Résumé Writing and the Employment Interview
Overview
Your career is something you nurture and develop like a strategic asset. Today, seeking a new job while you’re currently employed, being laid off unexpectedly, or having a contract lapse and not be renewed are all commonplace events. Full-time employment is no longer guaranteed, as independent contractors, temporary employees, and part-time labor all give employers less costly alternatives.
When you hear, “You have to know someone to get a job in that company,” it is often true. Most jobs are not posted publicly because companies prefer to hire from within, or based on recommendations from current, valued employees. So what do you need to do to tap into that hidden job market? You can network through social media, friends, and friends of friends. You can join professional organizations in your industry and let everyone know what kind of job you are looking for and where. You can also use your writing skills to plan, write, and complete a résumé and an application letter that will make a stellar first impression and prompt a hiring manager to call you for an interview.
You then plan for the interview. Write possible questions they may ask you, and include possible responses. Practice your nonverbal communication skills, selling yourself, and discussing answers to salary and compensation questions. After the interview, send a follow-up letter, and soon, you might just be sending that letter of resignation to your old job and saying “hello” to your new one.
Topic 01: The workplace and adapting to the job market
Objectives:
• Explain the importance and elements of appropriate follow-up messages
Introduction
You’re ready to find your dream job, but where do you begin? The answer comes from a close examination of the job market. Small businesses are hiring. Today, more people are hired as contract workers than as regular employees, so job hunting does not necessarily carry negative connotations. To adapt to this job market, reassess your career goals, and whether available jobs contribute to those goals. Assess what you have to offer employers, and how to make yourself more attractive to them. Then take a look at the six steps of the employment search. When starting your search, keep in mind that most companies prefer to hire from within or based on a valued employee’s recommendation. This is the so-called hidden job market, and to access these jobs, it is beneficial for you to network with other professionals and organizations.
Understanding the Workplace
Before you package your excellent business skills and any job experience to land that perfect job, it would be beneficial to understand today’s dynamic workplace. Several forces are likely to affect your entry into the job market:
1. Decrease in stability of careers
2. Disappearance of lifetime employment
3. Growth of small businesses
4. Increase in independent contractors
5. Less stigma associated with job hunting
What Employers Want
Employers are looking for people who meet the following criteria:
• Are able and willing to adapt to diverse situations
• Thrive in an ever-changing workplace
• Continue to learn throughout their careers
• Have a sound understanding of international affairs and have learned another language
Most employers value employees who are flexible, adaptable, and tuned-in to the complex dynamics of business (higher-level skills).
Adapting to the Job Market
Adapting to the workplace is a lifelong process of seeking the best fit between what you want to do and what employers are willing to pay you to do.
To adapt to the job market, you need to know the following:
1) What you want to do
2) What you have to offer
3) How to make yourself more attractive to employers
What you want to do:
To determine what you want to do, reflect on these questions:
• What would you like to do every day?
• How would you like to work?
• What compensation do you expect and/or need?
• What are your career goals?
• What size and type of company do you prefer?
• What kind of culture would you prefer, and what type of setting—corporate, agency, nonprofit?
• Where would you like to work?
• What kind of people would you like to work with?
What you have to offer:
No matter what profession you're in or want to be in, you have skills and capabilities that are valuable to the right employer. Make sure that you have a clear picture of your own strengths.
To prepare for a job search, analyze what you have to offer. Think about:
• Achievements
• Specific skills
• Educational preparation
• Work experience
• Extracurricular activities
• Personal characteristics
How to make yourself more attractive to employers:
There are a number of ways you can make yourself more valuable to potential employers:
• Keep an employment portfolio of anything that shows your ability to perform, whether it’s in school or on the job. To distribute your portfolio to employers, you can burn a CD-ROM or store it on a Web site—whether it’s a personal site or your college’s site (if student pages are available).
• Take interim assignments, such as temporary jobs, freelance work, or internships.
• Continue to polish and update your skills by joining networks of professional colleagues.
Employment Search
After you have thought about whom you are, what you want to do, and today’s workplace, you can then start the job search process. First, learn the six steps of an employment search:
Build toward your career goals:
Work on your characteristics, skills, education, and experiences to build toward the career of your dreams. You may not have everything you need immediately, but if you establish a goal and a plan for reaching that goal, you will be more likely to eventually reach it.
