Chapter 18 Building Careers and Writing Résumés

Creating an Online Résumé

-Career Management Tool -Take Advantage of Social Networking -Provide Your Résumé to Employers A variety of online résumé formats, variously referred to as e-portfolios, interactive résumés, or social media résumés, provide the opportunity to create a dynamic, multimedia presentation of your qualifications. You can expand on the information contained in your basic résumé with links to projects, publications, screencasts, online videos, course lists, blogs, social networking profiles, and other elements that give employers a more complete picture of who you are and what you can offer. You have a number of options for hosting an online résumé. Start with your college's career center; many such centers offer hosting for e-portfolios, for example, where you can showcase your academic achievements. You can also choose one of the commercial résumé hosting services, such as LinkedIn. In addition to being free (for basic services, at least), these sites provide easy-to-use tools for creating your online profile. You can also use them to peruse examples of various résumés, from students just about to enter the workforce full time all the way up to corporate CEOs. Regardless of the approach you take to creating an online résumé, keep these helpful tips in mind: -Remember that your online presence is a career management tool-The way you are portrayed online can work for you or against you, and it's up to you to create a positive impression. -Take advantage of social networking-Use whatever tools are available to direct people to your online résumé, such as including your URL in your Twitter profile. -During the application process, don't expect or ask employers to retrieve a résumé from a website-Submit your résumé using whatever method and medium each employer prefers. If employers then want to know more about you, they will likely do a web search on you and find your site, or you can refer them to your site in your résumé or application materials.

Keeping Your Résumé Honest

-Education -Employment History -References -Criminal Records -Estimates vary, but one comprehensive study uncovered lies about work history in more than 40 percent of the résumés tested. And dishonest applicants are getting bolder all the time—going so far as to buy fake diplomas online, pay a computer hacker to insert their names into prestigious universities' graduation records, and sign up for services that offer phony employment verification or phony references. "It's becoming common to cheat," observes Professor George Gollin of the University of Illinois, Urbana, mentioning the 200,000 fake college degrees sold every year as one example. -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. -Résumé fraud has reached epidemic proportions, but employers are fighting back with more rigorous screening techniques. -Most companies refuse to hire applicants if they find lies on their resumes, even if that means withdrawing formal job offers. Given the networked nature of today's job market, lying on a résumé could haunt you for years—and you could be forced to keep lying throughout your career to hide the misrepresentations on your original résumé.

Proofreading Your Résumé

-Headings and Lists -Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation -Double-Check and Run it By at Least Three Other People 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. A human reader will likely view errors as signs of carelessness, and an applicant tracking system can be programmed to automatically reject résumés with spelling errors. Your résumé is one of the most important documents you'll ever write, so don't rush or cut corners when it comes to proofreading. Check all headings and lists for clarity and parallelism, and be sure your grammar, spelling, and punctuation are correct. Double-check all dates, phone numbers, email addresses, and other essential data. 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.

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.

Planning Your Résumé

-L O 18.2 Explain the process of planning your résumé, including how to choose the best résumé organization. -Although you will create many messages during your career search, your résumé—a structured, written summary of your education, employment background, and job qualifications—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. -Even if you apply to a company that doesn't want to see résumés from applicants, the process of developing your résumé will prepare you for interviewing and pre-employment testing. Developing a résumé is one of those projects that 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 (see Figure 18.3) and give yourself plenty of time. -You'll see lots of ideas and even some conflicting advice about résumés; use what you know about effective business communication to decide what is right for your résumés. When you hear conflicting advice or see trendy concepts that you might be tempted to try, remember the most important question in business communication: What is the most effective way to adapt your message to the individual needs of each member of your audience? An approach that is wildly successful with one company or in one industry could be a complete disaster in another industry. To forge your own successful path through this maze of information, get inside the heads of the people you are trying to reach—try to think the way they think—and then apply the principles of effective communication you are learning in this course. -Before you dive in to your résumé, be aware that you'll find a wide range of opinions about résumés, regarding everything from appropriate length, content, design, distribution methods, & acceptable degrees of creativity to whether it even makes sense to write a traditional résumé in this age of online applications. -Examples of what you may encounter:a prospective employer wants you to tweet your résumé or submit all the links that make up your online presence, vs submission of conventional résumés. Effective résumés produced as infographics, interactive videos, simulated search engine results, puzzles, games, graphic novels (Probably has been tried).

Writing Your Résumé

-L O 18.3 Describe the tasks involved in writing your résumé, and list the sections to consider including in your résumé. -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 ideas 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.

Completing Your Résumé

-L O 18.4 Characterize the completing step for résumés, including the five most common formats in which you can produce 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.

