Team for Employment Law Training, a San Francisco–based company that provides employers with online compliance training. In addition to a BA in political science, she has extensive experience evaluating job applicants, interviewing, and hiring employees for companies ranging from Internet startups to Fortune 500s.

Courtesy of Kate Houck

“The biggest challenge in reviewing a stack of resumes is culling the wheat from the chaff,” explains Kate. “I look for a resume that has a good layout and concise, engaging statements about relevant experience and accomplishments. It should also demonstrate passion for or expertise in something. You can usually teach someone to do a job, but it is harder to teach someone to be an employee who cares.”

The most glaring mistakes to avoid in a resume or cover letter are the easiest ones to prevent. Kate emphasizes that these documents “should have no typos or spelling errors. If you mess this up, you are just being careless.” She also recommends that job candidates google themselves to eliminate undesirable public listings: “It may not be fair, but your online presence serves as a sort of reference in today’s electronic age. So if there is anything posted that you don’t want an employer to see, make sure it is under a pseudonym or restricted access; otherwise, it’s fair game.”

Having seen so many resumes has taught Kate precisely what makes a great resume and how to make her own resume float to the top of the pile: “The top two things I try to convey in my resume are competence and excellence. I not only highlight what I have done at each job, but also provide evidence that shows how I surpassed the objectives for that position. I don’t want to be just a performer on my resume or at work; I want to be a star.”

Think Critically

1. Does your resume meet Kate’s standards for “good layout and concise, engaging statements about relevant experience and accomplishments”? Why or why not?

2. Would Kate see that you have “passion for or expertise in something?” How can you change your resume so that someone like Kate puts it at the top of the stack?

Printed with permission of Kate Houck

GETTING STARTED ON EMPLOYMENT COMMUNICATION

The job you seek may be a long-awaited dream job or a part-time job to help you through school. Whatever the job, you will need attractive and well-crafted employment communication to highlight your strengths for the job market. You will use your technical writing skills to analyze your audience’s needs and then persuade your audience that you can fulfill those needs.

Employment communication includes a resume (a one- or two-page summary of your qualifications), a cover letter (to accompany the resume), a follow-up letter (to thank the employer for the interview and to summarize your qualifications), and possibly a resignation letter (to announce your intention to resign). Resumes and the accompanying letters are important because they:

Warm Up

If you were the chief executive officer of a successful corporation, what kinds of employees would you hire? What would you want to see on a resume?

· Create a professional, favorable impression.

· Allow you to control the presentation of your skills on paper.

· Encourage an employer to call you to arrange an interview.

· Give employers something to look at before you fill out any applications they may require.

· Maintain goodwill between you and your employer.

To get started on employment communication, assess your strengths, learn what you can about a prospective employer, and choose your references. Then consider the employer’s perspective and expectations.

Assess Your Strengths

Good employment communication begins with self-assessment. Consider your skills, aptitudes, education, interests, and experience. Use the following questions to help you determine your strengths as an employee:

· Education: What is your grade point average (GPA)? What special classes have prepared you for a particular job? What degrees do you hold? Where did you go to school, and when did you graduate?

· Employment: What jobs have you held? Write the job title, city and state, and dates for each job you now have or have previously held. Describe your duties and special projects on the job. Be specific.

· Accomplishments: List your accomplishments (scholastic, job-related, extracurricular, or community) over the last several years. Include any honors or awards you received. What skills do these accomplishments and honors illustrate? Would these skills be useful in the workplace?

· Skills: What are your special talents? What can you do well? Are you a good problem solver, creative thinker, good communicator? Do you have special skill sets—with computers, machinery, sales? Make a list, even if it overlaps with something you have already written.

· Character or personality traits: Are you dependable, honest, and flexible? Are you outgoing, calm, and optimistic? Do you have a good sense of humor?

When you finish your assessment, consider which responses would impress a prospective employer. Now you should have a better idea of what makes you valuable as an employee.

Research Your Prospective Employer

Learn all you can about your prospective employer, the company, and the job. Call the human resources office and find out about the company’s hiring practices. Do you know anyone who works for or used to work for this company? You also can find information about major American companies in Hoover’s 500: Profiles of America’s Largest Business Enterprises. See if you can find the answers to the following questions:

· Who will be responsible for making the decision to hire you—an individual or a committee? If it is an individual, what position does that person hold? What skills is he or she looking for in an employee?

