The Job Search, Résumés, and Cover Letters CHAPTER 13 The Job Search, Résumés, and Cover Letters

Preparing for Employment Identify your interests. Evaluate your qualifications. Recognize the changing nature of jobs. Learn about careers and choose a path. Search for a job electronically. Search for a job traditionally.

Writing a Persuasive Résumé That Will Win You an Interview Choose a résumé style. Chronological—focuses on job history with most recent positions listed first Functional—focuses on skills Decide on length. Make your résumé as long as needed to sell your skills to recruiters and hiring managers. Arrange the parts.

Writing a Persuasive Résumé (continued) Main Heading—list your name, address, phone. Career Objective—include a career objective for a targeted job. Summary of Qualifications—present your most impressive skills and accomplishments in a concise list. Education Name your degree, date of graduation, and institution. List your major and GPA. Give information about your studies, but don’t inventory all your courses.

Writing a Persuasive Résumé (continued) Work Experience—if your work experience is significant and relevant to the position sought, place this section before education. List your previous jobs. Start with the most recent jobs. Include employer’s name and city, dates of employment (month, year), and most significant title. Manager, Fleet Equipment, Kettering, Ohio. 6/06 to present Describe your experience. Use action verbs to summarize your achievements and skills relevant to your targeted job. Include non-technical skills. Give evidence of communication, management, and interpersonal skills. Employers want more than empty assurances. Try to quantify your skills.

Writing a Persuasive Résumé (continued) Capabilities and Skills Emphasize your proficiencies with the Internet, software programs, office equipment, and communication technology tools. Describe proficiencies you have acquired through training and experience. Highlight exceptional aptitudes, such as working well under stress or interacting with customers. Highlight those talents that are relevant to your targeted job.

Writing a Persuasive Résumé (continued) Awards, Honors, and Activities If you have three or more awards or honors, highlight them by listing them under a separate heading. If not, put them with activities or in the education or work experience section if appropriate. Include school, community, volunteer, and professional activities. List awards and extracurricular activities, especially if they demonstrate leadership, teamwork, reliability, loyalty, initiative, efficiency, and self-sufficiency.

Writing a Persuasive Résumé (concluded) Personal Data Employers are legally barred from asking personal data, such as birth date, health, and marital status. Therefore, omit such items from your résumé. You can include hobbies or interests that might grab the recruiter’s attention or serve as conversation starters. References Listing references directly on your résumé takes up valuable space. Instead, most recruiters prefer that you bring to the interview a list of individuals willing to discuss your qualifications. The best references are instructors, your current employer or previous employers, colleagues or subordinates, and other professional contacts.

Review Textbook Résumé Models Chronological Résumé Models Recent college graduate with related experience (Figure 13.6) Current college student with limited experience (Figure 13.7) Current university student with limited related experience (Figure 13.8) University graduate with substantial experience (Figure 13.9) Functional Résumé Model Recent university graduate with unrelated part-time experience (Figure 13.10)

Optimizing Your Résumé for Today’s Technologies Preparing a scannable résumé Use 10- to 14-point type. Avoid unusual typefaces, underlining, italics, and double columns. Be sure your name is on the first line. List each phone number on its own line. Use smooth white paper, black ink, and quality printing. Provide white space. Avoid double columns. Don’t fold or staple your résumé.

Optimizing Your Résumé for Today’s Technologies (continued) Maximizing “Hits” Focus on specific keywords. Incorporate words from the job ad. Use typical headings (Objective, Education, Skills, etc.) Use accurate names; watch abbreviations. Describe interpersonal traits and attitudes. Use more than one page if necessary. Review scannable résumé (Figure 13.11)

Optimizing Your Résumé for Today’s Technologies (concluded) Preparing an embedded résumé for e-mailing Follow the tips for scannable résumés. Consider reformatting with 4-inch lines. Think about using keyboard characters to enhance format (=== or ~~~). Move all text to the left. Save your résumé in plain text (.txt) or rich text format (.rtf). Test your résumé before sending it. Review Figure 13.13

Being Honest and Ethical Do not inflate your education, grades, or honors. Being Honest and Ethical Do not enhance job titles. Do not puff up accomplishments. Do not alter employment dates. Do be honest, ethical, and careful.

Additional Tips Look for ways to condense your data. Double-check for parallel phrasing. Project professionalism and quality. Avoid personal pronouns. Omit humor. Use 24-pound paper and a quality printer. Have a friend or colleague critique your résumé. Proofread! Proofread! Proofread! Proofread!

Writing a Persuasive Cover Letter Opening Address the letter to an individual by name. For advertised jobs, name the source; include job title, date, and publication. If someone referred you, name that person. Show that your qualifications fit the job specifications, show your knowledge of the reader’s business, or show that your special talents will be assets to the company.

Writing a Persuasive Cover Letter (continued) Body Demonstrate that your background and training meet the job requirements. Summarize your principal assets from education, experience, and special skills. Avoid repeating specific data from your résumé. Refer to your résumé.

Writing a Persuasive Cover Letter (concluded) Closing Ask for an interview. Consider hooking the request to a statement reviewing your strongest points. Make it easy to respond. Tell when and where you can be reached (during office hours). Some recruiters prefer that you call them.

solicited cover letter. unsolicited cover letter. Model Cover Letters See Figure 13.14 for an example of a solicited cover letter. See Figure 13.15 for an example of an unsolicited cover letter. See Figure 13.16 for an example of an e-mail cover letter.

Grammar/Mechanics Checkup 13 Review Sections 4.01-4.13 in the Grammar/Mechanics Handbook  Complete 15 statements, p. 415.  Check your answers against those provided at the end of the book.