Building an Effective LinkedIn Profile & Building a LinkedIn Profile

-L O 18.5 Identify nine tips for creating a successful LinkedIn profile. 1.Photo. Add a photo that says "professional" without being overly formal. Stand against a visually "quiet" background that won't distract viewers, dress appropriately for the jobs you are pursuing, and remember to smile. 2.Headline. Write a headline that expresses who you are or aspire to be as a professional. Include keywords that target employers are likely to be searching for. As with other text fields on LinkedIn, you have a limited number of characters to work with here, so focus on your most valuable attributes. 3.Summary. Write a summary that captures where you are and where you are going. Imagine that you are talking to a hiring manager in a personal and conversational tone, telling the story of where you've been and where you would like to go—but expressed in terms of meeting an employer's business needs. Highlight your job experience, education, skills, accomplishments, target industry, and career direction. Unlike the introductory statement on your conventional résumé, which you can fine-tune for every job opportunity, your LinkedIn summary offers a more general picture of who you are as a professional. Be sure to work in as many of the keywords from your research as you can, while keeping the style natural. Employers can use a variety of search tools to find candidates, and they'll look for these keywords. 4.Experience. Fill out the experience section using the material from your conventional résumé. Make sure the details of your employment match your résumé, as employers are likely to cross-check. However, you can expand beyond those basics, such as by including links to photos and videos of work-related accomplishments. 5. Recommendations. Ask for recommendations from people you know on LinkedIn. You may have a limited number of connections as you start out, but as your network expands, you'll have more people to ask. A great way to get recommendations is to give them to the people in your network. 6. Featured skills. List your top skills and areas of expertise. As you expand your network, endorse the skills of people you know; many users will endorse your skills in return. 7. Education. Make sure your educational listing is complete and matches the information on your conventional résumé. 8. Accomplishments. LinkedIn offers a variety of categories that let you highlight academic achievements, special projects, publications, professional certifications, important coursework, honors, patents, and more. If you don't have an extensive work history, use this section to feature academic projects and other accomplishments that demonstrate your skills. 9. Volunteer experience and causes. Add volunteering activities and charitable organizations that you support.

Practicing Network Etiquette

-Learn About the People You Connect With -Don't Overwhelm Network Contacts -Communicate Clearly and Succinctly -Respect Contacts' Personal Information -Don't Email Your Résumé to Strangers -Say "Thank You" When Someone Helps You -Remember that networking is about people helping each other, not just about other people helping you. Pay close attention to networking etiquette: 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 other people's names and contact info without their permission to do so, never email your résumé to complete strangers, and 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. Even if you don't have influential contacts yet: Your research on industries & trends for your own job search might be valuable info you can share via your online & offline networks. Or you might simply be able to connect one person with another who can help. 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 on who you are in the eyes of potential employers, so exercise some judgment in making connections. Also, many employers now contact people in a candidate's public network for background info, even if the candidate doesn't list those people as references.

Job-Search Strategies: Maximize Your Mobile

-Many companies have optimized their careers websites for mobile access, & some have even developed mobile apps that offer everything from background info on what it's like to work there to application forms that you can fill out right on your phone. -Don't be too quick to abandon a job application or an investigation into an employer just because the firm doesn't have a careers app or a mobile-friendly job site. -Many employers are still in the process of optimizing their online career materials for mobile devices. -Recent survey, 40% of mobile users said they'd abandon a nonmobile job application—a distressingly high number in a slow job market. -integrating a mobile device into your job-search strategy can help with networking and staying on top of your active job applications. -Some companies don't wait long after extending an offer; if they don't hear from the top candidate in a short amount of time, they'll move on their next choice. -Use your mobile device to enhance your personal brand and your online portfolio. Example: if you want to work in retail, take photos of particularly good or particularly bad merchandizing displays & post them with commentary on your social media accounts. -Many of the tools you can use to build your personal brand are available as mobile apps, including blogging platforms, Twitter, Facebook, & LinkedIn. -Résumé creation apps: quickly modify your résumé if you come across a good opportunity. -Business card scanning apps: easy to keep digital copies of business cards, so you'll never lose important contact info. -Note-taking apps: great way to plan for interviews & record your postinterview notes. -Your phone's scheduling capability to make sure you never miss an interviewing or a filing deadline. -Polish interviewing skills with your phone's audio- & video-recording features or a practice-interview app. -If an employer wants to interview you via Cisco WebEx or another online meeting system, those apps are available for your phone or tablet as well.

Burning Glass

-Matching the right people with the right jobs isn't limited to employees & employers. -A vital issue for govts (local & national level) & educational institutions (high schools, colleges, & universities). -Matching people & job opportunities is one of society's most important challenges. -How well or poorly has a tremendous impact on everyone's financial well-being. -Matching people & jobs is all about getting one's hands on the right data & using them to make smart decisions -More than 150 million employees in the U.S alone. (Lots of data) -Boston-based firm Burning Glass applies the power of A.I in a specialty known as job market analytics. -Job market analytics-studies millions of job postings & career transitions to figure out what employers are looking for, what employees have to offer, & where gaps exist between the two sides. -What it found: when it studied the most important "baseline skills" across all professions, the company identified overall communication abilities as the most important skill & writing as the third-most important skill. -Burning Glass integrates these job market insights into a variety of software tools used by employers, job seekers, colleges, & other parties involved in meeting the job-match challenge. -In HR, this software works in conjunction with applicant tracking systems. -Before a human being reads your résumé, it'll likely be "read" by such a system, designed to help company recruiters find the most promising candidates & manage communication & data collection all the way through the recruiting, hiring, & orientation stages. -Most medium-sized & large companies get swamped with so many résumés that they have to rely on software to help recruiters manage the flow. -The tech has developed a negative reputation in some quarters: Applicants frustrated they can't get past a "robot" & explain their qualifications to an actual human being. Employers frustrated when people clog their systems by applying for jobs for which they're clearly not qualified or when applicants try to game the system by loading up their résumés with stacks of keywords they think the system is expecting. Employers sometimes complain they can't find enough good applicants, even as good applicants are present but blocked. Overly aggressive filtering can be a problem with poorly configured systems or for employers who dial up the qualification requirements to the point that only a superhero could make it over the barrier. -Burning Glass & companies like it aim to improve this process for everybody by moving beyond simple keyword searches & résumé cataloging. -Analyzes how keywords are used in a résumé to separate candidates describing themselves legitimately & naturally from those who are simply stuffing their résumés with keywords. -Software is learning to read résumés the way human recruiters do, evaluating keywords in context to make informed judgments about the quality & currency of the skills someone has included. -Example: candidates with database design experience, for instance, it can tell whether somebody took a class in the subject 10 yrs or ago or is currently applying those skills in a professional capacity. -Applicant's perspective, the best way to "beat the robots" is to stop trying to beat them. -Take the time to read job descriptions carefully, concentrate on the ones where you fit best & also understand employers' needs well enough that you can explain how your skills & experience align with those needs. -Using the same audience-focused skills & techniques you've been practicing throughout this course is the best way to get there. Regardless of it being a machine.

Essential Résumé Elements

-Name and Contact Information: Your name and contact information constitute the heading of your résumé; include the following: Name, Address (both permanent and temporary, if you're likely to move during the job search process), Email address, Phone number(s), The URL of your personal webpage, e-portfolio, or social media résumé (if you have one). Use a professional-sounding email address for business correspondence, such as [email protected]. If the only email address you have is through your current employer, get a free personal email address from one of the many services that offer them. It's not fair to your current employer to use company resources for a job search, and doing so sends a bad signal to potential employers. -Introductory Statement: You have three options for a brief introductory statement that follows your name and contact information: Career objective. A career objective identifies either a specific job you want to land or general career track you would like to pursue. -Negatives of career objectives (Common to include in the past):It can categorize you so narrowly that you miss out on interesting opportunities. It's essentially about fulfilling your desires, not about meeting the employer's needs. -Alternatives to career objectives (Recent years more job seeker do this): Qualifications summary. Career summary. -When to use a career objective/If used: If you've little or no work experience in your target profession. Word it in a way that relates your qualifications to employer needs. -Qualifications summary. A qualifications summary offers a brief view of your key qualifications. The goal is to let a reader know within a few seconds what you can deliver. -How to title a qualifications summary: Generic-"Qualifications Summary" or "Summary of Qualifications". If you've one dominant qualification, you can use that as the title. -When to use a qualifications summary: If you've one or more important qualifications but don't yet have a long career history. If you haven't been working long but your college education has given you a dominant professional "theme", crafting one highlights your educational preparedness. -Career summary. A career summary offers a brief recap of your career with the goal of presenting increasing levels of responsibility and performance (see Figure 18.6 on page 531 for an example). A career summary can be particularly useful for managers who have demonstrated the ability to manage increasingly larger and more complicated business operations—a key consideration when companies look to hire upper-level executives. -Whichever option you choose, make sure it includes many of the essential keywords you identified in your research—and adapt these words and phrases to each job opportunity as needed. -Education: If you're still in college or have recently graduated, education is probably your strongest selling point. Present your educational background in depth, choosing facts that support your professional theme. Give this section a heading such as "Education," "Technical Training," or "Academic Preparation," as appropriate. Then, starting with the most recent, list the name and location of each school you have attended, the month and year of your graduation (say "anticipated graduation: ______" if you haven't graduated yet), your major and minor fields of study, significant skills and abilities you've developed in your course work, and the degrees or certificates you've earned. Fine-tune your message by listing courses that are most relevant to each job opening, and indicate any scholarships, awards, or academic honors you've received. -Include Edu Section: Relevant training sponsored by business or govt organizations. High school or military training only if the associated achievements are pertinent to your career goals. -Certain situations (Listing your GPA): Depends on the job you want & the quality of your grades. There's no rule saying you must. If grades are better within your major than in other courses, you can also list your GPA as "Major GPA" and include only those courses within your major. If you don't: Prepare to answer questions about it during the interview process. Many employers will assume that your GPA isn't spectacular if it's not on your résumé. If you do: Mention the scale, especially if it isn't a four-point scale. -Job-Specific keywords -Work Experience, Skills, and Accomplishments: This section can be called "Work Experience," "Professional Experience," or "Work and Volunteer Experience," if you have limited work experience and want to bolster that with volunteer experience. Like the education section, the work experience section should focus on your overall theme in a way that shows how your past can contribute to an employer's future. Use keywords to call attention to the skills you've developed on the job and to your ability to handle responsibility. Emphasize what you accomplished in each position, not just the generic responsibilities of the job. -How to show work experience, skills, & accomplishments: List jobs in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent. Include military service, any internships & part-time or temporary jobs related to your career objective. Include the name & location of the employer, if needed briefly describe what it does. To keep the name of your current employer confidential, you can identify the firm by industry only ("a large video game developer"). If there's a change in name or location of the organization, state the current name, location and include the old info preceded by "formerly ..." Before or after each job listing, state your job title, years you worked there, full-time/part time; use the phrase "to present" denoting current employment. Jobs that are most recent or more closely related to target position, should take the most space. Mention when you're personally responsible for something significant. List skills & accomplishments. -Helpful tips when writing a resume: Write a 30-second "commercial" for each major skill you want to highlight. (should provide proof of skill possession) Keep "commercials" brief. Save detailed proof statements for cover letters & interview questions. -Certain Situations, part-time, temporary, or entry-level (that don't relate to career obj): Use your best judgment when it comes to including or excluding them. Lots of minor/irrelevant work details lead to clutter, particularly if you've been in the professional workforce for a few years. Use if you don't have a long employment history, including these jobs shows ability & willingness to keep working. -Activities and Achievements: This optional section can be used to highlight activities and achievements outside of a work or educational context—but only if they make you a more attractive job candidate. For example, traveling, studying, or working abroad and fluency in multiple languages could weigh heavily in your favor with employers who do business internationally. -Many employers are involved in their local communities: Tend to look positively at those active & concerned members of their communities. Include community service activities suggesting leadership, teamwork, communication skills, technical aptitude, or other valuable attributes. -Avoid: Indicating membership or significant activity in religious or political organizations, (unless applying to these organizations). Doing so may raise concerns for people with differing beliefs or affiliations. -However: Highlight skills you developed while involved with such groups refer to it generically as a "not-for-profit organization." -Little job experience & not much outside of education: Involvement in athletics or other organized student activities. Consider mentioning publications, projects, & other accomplishments that required relevant business skills. -Personal Data and References: In nearly all instances your résumé should not include any personal data beyond the information described in the previous sections. When applying to U.S. companies, never include any of the following: physical characteristics, age, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, religious or political affiliations, race, national origin, salary history, reasons for leaving jobs, names of previous supervisors, names of references, Social Security number, or student ID number. However, be aware that standards can vary in other countries. For example, some international employers might require you to include your citizenship, nationality, or marital status. -Regarding Personal data & reference: Availability of references is assumed (no "References available upon request") Have a list of several references when beginning job applications. Reference sheet with your name & contact info at the top. For a finished look, use the same design & layout you use for your résumé. List 3 or 4 people who've agreed to serve as references. (person's name, job title, organization, address, telephone number, email address (if the reference prefers to be contacted by email) & relationship) -Some scenarios Figures 18.4-18.6: Scenario 1: Positioning yourself for an ideal opportunity (when you've found a job opening that aligns closely with your career goals and your academic and professional credentials) Scenario 2: Positioning yourself for an available opportunity (when you can't find a job in your chosen field and need to adapt to whatever opportunities are available) Scenario 3: Positioning yourself for more responsibility (after you have some experience in your field and want to apply for positions of greater responsibility)

Avoiding Mistakes

-Overlooking résumé errors -Misspelling the manager's name -Arriving late for an interview -Posting something unprofessional -Completing 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, 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 reject your résumé.

Revising Your Résumé

-Revising your résumé for clarity and conciseness is essential. Recruiters and hiring managers want to find key pieces of information about you, including your top skills, your current job, and your education, in a matter of seconds. Many are overwhelmed with résumés, and if they have to work to find or decode this information, chances are they'll toss yours aside and move on to the next one in the pile. Remember the fundamental purpose of the résumé—to get you an interview, not to get you a job. Weed out details and irrelevant information until your résumé is tight, clear, and focused. -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 five years of professional experience, 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 as well because the qualifications for such jobs can require more description.

Adapting Your Résumé to Your Audience

-Show How Your Capabilities Meet Business Concerns -Use the Same Terminology as the Employer -Translate" Your Experience -The importance of adapting your résumé to your target readers' needs and interests cannot be overstated. In a competitive job market, the more you seem 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. Example: an in-house public relations (PR) department and an independent PR agency perform many of the same tasks, but the outside agency must also sell its services to multiple clients. Consequently, it needs employees who are skilled at attracting and keeping paying customers in addition to being skilled at PR. If you are applying for both in-house and agency PR jobs, you need to adapt your résumé for each of these audiences. -An essential step in adapting your résumé is using the same terminology as the employer uses to describe job responsibilities and professional accomplishments. In Figures 18.4 through 18.6 starting on page 529, you can see how the sample résumés do this, incorporating key terms and phrases from the job postings. If you are applying for business positions after military service or moving from one industry to another, you may need to "translate" your experience into the language of your target employers. For instance, military experience can help you develop many skills that are valuable in business, but military terminology can sound like a foreign language to people who aren't familiar with it. Isolate the important general concepts and present them in the business language your target employers use.

Characteristics of Résumé Formats

-The Chronological Résumé: In a chronological résumé, the work experience section dominates and is placed immediately after your contact information and introductory statement (see Figure 18.6 on page 531 for an example). Many employers prefer this format because it presents your professional history in a clear, easy-to-follow arrangement. If just graduating from college & have limited professional experience, you can vary this chronological approach by putting your educational qualifications before your experience. When there's few years of experience the résumé strategy should shift to emphasize work history & accomplishments. it might not be right for you at this stage in your career. -The Functional Résumé: A functional résumé, sometimes called a skills résumé, emphasizes your skills and capabilities, identifying employers and academic experience in subordinate sections. This arrangement stresses individual areas of competence rather than job history. The functional approach has three benefits: (1) Without having to read through job descriptions, employers can get an idea of what you can do for them; (2) you can emphasize previous job experience through the skills you gained in those positions; and (3) you can deemphasize any lengthy unemployment or lack of career progress. Be aware that because the functional résumé can obscure your work history, many employment professionals are suspicious of it. Moreover, it lacks the evidence of job experience that supports your skills claims. often considered by people with limited or spotty employment history. -The Combination Résumé: A combination résumé meshes the skills focus of the functional format with the job history focus of the chronological format. Figures 18.4 (page 529) and 18.5 (page 530) show examples of combination résumés. The chief advantage of this format is that it allows you to highlight your capabilities and education when you don't have a long or steady employment history, without raising concerns that you might be hiding something about your past. Even for an ideal job-search scenario, where your academic and professional experiences and interests closely match the parameters of the job opening, you still need to adapt your résumé content carefully to "echo" the specific language of the job description. you'll need to adjust your plans and adapt your résumé to the openings that are available. Look for opportunities that meet your near-term financial needs while giving you the chance to expand your skill set so that you'll be even more prepared when an ideal opportunity does come along.

Striving to Excel

-The nature of the work often changes as markets and technologies evolve, & expectations of quality tend to increase over time as well. -View this constant change as a positive thing, as a way to avoid stagnation & boredom. -Striving to excel can be a challenge when there's a mismatch between the job's requirements & your skills & knowledge. -If you are underqualified for a job, identify your weaknesses quickly & come up with a plan to address them. -A supportive manager will help you identify these areas & encourage improvement through training or mentoring. -Don't wait for a boss to tell you your work is subpar. -If floundering, ask for help. -If overqualified for a job, it's easy to slip into a rut & eventually underperform simply because there's no challenge. -Current & future bosses aren't going to judge on how well you performed relative to your needs & expectations; they're going to judge on how well you performed relative to the job's requirements. -Work with your boss to find ways to make your job more challenging if possible, or start looking for a better job if necessary, but be sure to maintain your level of performance until you can bring your responsibilities & talents into closer alignment.

Organize Your Résumé Around Your Strengths

-Typical Résumé Formats (Chronological, Functional, Combination) -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.

Analyzing Your Purpose and Audience

-Understand the True Function of a Résumé (Brief, Persuasive Message, Stimulate Interest; Get an Interview) -Learn About Your Audience (Professions, Industries, Companies, Those Who May Be Reading Your Résumé) -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 (see Table 18.2). In other words, the purpose of a résumé is not to get you a job but rather to get you an interview. -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. -By the way, if employers ask to see your "CV," they're referring to your curriculum vitae, the term used instead of résumé in academic professions and in many countries outside the US. Résumés and CVs are essentially the same, although CVs can be much more detailed and include personal information that is not included in a résumé.

Compose Your Résumé 1 of 3

-Use a Simple, Direct Style -Use Short Phrases, Not Whole Sentences -Start Phrases with Action Verbs -Provide Specific Supporting Evidence -Include Business or Technical Keywords -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. -For example, you might say, "Created a campus organization for students interested in entrepreneurship" or "Managed a fast-food restaurant and four employees." Whenever you can, quantify the results so that your claims don't come across as empty puffery. Don't just say that you're a team player or detail oriented—show that you are by offering concrete proof. -Providing specific supporting evidence is vital, but make sure you don't go overboard with details. Carefully select the most compelling evidence so that your message is clear and immediate. Include relevant keywords in your introductory statement, work history, and education sections. Identifying these keywords requires some research, but you can uncover many of them while you are looking into various industries and companies. In particular, study job descriptions carefully. In contrast to the action verbs that catch a human reader's attention, keywords that catch a computer's attention are usually nouns that describe the specific skills, attributes, and experiences an employer is looking for in a candidate. Keywords can include the business and technical terms associated with a specific profession, industry-specific jargon, names or types of products or systems used in a profession, job titles, and college degrees. -Why particular words & phrases are important? The majority of résumés are now subjected to keyword searches in an applicant tracking system or other database, in which a recruiter searches for résumés most likely to match the requirements of a particular job. Résumés that don't closely match the requirements may never be seen by a human reader, so it is essential to use the words and phrases that a recruiter is most likely to search on. (Although most experts used to advise including a separate keyword summary as a standalone list, the trend nowadays is to incorporate your keywords into your introductory statement and other sections of your résumé.)

Choosing a Design Strategy for Your Résumé

-You'll find a wide range of résumé designs in use today, from text-only documents that follow a conventional layout to full-color infographics with unique designs. As with every type of business message, keep your audience, your goals, and your resources in mind. Don't choose a style just because it seems trendy or flashy or different. For example, you can find many eye-catching infographic résumés online, but many of those are created by graphic designers applying for visual jobs in advertising, fashion, web design, and other areas in which graphic design skills are a must. In other words, the intended audience expects an applicant to have design skills, and the résumé is a good opportunity to demonstrate those. In contrast, a colorful, graphically intense résumé might just look odd to recruiters in finance, engineering, or other professions. -Make subheadings easy to find and easy to read. Avoid big blocks of text, and use lists to itemize your most important qualifications. Above all, don't make the reader work to find the key points of your story. Your résumé should be a high-efficiency information delivery system, not a treasure hunt. Simple formatting and clean design are essential for dealing with an applicant tracking system because complicated formats can confuse the system. If you want a more "designed" résumé to hand out during networking events or for other uses, you can always create a second version. -Use a classic, conservative design that will serve you well for most business opportunities. Notice how they feature simplicity, an easy-to-read layout, effective use of white space, and clear typefaces. Recruiters can pick out the key pieces of information in a matter of seconds.

Writing the Story of You

-Your Passions -Your Skills -What You Bring to the Organization -Your Past Experiences -Your Goals -Your Leadership and Professional Talents -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 (see Figure 18.1 on the next page). 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 helps you think about where you want to go and how to present yourself to target employers. -Building blocks: Where have I been? Where am I now? Where do I want to be? -Remember this is a private document designed to help you clarify your thoughts & plans.

Compose Your Résumé 2 of 3

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Compose Your Résumé 3 of 3

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Creating Digital Files of Your Résumé

A plain-text file (sometimes known as an ASCII text file) is a digital version of your résumé that has no font formatting, no bullet symbols, no colors, no lines or boxes, and no other special formatting. The plain-text version can be used in two ways. First, you can include it in the body of an email message, for employers who want email delivery but don't want file attachments. Second, you can copy and paste the sections into the application forms on an employer's website. A plain-text version is easy to create with your word processor. Start with the file you used to create your résumé, use the "Save As" choice to save it as "plain text" or whichever similarly labeled option your software has, and verify the result using a basic text editor (such as Microsoft Notepad). If necessary, reformat the page manually, moving text and inserting space as needed. For simplicity's sake, align headings with the left margin, rather than trying to center them manually. Creating a Word File of Your Résumé: In some cases an employer or job-posting website will want you to upload a Microsoft Word file or attach it to an email message. (Although there are certainly other word-processing software programs available, Microsoft Word is the de facto standard in business these days.) This method of transferring information preserves the design and layout of your résumé and saves you the trouble of creating a plain-text version. However, before you submit a Word file to anyone, make sure your computer is free of viruses. Infecting a potential employer's computer will not make a good first impression. Creating a PDF Version of Your Résumé:Creating a PDF file is a simple procedure, depending on the software you have. In newer versions of Microsoft Word, you can save a document directly as a PDF file. The advantages of creating PDFs are that you preserve the formatting of your résumé (unlike pasting plain text into an email message), and you create a file type that is less vulnerable to viruses than word-processer files.

Chapt 18 vocab

Applicant Tracking Systems-computer systems that capture & store incoming resumes & help recruiters find good prospects for current openings. Networking-The process of making connections with mutually beneficial business contacts. Resume-A structured, written summary of a person's education, employment background, & job qualifications. Chronological Resume-Format that emphasizes work experience, with past jobs shown in reverse chronological order; the most resume format. Functional Resume-Format that emphasizes skills & capabilities while identifying employers & academic experience in subordinate sections; many recruiters view this format with suspicion. Combination Resume-Format that include the best features of the chronological & functional approaches.

Developing a Personal Strategy

As you craft your personal strategy, keep these three guidelines 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 ensure that you don't miss opportunities or make mistakes such as losing someone's email 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 might miss opportunities and you won't be as prepared as other candidates. -Look for stepping-stone opportunities. Particularly in today's tough job market, you might not find the opportunity you're looking for right away. You might need to take a job that doesn't meet your expectations while you keep looking to get on the right track. But view every job as an opportunity to learn workplace skills, observe effective and ineffective business practices, and fine-tune your sense of how you'd like to spend your career. -Expect to interact with intelligent technology throughout the job-search process. To find the best employees and reduce the demands on their recruiting staffs, many companies now use a range of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to find potential hires, filter applications, interact with candidates, evaluate résumés, and even conduct screening interviews via chat or video. -Clean up your digital footprint before you start applying for jobs. If there is anything about you online that could harm your job prospects, chances are an employer will find it during the recruiting process. Review all your social media profiles and posts, and consider removing anything that might be worrisome to recruiters (human or AI). Recruiters even have tools that attempt to analyze your personality based on your social media activity, so make sure your public digital presence reflects who you intend to be as a professional.

Considering Photos, Videos, Presentations and Infographics

As you produce your résumé in various formats, you will encounter the question of whether to include a photograph of yourself on or with your résumé. For print or digital documents that you will be submitting to employers or job websites, the safest advice is to avoid photos. The reason is that seeing visual cues of the age, ethnicity, and gender of candidates early in the selection process exposes employers to complaints of discriminatory hiring practices. In fact, some employers won't even look at résumés that include photos, and some applicant tracking systems automatically discard résumés with any extra files. However, photographs are acceptable and expected for social media résumés and other online formats where you are not actively submitting a résumé to an employer. In addition to the six main résumé formats, some applicants create PowerPoint or Prezi presentations, videos, or infographics to supplement a conventional résumé. Two key advantages of a presentation supplement are flexibility and multimedia capabilities. Benefits of presentations (Prezi/PowerPoint): - Present a menu of choices on the opening screen and allow viewers to click through to sections of interest. -Most of the things accomplished with a presentation can be done with an online résumé, which is probably more convenient for most readers. A video résumé can be a compelling supplement as well, but be aware that some employment law experts advise employers not to view videos, at least not until after candidates have been evaluated solely on their credentials. The reason for this caution is the same as with photographs. In addition, videos are more cumbersome to evaluate than paper or digital résumés, and many recruiters refuse to watch them. However, not all companies share this concern over videos, so you'll have to research their individual preferences. Research the preferences of the companies on your target list before you decide to invest time and money in a video résumé or supplement. Some accept videos: -Online retailer Zappos An infographic résumé attempts to convey a person's career development and skill set graphically through a visual metaphor such as a timeline or subway map or as a poster with an array of individual elements. A well-designed infographic could be an intriguing element of the job-search package for candidates in certain situations and professions because it can definitely stand out from traditional résumés and can show a high level of skill in visual communication. Problems with infographics: -Likely to be incompatible with most applicant tracking systems(A.T.S). -Incompatible with the screening habits of most recruiters. -Risk getting your info tossed out. Infographics can be helpful: -Should complement a conventional résumé, NOT replace it. -Successful infographics require graphical design skills that many job seekers don't have.

Chronological resume example

Gomes stays with a summary of qualifications as her opening statement but gives it a new title to reflect her experience and to focus on her career path as a market analyst. Work experience is now her key selling point, so she shifts to a conventional chronological résumé that puts employment ahead of education.She also removes the part-time jobs she had during high school and college. She updates the Education section with a listing for the MBA program she has started (selecting points of emphasis relevant to the job opening) and reduces the amount of detail about her undergraduate degree. She updates the Professional Engagement and Awards section with timely and relevant information.

Producing Your Résumé

Design Elements for Effective Résumé: -Clean -Professional Looking -Skimmable Effective résumé designs are clear, clean, and professional. 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 typically 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 -Digital plain-text file -Microsoft Word file -Online résumé -PDF file Unfortunately, no single format or medium will work for all situations, and employer expectations continue to change as technology evolves. Find out what each employer or job-posting website expects, and provide your résumé in that specific format. -Conventional Résumé -Plain-text File -Microsoft Word File •Online Résumé -PDF File

Combination resume example

Gomes modified her summary of qualifications to increase emphasis on customer service. She adjusts the selection of highlighted courses to reflect the retail and e-commerce aspects of this particular job opening. She adjusts the wording of this Etsy project description to closely mirror what Amazon is-an e-commerce platform serving a multitude of independent merchants. She provides more detail regarding her customer support experience. The final sections are still relevant to this job opening, so she leaves them unchanged.

Distributing Your Résumé

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. Take some care with the packaging. Spend a few extra cents to mail these documents in a flat 9 × 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. -Emailing your résumé. Some employers want applicants to include the text of their résumés in the body of an email message; others prefer an attached Microsoft Word or PDF file. If you have a reference number or a job ad number, include it in the subject line of your email message. -Submitting your résumé to an employer's website. Many employers, including most large companies, now prefer or 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 job boards that address specific professions, or with staffing services such as Volt. Roughly 100,000 job boards are now online, so you'll need to spend some time looking for sites that specialize in your target industries, regions, or professions. Before you upload your résumé to any site, however, learn about its privacy protection. Some sites allow you to specify levels of confidentiality, such as letting employers search your qualifications without seeing your personal contact information or preventing your current employer from seeing your résumé. Don't post your résumé to any website that doesn't give you the option of restricting the display of your contact information. Only employers that are registered clients of the service should be able to see your contact information.

Finding the Ideal Opportunity in Today's Job Market

L O 18.1 List eight key steps to finding the ideal opportunity in today's job market. Identifying and landing a job can be a long and challenging 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.

The Three-Step Process for Résumés

Long description: The three steps depicted in the figure are plan, write, and complete. The details of the steps are as follows: -1. Plan: Analyze the Situation: Recognize that the purpose of your résumé is to get an interview, not to get a job. Gather Information: Research target industries and companies so that you know what they're looking for in new hires; learn about various jobs and what to expect; learn about the hiring manager, if possible. Choose Media and Channels: Start with a traditional paper résumé and develop scannable, plain text, PDF, and social/ online versions, as needed. Consider other formats as supplements. Organize the Information: Choose an organizational model that highlights your strengths and downplays your shortcomings; use the chronological approach unless you have a strong reason not to. -2. Write: Adapt to Your Audience: Plan your wording carefully so that you can catch a recruiter's eye within seconds; translate your education and experience into attributes that target employers find valuable. Compose the Message: Write clearly and succinctly, using active, powerful language that is appropriate to the industries and companies you're targeting; use a professional tone in all communications. -3. Complete: Revise the Message: Evaluate content and review readability, then edit and rewrite for conciseness and clarity. Produce the Message: Use effective design elements and a suitable layout for a clean, professional appearance; seamlessly combine text and graphical elements. When printing, use quality paper and a good printer. Proofread the Message: Review for errors in layout, spelling, and mechanics; mistakes can cost you interview opportunities. Distribute the Message: Deliver your résumé, carefully following the specific instructions of each employer or job board website.

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: -Slow Career Growth -Frequent Job Changes:If you've had a number of short-term jobs of a similar type, such as independent contracting and temporary assignments, you can 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. -Inexperience:.Mention related volunteer work and membership in professional groups. List relevant course work and internships. -Overqualification: Tone down your résumé, focusing exclusively on the experience and skills that relate to the position. -Long-Term Employment with One Company: Itemize each position held at the firm to show growth within the organization and increasing responsibilities along the way. -Job Termination for Cause: Be honest with interviewers and address their concerns with proof, such as recommendations and examples of completed projects. -Criminal Record: You don't necessarily need to disclose a criminal record or time spent incarcerated on your résumé, but you may be asked about it on job application forms. Laws regarding what employers may ask (and whether they can conduct a criminal background check) vary by state and profession, but if you are asked and the question applies to you, you are legally bound to answer truthfully. Use the interview process to explain any mitigating circumstances and to emphasize your rehabilitation and commitment to being a law-abiding, trustworthy employee.

Learning to Think Like an Employer

Quality of Hire -Your Ability to Perform -Your Overall Reliability -Your Motivation Level -When you know your side of the hiring equation a little better, switch sides and look at it from an employer's perspective. 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? -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—if you're somebody who "gets it" when it comes to being a professional in today's workplace. A great way to get inside the heads of corporate recruiters is to "listen in" on their professional conversations by reading periodicals such as Workforce Management and blogs such as Fistful of Talent and The HR Capitalist.

Producing a Conventional Printed Résumé

Traditional: -Bring to Job Fairs, Interviews, and Other Events Scannable: -Website Submissions -Optical Scanning Systems for Keywords Even though most of your application activity will take place online, having a copy of a conventional printed résumé is important for taking to job fairs, interviews, and other events. Many interviewers expect you to bring a printed résumé to the interview, even if you applied online. The résumé can serve as a note-taking form or discussion guide, and it is tangible evidence of your attention to professionalism and detail. When printing a résumé, choose a heavier, higher-quality paper designed specifically for résumés and other important documents. White or slightly off-white is the best color choice. Avoid papers with borders or backgrounds. 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 digital text. These systems were once quite common, but their use has been declining rapidly as more employers prefer email submissions or website application forms. If you need to produce a scannable résumé, search online for "formatting a scannable résumé" to get detailed instructions.

Translating Your Potential Into a Specific Solution for Each Employer

•Customize your résumé for each position •Relate your experience and skills to the specific needs of the position -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. Customizing your résumé to each job opening is an important step in showing employers that you will be a good fit. As you can see from the sample résumés in Figures 18.4 through 18.6 on pages 529-531, customizing your résumé is not difficult if you have done your research. In fact, 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. Info for 18.4: -Gomes includes phone and email contacts, along with a blog that features academic-oriented writing. -Using a summary of qualifications for her opening statement lets her target the résume and highlight her most compelling attributes. -Her education is a much stronger selling point than her work experience, so she goes into some detail carefully selecting course names and project descriptions to echo the language of the job description. -She adjusts the descriptions and accomplishments of each role to high light the aspects of her work and volunteer experience that are relevant to the position. - The final sections highlight activities and awards that reflect her interest in marketing and her desire to improve her skills.

Taking the Initiative to Find Opportunities

•Identify and Target Companies of Interest •Contact Human Resources •Contact Company Representatives •Use Social Media •Describe What You Can Offer •Ask to Be Considered -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. -To maximize your chances, take the initiative and seek 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. And be sure to take advantage of the growing number of career-related mobile apps (see Figure 18.2 on page 519). don't hesitate to contact interesting companies even if they haven't advertised job openings to the public yet; they might be looking for somebody just like you.

Seeking Career Counseling

•Individual Counseling (Career Planning, Job-Search Workshops) -Job Fairs -On-Campus Interviews -Job Listings -Online Resources -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. Many of the websites listed in Table 18.1 offer articles and online tests to help you choose a career path, identify essential skills, and prepare to enter the job market.

Building Your Network

•Reach Out to Your Classmates •Target Professions, Industries, and Companies •Use Online Sources and Social Media -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, from LinkedIn and Twitter to Facebook and Google+. In addition to making connections through social media tools, you might get yourself noticed by company recruiters. -Start building your network now, before you need it. Your classmates could end up being some of your most valuable contacts, if not right away, then possibly later in your career. 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. You can also follow individual executives at your target companies to learn about their interests and concerns. Be on the lookout for career-oriented Tweetups, in which people who've connected on Twitter get together for in-person networking events. Connect with people on LinkedIn and Facebook, particularly in groups dedicated to particular career interests. -Depending on the system and the settings on individual users' accounts, you may be able to introduce yourself via public or private messages. Just make sure you are respectful of people, and don't take up much of their time. -Networking is more essential than ever because the vast majority of job openings are never advertised to the general public. To avoid the time & expense of sifting through thousands of applications & 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. •Join Student Business Organizations •Attend Industry Trade Shows •Participate in Volunteering Opportunities -Participate in student business organizations, especially those with ties to professional 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 demonstrate your ability to solve problems, manage projects, and lead others. You can do some good while creating a network for yourself.

Researching Industries and Companies of Interest

•Visit Company Websites •Talk to Customers •Start with the Riley Guide •Use Specialized Industry Websites •Peruse Periodicals and Newspapers •Visit Blogs, Podcasts, and Community Posts •Use Job-Search Apps -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. -Table 18.1 on page 517 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. Your college's career center placement office probably maintains an up-to-date list as well. -To learn more about contemporary business topics, peruse leading business periodicals and newspapers with significant business sections (in some cases you may need to go through your library's online databases to access back issues). -Thousands of bloggers, microbloggers, and podcasters offer news and commentary on the business world. AllTop is another good resource for finding people who write about topics that interest you. In addition to learning more about professions and opportunities, this research will help you get comfortable with the jargon and buzzwords currently in use in a particular field, including essential keywords to use in your résumé. -Take advantage of job-search apps as well, including those offered by job-posting websites and major employers. You can use them to learn more about the company as well as specific jobs. See "Job-Search Strategies: Maximize Your Mobile" for more tips on using a smartphone in your job search.