Prepare résumés and other employment messages:
Carefully and thoughtfully, prepare your tools for the job search: a résumé, a template for a cover letter, a template for thank you notes, interview ideas and questions, and so on. The more thought you put into your job search tools, the better prepared you will be when the time comes.
Understand the interview process:
Think about the interview process that most companies use when hiring new employees. Be prepared by already knowing what you will say to the most common questions.
Prepare for the interview:
Preparing for an interview means not only knowing yourself and what you will say if asked specific questions, it also means knowing the company with which you are interviewing.
Check them out online and ask others who may know about them. Take good notes. You will no doubt be provided with an opportunity to share your knowledge in the interview itself.
Participate in the interview:
Practice your interview skills and then participate in the interview in a highly professional and effective way. Gain feedback on how you did, especially if you did not get the job. Always strive to be better equipped.
Follow up and accept the offer:
After any interview, it is essential to follow up with a thank you note which shows the interviewer and the company that you are interested in the job. If a job is offered to you, negotiate the best deal you can. If it is the right job for you (which isn’t a given just because you interviewed for the job), accept the offer.
Securing Employment in Today’s Job Market
Employers prefer to hire from within the organization first, or based on a referral from a trusted source. If that doesn’t work, they will use an employment agency, and then finally review unsolicited résumés or post a job announcement.
Because as many as 80% of all job openings are never advertised (the hidden job market), it’s up to you to take action to get yourself noticed.
In addition, you should think of ways you can learn about employment opportunities. One of the smartest ways is to network. Networking is the process of making informal connections with a broad sphere of mutually beneficial business contacts. You have spent a good portion of your life in a student role, building toward a career. Its time to launch a productive process to find that ideal position.
Check Your Understanding
For each item, select the best answer.
If a company offers you an interview after you’ve responded to a job announcement they posted, then chances are they’ve already used an employment agency before posting the job announcement.
True
False
Incorrect.
This is true. Companies will usually hire from within an organization first, or receive referrals from a trusted source. If neither of these avenues works, they will use an employment agency, and then post a job announcement.
Depending on how well an interview went, sometimes candidates can send a thank you note if they want to receive feedback.
True
False
Incorrect.
This is false. While feedback should be received regardless of how an interview went, thank you notes should always be sent even if a job is not offered afterwards
Approximately 80 percent of job openings are never advertised.
True
False
Incorrect.
This is true. This is referred to as the hidden job market and makes it more difficult to acquire an interview.
Check Your Understanding
Arrange the items into the correct order. Check your answers when you are finished.
Participate in the interview.
Follow up.
Prepare resume.
Prepare for the interview.
Accept the offer.
Understand the interview process.
Check Your Understanding
Select the item to complete the sentence correctly. Check your answers when you are finished.
increase
decrease
growth
disappearance
Within the workplace, there has been a(n) _____ in the stability of careers, and a(n) _____ in independent contractors.
Another trend observed in the workplace is the ____ of lifetime employment and the _____ of small businesses.
Review
Full-time jobs are not always available in stable companies where you could expect to work an entire lifetime, and retire with a pension and benefits. Employers may value flexibility, motivation, and dedication, but they want workers with high-level skills, diverse experience, the ability to adapt to change, and a solid understanding of international business practices and other languages.
In figuring out what you want to do, take a close look at your personality and talents, and ask yourself what kind of job you could see yourself doing in five or ten years. Think about what skills you can offer an employer, such as education, achievements, and work experience. To make yourself even more attractive to an employer, remember to keep an employment portfolio, accept interim assignments, and join professional organizations to keep up-to-date on current topics and trends in your industry.
Topic 02: Preparing résumés and application letters
Objectives:
• Create a résumé
• Write an application letter
• Create samples of appropriate follow-up messages
Introduction
Your résumé is your first chance to make an impression with a potential employer. Think about the purpose of your résumé and the H.R. manager who will read it. It should be persuasive enough to make that person want to call you.