· What can you find out about the company—its mission statement, its current projects, its organization, its openings, or its past record?

· What can you learn about the position for which you are applying? What would you be expected to do, and with whom would you work?

Ideally, you will be applying for a specific job with a particular company—a Social Worker II position at the Richmond Department of Social Services, for example. In reality, though, you also may send out a number of resumes to different organizations for a certain kind of job. In these cases, you may not have time to research the jobs in depth, but you still want to find out what you can about the positions and the organizations to which you are applying.

Choose Your References

A reference is a person who knows you well enough to vouch for your skills and your character. This person should feel comfortable making positive statements about your work performance, giving examples of your accomplishments, and answering specific questions from a prospective employer.

technotr/ iStockphoto.com

Choose three to five people to include as references. Work references— people for whom you have actually worked—make the best references. After all, your employer is interested in knowing how well you perform on the job. Educational references such as instructors, advisers, and guidance counselors also can attest to your abilities. Including one personal reference, someone (not a relative) who knows you well outside the workplace, is acceptable as long as you also include strong work references.

Before you list someone as a reference, ask the person to agree to be a reference for you. If this person hesitates or says no, ask someone else.

The trend today is not to include references on the resume, but to have a list prepared in case you are asked to provide them. Then if you are granted an interview, you can offer your list at that time.

Who Reads Employment Communication?

To write the best employment communication possible, you must understand your audience by considering the employer’s perspective and expectations.

Employer’s Perspective

Generally, employers seek someone whose credentials meet their company’s needs, whose personality fits with their current staff, and whose career plan complements their goals. Employers are interested in an applicant’s education, experience, skills, and work habits. Employers also want employees who have personal and professional integrity.

Your resume and cover letter show employers that you have the skills they need. At this stage, the resume and letter are the only means employers have of knowing who you are and what you can do for them. Therefore, you want to create a good first impression with your communication.

If you have done a good job of writing, you may be asked to interview for the job. In the interview, you have an opportunity to convince the employer that you are the candidate for whom he or she is looking. Thus, the goal of a resume and a cover letter is to create enough interest to be granted an interview. The goal of the interview is to persuade an employer to hire you.

Audience awareness is especially important when you are writing a resume and a cover letter. Focusing on the reader of the resume may be difficult because the resume is primarily about the writer. Nonetheless, because the reader is the person who does the hiring, his or her needs are most important. Let the keywords in the job announcement guide your writing and put yourself in the shoes of the individual doing the hiring.

stray_cat/ iStockphoto.com

Employer’s Expectations

Your prospective employer expects your communication to conform to standard employment protocol. Employment communication must:

· Contain no errors. Resumes with misspellings, typos, and punctuation errors are routinely cast aside during initial screenings.

· Look neat and professional. For example, a resume with smeared ink or one whose print is too light makes the writer look careless. To look professional, resumes should be printed in letter-quality print on bonded (heavy, stiff) paper.

· Follow an accepted format. A resume that is too long, for example, or one that is printed on colored paper or uses an eccentric design looks as though the writer did not know how to format a resume properly.

· Emphasize your best qualities (even if you think you may be bragging).

TYPICAL READER

A busy manager scanning employment documents for key information.

WRITER’S FOCUS

Capturing the manager’s attention by placing the most important qualifications in carefully designed and error-free employment documents.

STOP AND THINK

Choose three people who might agree to be references for you. What do you think these people would say about you? Are they familiar with your career goals? Why do employers discard some resumes initially? Why do employers read selected employment communication carefully?

Warm Up

Congratulations! You have been voted Most Likely to Succeed from your graduating class. A short article appears about you in your yearbook. What does the article say? Why are you most likely to succeed?

FORMATTING AND ORGANIZING RESUMES

Because employers may spend no more than 15 to 45 seconds looking at your resume during the initial screening, you must make the resume memorable. Here you have the opportunity to show off your skills with page design using special features, appropriate headings, and organizational schemes.

Making Your Resume Stand Out

Have you ever noticed how some words in a newspaper or magazine ad jump out at you—those words in large bold type surrounded by white space? The ad is designed to create an immediate impression in a small amount of space.

Like a newspaper ad, the resume must impress a reader in little space. After all, you are designing an ad and selling yourself, your skills, and your expertise to a prospective employer. You want your most impressive qualifications to jump out at the employer during his or her first glance at your resume. For a high school student or a newly graduated college student, the resume should be only one page long. For people with several years of impressive work experience, a two-page resume is acceptable. Electronic resumes may be longer because they are generally scanned by a computer program for the initial screening and not by human eyes.

Part of the design strategy, then, is to consider how the resume looks. White space allowing ample margins results in a resume that is uncluttered and easy to read. Special features such as boldfacing, underlining, italicizing, CAPITALIZING, bullets (●), or asterisks (*) make important information stand out. But too many special features can make your resume appear cluttered and busy. The resume should look symmetric and balanced. Your name should stand out in a larger boldfaced type. Headings should be easy to spot. The font should be easy to read—Times New Roman, Calibri, or Arial, for example, in 10- to 12-point type.

Consider setting up your resume as a table (hide the grid lines) with information in columns and rows. You can place side headings in the first column and different sections in rows. Because side headings take up more space, if you have additional information, you may want to center or left-justify your headings.

Look at versions of resumes in this chapter as well as resumes on the Web and in career books. Choose a layout that works for the amount of information and the headings you decide to use. Your goal is to make your resume stand out.

Deciding Which Headings to Include

Making decisions about which headings to include is like making decisions about your daily wardrobe. You must put on certain clothes—jeans, shirts, shoes, socks—whatever your basic wardrobe consists of. However, you can choose accessories—jewelry, caps, scarves, belts—to express your individuality, those things that set you apart from others. Similarly, a resume must include basic information. However, optional headings, like accessories, highlight your strengths, minimize your weaknesses, and set your resume apart from others.

Basic Information

Basic information consists of your identification, education, and work experience.

· Identification: Include your name, complete address, telephone number(s), and e-mail address. You may include a permanent and temporary address.

· Education: Include the name, city, and state of the school from which you graduated; your dates of attendance and graduation or expected date of graduation; and your major or course of study. Sometimes it is helpful to include specific courses you took, as well as academic honors, your overall GPA or the GPA in your major classes (particularly if the GPA is good), and any extracurricular activities. If you already have a postsecondary degree, it is not necessary to list your high school degree.

· Work Experience: Include the name, city, and state of the company and the position or title and description of duties if it is related to the job for which you are applying. You also may include promotions, special accomplishments, and skills.

Optional Headings

Many different names for headings can appear on resumes. All of them give your prospective employer a better idea of what you can do. Table 11.1 suggests some optional headings and offers a rationale for using each one.

Table 11.1

POSSIBLE HEADINGS

PURPOSE

RATIONALE FOR USE

Job Objective Objective Career Objective Professional Objective

To identify the job or position for which you are applying

Use if the employer must determine what particular job or category of jobs in which to place you.

Skills/AbilitiesProfessional Skills Leadership Skills Technical Skills Computer Skills

To highlight skills in a chronological presentation or in place of a chronological presentation

Use if you want to show special skill sets, especially those skills that are not reflected in other sections. Here is an opportunity to highlight those skills that were listed in the vacancy announcement.

Military Experience Military Service ROTC

To summarize military experience

Definitely use if you have military experience. Military personnel are reputed to be dependable and hard-working. Some companies give preference to veterans.

Work Experience Other Work Experience Related Experience Computer Experience Volunteer Work

To include experience not directly related to the job or to differentiate between different kinds of applicable work experience

Use ij’the experience shows a consistent work history or if the experience is remarkable in some way. Experience not directly related to the job listing shows your dependability and ability to learn and work with others.

Accomplishments Honors Awards Achievements

To enhance your resume with your unique accomplishments

Use if you want to draw attention to special awards, recognitions, and honors that complement educational and work-related descriptions but do not seem to fit under either.

Summary Major Qualifications Summary of Skills

To summarize your qualifications in three to five bullets or in a short description

Use if you want to specifically relate your qualifications to the qualifications in the job listing.

Organizational Strategies

Two organizational strategies govern the writing of all resumes: reverse chronological order and priority order.

Reverse Chronological Order

Some parts of the resume are presented in reverse chronological order (backward through time). The priority here is time; that is, what is most recent is considered to be most important. In particular, past jobs and schools attended should be listed in reverse chronological order. For example, when presenting your work experience, list your most recent job first, your second most recent job second, your third most recent job third, and so on.

Priority Order

Major sections are presented in priority order —from most important to least important. Whatever you present as most important should be the information that is most important to the prospective employer. When you have impressive work experience, that experience may be more important to your employer than education. If so, place work experience before education.

If you are a recent graduate without much work experience, you may want to include education first as the most important qualification. If you use a skills summary, you should place it early in the resume. That way, employers who quickly skim your resume can focus on your major qualifications even if they do not read further.

Within each section, lists of skills, duties, awards, and accomplishments also are organized from most important to least important.

STOP AND THINK

Which optional headings would you include in your resume? Why would you use them?

TYPES OF RESUMES

There are two fundamental types of resumes: the chronological resume and the functional resume. The chronological resume organizes information in reverse chronological order—or backward in time through a person’s education and employment record—with the most recent information presented first. Instead of organizing information around time, the functional resume organizes information around a person’s unique skills, giving an applicant the opportunity to highlight his or her special abilities or experience. This resume may have a section devoted to technical skills, sales abilities, or leadership skills. Some resumes are a combination of chronological and functional resumes, highlighting special skills in one area and using a chronological presentation for the work history.

Warm Up

Consider the different ways information can be organized. For example, when you study history, how is the information organized? When you study math, how is the information organized?

Several online sites can assist you with your job search. The Occupational Outlook Handbook, published annually by the U.S. Department of Labor, gives information about the job outlook, salaries, and job conditions.

Go to the NET Bookmark for Chapter 11. Read about two occupations that interest you. After looking at the educational requirements and job outlook, list the pros and cons of pursuing one of these jobs.

www.cengage.com/school/bcomm/techwtg

Chronological Resume

A chronological resume offers an approach that most employers recognize and accept. This resume:

· Provides a history of employment (regardless of the job) and education in reverse chronological order.

· Accounts for every year the applicant is out of school, with no gaps in time.

· Tends to emphasize dates in the resume’s design.

· Uses predictable headings.

· Places education and work experience early in the resume.

The chronological resume offers several advantages. First, it is familiar to and readily accepted by employers. Second, it can be read quickly. Third, it draws attention to a steady and impressive work history.

Although the chronological resume is widely used, it is not ideal for everyone. First, a lengthy work history may make the resume too long. Second, the format is so structured that it may limit someone whose qualifications do not fit into its framework. For example, it may not be flexible enough for someone with little or no work experience. Third, it may be so similar to other resumes that it does not stand out and may get lost in the sameness of other chronological resumes.

Matt’s resume on page 249 is an example of a chronological resume. Matt is applying for a job that is related directly to his degree. With only two years of related work experience, he believes that his degree is his strongest asset and that his related work experience (co-op) is his next strongest asset. The dates, separated from the main text of the resume, stand out. He lists his other work experience last because it is not as impressive as his related work experience. Notice that he does not describe his other work experience because it is not related to his job objective. Most employers would understand what these part-time jobs entail and would note them only because they show that Matt has a strong work ethic.

Functional Resume

Resumes organized according to function or purpose are more flexible than chronological resumes. Tailored to suit the requirements of a particular job, a functional resume:

· Summarizes the most important qualifications for the job.

· May not account for every year out of school.

· Emphasizes skills, accomplishments, and job titles regardless of time frame.

· Uses less predictable headings designed for the job.

· May present education and work experience later in the resume.

The functional resume offers several advantages. First, it helps the employer judge what skills and accomplishments are useful for the job. Second, the functional resume can be used in a variety of circumstances. For example, functional resumes are useful when you have plenty of work experience and skills that would take up too much space on a chronological resume. Functional resumes also are useful when applying for a job for which you have no formal education but for which you have marketable skills. For example, you may have learned carpentry skills from your father but do not have a degree.

The structure of a functional resume is flexible enough that you can minimize time lapses in education or job experience. If you have time lapses in your employment history, be prepared to account for them in an interview. Explain the lapse quickly and discuss the constructive things you did while out of work, such as taking classes or volunteering. Do not complain about being laid off or about problems you may have had with your former supervisor.

Juanita’s resume in Figure 11.1 on the next page is a functional resume. Juanita’s circumstances are different from Matt’s, and a functional resume meets her needs. Juanita is not applying for her first full-time job upon graduating from college; she is applying for her first part-time job while she is in high school. Because she does not have a degree yet, her job skills are more important than her education. She has little work experience, so she capitalizes on her club and volunteer work to show that she can handle office responsibilities.

Electronic Resume

Technology has changed the way people look for and apply for jobs. Today the Internet and e-mail offer electronic ways to send and post resumes. An electronic resume is a chronological or functional resume that has been reformatted so that it can be sent electronically. It may take one of the following forms:

· E-mail resume: Sent as a formatted attachment to an e-mail or as part of an e-mail message

· ASCII Text resume: Sent with special text formatting as an attachment to or part of an e-mail

· Scannable resume: Sent as an attachment to an e-mail, part of an e-mail message, or mailed (but eventually scanned by an optical reader)

· Online resume: Posted on a company’s or job search website or posted on an applicant’s website

E-mail Resume

When sending an e-mail resume, whenever possible, you should send it as an attachment that saves your formatting. Let your employer know what software program and version you used to create the document. When possible, ask whether another program is preferred. If the company to which you are applying has the same word processing program you used to create the resume, sending an attachment is the best option. This way, there is little difference in the actual appearance of the electronic resume and the print resume. The only difference is how the resume is sent.

Figure 11.1 Functional Resume

On the other hand, if the company does not have the same program you used to create the resume or if you are not sure about the program your employer uses, you need to explore other options.

ASCII Text File

One option is to send the document as part of the e-mail message. In this case, the employer receives the resume, but it may look jumbled with strange characters when the employer opens the e-mail.

To prevent the resume from looking jumbled, key the resume as an ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange, pronounced ask-ee) text file. A text file can be opened regardless of the word processing program used. Most word processing programs allow you to save a document as a text (.txt) file, often referred to as a plain text file because of its simple, plain appearance. The disadvantage of a text file is the loss of formatting in a carefully designed print resume.

For instance, a resume written using an older version of WordPerfect® but saved as a text file should open on a personal computer that uses a current version of Microsoft® Word. Using the text file, you ensure that anyone can open your file. In addition, you can format to a limited degree by using the following suggestions:

Many people looking for a job use social networking sites to connect with friends and professionals who might assist in the job hunt. One website, LinkedIn, helps people stay in touch with other professionals. You can create a profile that highlights your skills the way a resume does, and you can search for jobs. Employers can use LinkedIn to view an applicant’s qualifications. The site also provides a way to get to know other people in your area of expertise while you are employed. You need to use good judgment about what you post on the site: do not divulge inappropriate personal or incriminating information—including photos and links.

Think Critically

Why is it important to use good judgment with regard to the information you post on a site such as LinkedIn?

· Use plain fonts (for example, large, open, “no tails” fonts such as Arial or Calibri) or consider Courier, a fixed font with each character taking up the same amount of space.

· Use 10- to 14-point font size.

· Use one column, flush with the left margin; do not use side headings or tables.

· Use capital letters for heading titles and other important information.

· Avoid boldface, italics, underlining, and other characters not on the keyboard.

· Use the space bar instead of tab keys.

· Use asterisks, dashes, or hyphens instead of regular bullets.

· Use wide margins set for 60 characters (1″ left, 2.5″ right).

· Use commas to indicate small breaks, semicolons to indicate breaks in a longer list, colons to set up a list, and periods to end sections.

Figure 11.2 on the next page shows Barbara’s chronological resume formatted as an ASCII text file.

Scannable Resume

Scannable resumes are mailed as a print document, sent as an e-mail, or posted online to be scanned electronically for keywords , significant words that are included in the job announcement. A keyword search compares qualifications on the resume to qualifications the employer needs and determines whether the resume has enough matches to warrant a closer reading. If you are unsure whether a potential employer can read your word processing program, send the file as a text file. If you are confident that the employer will be able to read your word processing program, submit your resume as a word processing document and format your resume for an optical scanner.