A good résumé is more than just a list of all the jobs you’ve held. If it were, it would be difficult to determine whether brevity or length is the more valued asset. While it explains your career, your résumé should speak also to who you are as a person, as well as how perfect a fit you would make with the company whose job you’re applying for. That’s why an all-purpose résumé that addresses all possible jobs, rather than a focused one that speaks to one H.R. manager specifically, tends to be ineffective. A good application letter helps you to address that one person.
Preparing Résumés
Preparing Resumes
Your resume is more than a simple list of the jobs you’ve held. As with other business messages, the first step in creating your resume is planning. Follow these steps in preparation for creating a resume.
Analyze your purpose and audience:
Your resume is a structured, written summary of your education, employment, and job qualifications. Think of it as a form of persuasive communication; You want the position, right? Well, then you had better stimulate an employer’s interest in meeting you.
You package yourself in a resume so that you can get an interview with prospective employers.
Gather information:
The term curriculum vitae (CV) is used instead of resume in some professions and in many countries outside the United States. A CV can be more detailed than a resume.
Before preparing your resume, gather all the information you might possibly need:
• Specific dates, duties, and accomplishments of any previous jobs
• Educational experience (formal degrees, skills certificates, academic awards, or scholarships)
• Relevant information about personal endeavors (dates of your membership in associations, offices you have held in clubs or professional organizations, and so on)
• Any presentations you might have given to community groups
Choose the best medium:
Selecting the medium for your resume used to be simple: it was typed on paper. These days, however, you might need various forms of your resume:
• A traditional version printed on paper
• A scannable version printed on paper
• An uploadable Word document
• A plain-text document that you paste into an online form
• A multimedia resume available online or on CD-ROM
Organize your content:
• The most successful resumes convey that you:
• Think in terms of results
• 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
• Communicate effectively
Types of Resumes
In organizing your resume, you align your personal strengths with both the general and specific qualities for which your target employers are looking. To focus attention on your strongest points, use the appropriate organizational approach for your resume. The right or best choice depends on your background and your goals. Here are three common types of resumes:
Chronological resume
A chronological resume emphasizes your work experience, so you would place the work history section in the most prominent position (immediately after your name and address and the objective).
To develop the work section of your chronological resume:
• List your jobs sequentially in reverse order, beginning with the most recent position and working backward toward earlier jobs.
• For each listing, describe your responsibilities and accomplishments.
• If you are a recent graduate, you can vary this approach by putting your educational qualifications before your experience.
The chronological approach is especially appropriate for candidates with a strong employment history who are aiming for a job that builds on their career path. If you are a recent college graduate with little or no work experience, a chronological resume may not be your best option.
Functional resume
The functional resume emphasizes your skills and accomplishments, identifying employers and academic experience in subordinate sections. Develop your functional resume by listing your skills and accomplishments in the most prominent position and stressing individual areas of competence.
The functional approach is not popular with some employers, who might think you’re trying to hide something. However, here are some key advantages of the functional resume:
• This format shows employers what you can do for them without employers having to read through every job you have had.
• You can emphasize earlier job experience.
• You can de-emphasize any lack of career progress or lengthy unemployment.
Combination resume
If you don’t have a strong, uninterrupted history of relevant work, the combination resume might be a better choice. The combination resume includes the best features of the chronological and functional approaches, but it has two potential disadvantages:
• It tends to be longer.
• It can be repetitious if you have to list your accomplishments and skills both in the functional section and in the chronological job descriptions.
Here are the key advantages of the combination resume:
• Clearly identifies the nature of the position desired
• Relates all capabilities and experience to the specific job objective, giving a selective picture of the candidate’s abilities
• Quantifies accomplishments with specific numbers and results
• Includes work history in order to show continuous employment since graduation, but minimizes its importance by placing it last on the page (if it is largely irrelevant to the position sought)
Writing Your Resume
An employer is looking for your career objective, job skills and qualifications, the extent of your education and experience, and any other qualifications you might have.
Organize your resume so that the information is easy to read at a glance and so that the strengths of your job experience are highlighted. Remember that “fudging” information on your resume is not acceptable. As many as half of the resumes now sent to employers contain false information. If you have any doubt, subject questionable entries to this test: