GS MGT 303 CH 15 Building Careers and Writing Résumés

Organizing Your Résumé Around Your Strengths Although a résumé can be organized in a number of ways, most are some variation of chronological organization, functional organization, or a combination of the two. The right choice depends on your background and your goals.

• The Chronological Résumé • The Functional Résumé • The Combination Résumé

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 to Twitter to Facebook. In addition to making connections through social media tools, you might get yourself noticed by company recruiters.

Job-Specific Keywords In addition to clear writing with specific examples, the words and phrases used throughout your résumé are critically important. Most résumés are now subjected to

keyword searches in an applicant tracking system, 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.

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.

Table 15.1 lists the attributes companies list most frequently when looking for new employees.

3. Researching Industries and Companies of Interest 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.

Table 15.2 on the next page lists some of the many websites where you can learn more about companies and find job openings. Your college's career center placement office probably maintains an up-to-date list as well.

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, for example, 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 that you create a file type that is less vulnerable to viruses than word-processor files.

Creating a Plain-Text File 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, select 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).

Producing a Conventional Printed Résumé 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 employers 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.38 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.

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 coursework, 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.

Introductory Statement You have three options for a brief introductory statement that follows your name and contact information:24

You can choose to open with a • career objective, a • qualifications summary, or a • career summary.

Creating an Online Résumé 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. For most job hunters, though, the most important online résumé you can create is your LinkedIn profile (see page 507). You have various options for posting a résumé online, but your LinkedIn profile is the most important of these.

Employers expect you to be familiar with important developments in their industries. Take advantage of job-search apps as well, including those offered by job-posting websites and major employers (see Figure 15.2).

You can use them to learn more about the company as well as about specific jobs. In addition to researching companies and applying for openings, integrating a mobile device into your job-search strategy can help with networking and staying on top of your active job applications. For instance, 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 to their next choice. By staying plugged in via your mobile device, you won't let any opportunities pass you by.

1. Writing the Story of You 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. Remember that this is a private document designed to help you clarify your thoughts and plans, although you will probably find ways to adapt some of what you've written to various job-search documents, including your résumé.

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 15.1). 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.

Selecting the Best Media and Channels

You should expect to produce your résumé in several media and formats. "Producing Your Résumé" on page 500 discusses your options.

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 electronic résumés, and some recruiters refuse to watch them.36 However, not all companies share this concern over videos, so you'll have to research their individual preferences. In fact, the online retailer Zappos encourages "video cover letters" from interested candidates.

Whenever you can, quantify the results with carefully selected

evidence that confirms your abilities:

References For professional and managerial positions, nearly all employers ask for and check references, so you need to be prepared with a list of people who are willing to speak on your behalf.

(The availability of references is assumed, so you don't need to put "References available upon request" at the end of your résumé.) Plan to gather three types of references as you begin your job search:29 Gather three types of references: 1. professional references, 2. personal references, and 3. LinkedIn recommendations.

Learning Objectives After studying this chapter, you will be able to

1 List eight key steps to finding the ideal opportunity in today's job market. 2 Explain the process of planning your résumé, including how to choose the best résumé organization. 3 Describe the tasks involved in writing your résumé, and list the sections to consider including in your résumé. 4 Characterize the completing step for résumés, including the six most common formats in which you can produce a résumé. 5 Identify nine tips for creating a successful LinkedIn profile.

Building an Effective LinkedIn Profile Learning Objective 5 Identify nine tips for creating a successful LinkedIn profile. 1. Photo. Add a photo that says "professional" without being overly formal. You don't need to hire a professional photographer, but the photo needs to be clear and lit well enough so that your face isn't in shadow. 2. Headline. Write a headline that expresses who you are or aspire to be as a professional, such as "Data science major ready to make data come alive through leading-edge techniques in data mining, visualization, and AI." Include keywords that target employers are likely to be searching for. 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. 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, including linking 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. 9. Volunteer experience and causes. Add volunteering activities and charitable organizations that you support. In addition to completing your profile, search for and join groups that focus on your professional interests. This is a great way to expand your network and learn from leaders in your field. Be sure to review the privacy and communication settings as well. The options are fairly extensive, so take time to consider each one carefully.

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 15.6 on page 503 for an example).

A career summary is particularly good for people who have demonstrated the ability to take on increasing levels of responsibility in their chosen field and who want to continue in that field.

• The Combination Résumé

A combination résumé meshes the skills focus of the functional format with the job history focus of the chronological format. Figures 15.4 (page 501) and 15.5 (page 502) 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.

• 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 earlier job experience through the skills you gained in those positions; and (3) you can deemphasize any lengthy unemployment or lack of career progress. However, you should be aware that because the functional résumé can obscure your work history, some employment professionals are suspicious of it.15 If you don't believe the chronological format will work for you, consider the combination résumé instead.

Proofreading Your Résumé 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.

A human reader will view errors as signs of carelessness, and an applicant tracking system can be programmed to automatically reject résumés with spelling and grammatical errors.40 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.

Printing a Scannable Résumé You may encounter an employer that prefers printed résumés in scannable format, but most now want online submissions. 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.

A scannable résumé can contain the same information as your conventional résumé, but it needs to have a simple format without underlining, bullet points, and other elements that can confuse the scanning system. If you need to produce a scannable résumé, search online for "formatting a scannable résumé" to get detailed instructions.

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. However, infographics are likely to be incompatible with applicant tracking systems and with the screening habits of most recruiters, so don't submit an infographic when a company expects a conventional résumé.

4. Translating Your General Potential into a Specific Solution for Each Employer An important aspect of any 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.

As a job candidate, customizing your résumé to each job opening is an important step in showing employers that you will be a good fit. Keep in mind that employers care about your past only to the extent that it will help you contribute to their future.

Checklist ✓ Writing an Effective Résumé A. Plan your resume ◘ Analyze your purpose and audience carefully to make sure your message meets employers' needs. ◘ Gather pertinent information about your target companies. ◘ Select the required media types by researching the preferences of each employer. ◘ Organize your résumé around your strengths, choosing the chronological, functional, or combination structure. (Be careful about using the functional structure.)

B. Write your résumé. ◘ Keep your résumé honest. ◘ Adapt your résumé to your audience to highlight the qualifications each employer is looking for. ◘ Choose a career objective, qualifications summary, or career summary as your introductory statement—and make it concise, concrete, and reader-focused. ◘ Use powerful language to convey your name and contact information, introductory statement, education, work experience, skills, work or school accomplishments, and activities and achievements. C. Complete your résumé. ◘ Revise your résumé until it is clear, concise, compelling—and perfect. ◘ Produce your résumé in all the formats you might need: traditional printed résumé, scannable, plain-text file, Microsoft Word file, PDF, or online. ◘ Proofread your résumé to make sure it is absolutely perfect. ◘ Distribute your résumé using the means that each employer prefers.

Thanks to Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media, you can often learn valuable details about individual managers in various companies.

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 United States. Résumés and CVs are essentially the same, although CVs can be much more detailed and contain personal information that is not included in a résumé.

Producing Your Résumé Producing your résumé starts with choosing a design strategy and then creating your résumé in as many formats as you'll need.

Choosing a Design Strategy for Your Résumé • The most important consideration in résumé design is that it be easy to read and easy to skim quickly. Don't choose a style just because it seems trendy or flashy or different. For example, you can find some eye-catching infographic résumés online, but many of those are created by graphic designers applying for visually oriented 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—and it's almost guaranteed to get rejected by an ATS.

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 your pertinent work history, including 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.

Adapting Your Résumé to Your Audience Plan to adapt your résumé to each job opening in order to show how your capabilities meet the demands and expectations of the position. For 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. Plan to adapt your résumé to each job opening in order to show how your capabilities meet the demands and expectations of the position. Pay close attention to any application instructions that an employer posts online. Companies may request that you include a specific detail on your résumé or other document, and they will check to see if you have demonstrated this attention to detail.

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. You can title this section generically as "Qualifications Summary" or "Summary of Qualifications," or, if you have one dominant qualification, you can use that as the title.

Consider using a qualifications summary if you have one or more important qualifications but don't yet have a long career history. Also, if you haven't been working long but your college education has given you a dominant professional "theme," such as multimedia design or statistical analysis, you can craft a qualifications summary that highlights your educational preparedness.

Learning Objective 2 Explain the process of planning your résumé, including how to choose the best résumé organization.

Developing a résumé is one of those projects that really benefits from multiple sessions spread out over several days or weeks.

7. Avoiding Career-Search Mistakes While you're making all these positive moves to show employers you will be a quality hire, take care to avoid simple blunders such as these that can derail a job search:

Don't let a careless mistake knock you out of contention for a great job. • Not catching mistakes in your résumé • Misspelling the name of a manager you're writing to • Showing up late for an interview • Posting something unprofessional on social media • Failing to complete application forms correctly • Asking for information that you can easily find yourself on a company's website Busy recruiters will seize on these errors to narrow the list of candidates they need to spend time on, so don't give them a reason to pass on your résumé. Also, assume that every employer will conduct an online search on you, because most companies now do so.9 They want to know what your LinkedIn profile looks like and whether you've posted anything unprofessional on social media. If they don't like what they see or if what they see doesn't match what they read on your résumé, you probably won't be invited for an interview.

6. Seeking Career Counseling Your college's career center probably offers a wide variety of services, including individual counseling, interview practice, résumé help, job fairs, on-campus interviews, and job listings. You can also find career planning advice online.

Don't overlook the many resources available through your college's career center. Many of the websites listed in Table 15.2 offer articles and online tests to help you choose a career path, identify essential skills, and prepare to enter the job market.

Composing Your Résumé 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. Instead, start your phrases with strong action verbs such as these:

Draft your résumé using short, crisp phrases built around strong verbs and nouns.

Analyzing Your Purpose and Audience 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 15.3).

In other words, the purpose of a résumé is not to get you a job but rather to get you an interview.12 Once you view your résumé as a persuasive business message, it's easier to decide what should and shouldn't be in it. Table 15.3 Fallacies and Facts About Résumés

On the Job: Communicating At Patreon Breaking the Hiring Templates That Limit Opportunities When companies prepare to hire employees, it makes sense for them to establish criteria for the skills, experience, education, and other attributes that candidates should possess. Together, all these criteria create a sort of "template" that hiring managers can use to evaluate applicants, which helps ensure that all candidates get measured against the same criteria. While this sounds sensible in theory, it is often flawed in practice, with negative consequences for companies and aspiring employees alike. Hiring templates have three potential problems.

First, they can be unrealistic, with companies setting standards that few candidates can meet—and that are sometimes far in excess of what positions really require. A second and more difficult problem to solve with hiring templates is that they are both explicit and implicit. The explicit parts of the template are all the written criteria in the job description and in any tests or assignments that candidates are asked to complete. The implicit parts are the qualitative, "gut feel" decisions, sometimes unspoken, that recruiters and interviewers make about candidates. The first two problems can contribute to a third problem, which is the tendency for companies to recruit more of the same—people from the same universities, with the same degrees, from the same companies, in the same social networks, and so on. When companies succumb to these hiring practices, they can end up with monocultures in which most of the workforce looks alike, talks alike, and acts alike. People who don't fit the template often don't make it through the hiring process, and those who do can feel like outsiders even if they do make it inside.

Figure 15.3 Three-Step Writing Process for Résumés

Following the three-step writing process will help you create a successful résumé in a short time. Remember to pay attention to the "you" attitude and presentation quality; your résumé will not get far into the recruiting process if it doesn't speak to audience needs or contains multiple mistakes.

Check out the "Five-Minute Guide to Planning Your Résumé" at the end of the chapter. Before you dive into your résumé, be aware that you will find a wide range of opinions regarding appropriate length, content, design, distribution methods, acceptable degrees of creativity, and whether writing a traditional résumé even makes sense in this age of online applications.

For example, you may encounter a prospective employer that wants you to tweet your résumé or submit all the links that make up your online presence, rather than submit a conventional résumé.11 You may run across examples of effective résumés that were produced as infographics, interactive videos, simulated search engine results, puzzles, games, graphic novels—you name it, somebody has probably tried it. 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.

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. However, photographs are acceptable and expected for LinkedIn and other online formats where you are not actively submitting a résumé to an employer.

Creating a Word File of Your Résumé Some employers and job websites will ask you to upload a Microsoft Word file or attach it to an email message. 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 file to anyone, make sure your computer is free of viruses. Infecting a potential employer's computer will not make a good first impression.

• 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 15.6 on page 503 for an example). The chronological approach is the most common way to organize a résumé, and many employers prefer this format because it presents your professional history in a clear, easy-to-follow arrangement.13 With its emphasis on your work history, however, it may not be the best choice if you have limited experience in the field you are pursuing or if your work history doesn't show a linear career with a steady progression of increasing responsibility.

Career objective A career objective identifies either a specific job you want to land or a general career track you would like to pursue. Some experts advise against including a career objective because it can categorize you so narrowly that you miss out on interesting opportunities, and it is essentially about fulfilling your desires, not about meeting the employer's needs.

In the past, most résumés included a career objective, but in recent years, more job seekers are using a qualifications summary or a career summary. However, if you have little or no work experience in your target profession, a career objective might be your best option. If you do opt for an objective, word it in a way that relates your aspirations to employer needs.

Activities and Achievements You can use this optional section 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 in your favor with employers that do business internationally.

Include personal accomplishments only if they suggest special skills or qualities that are relevant to the jobs you're seeking. Finally, if you have little or no job experience and not much to discuss outside of your education, you can indicate involvement in athletics or other organized student activities. Also consider mentioning publications, projects, and other accomplishments that required relevant business skills.

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. List your jobs in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent. Include military service and any internships and part-time or temporary jobs related to your career objective. Include the name and location of the employer, and if readers are unlikely to recognize the organization, briefly describe what it does.

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.

2. Learning to Think Like an Employer Now switch sides and look at the hiring process 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 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.2 Given this perspective, what steps can you take to present yourself as the low-risk, high-reward choice?

8. Developing as a Professional Striving to Excel Pros are good at what they do, and they never stop improving. No matter what your job might be at any given time—even if it is far from where you aspire to be—strive to perform at the highest possible level.

Not only do you have an ethical obligation to give your employer and your customers your best effort, but excelling at each level in your career is also the best way to keep climbing up to new positions of responsibility. Plus, being good at what you do delivers a sense of satisfaction that is hard to beat.

To become a valued network member, you need to be able to help others in some way. You may not have any influential contacts yet, but because you're researching industries and trends as part of your own job search, you probably have valuable information you can share via your online and 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. Networking is a mutually beneficial activity, so look for opportunities to help others. 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 and giving recommendations on LinkedIn.

For professional and personal references, you must ask permission before offering anyone's name as a reference. This conversation also gives you the chance to describe the opportunities you are pursuing, which helps your references frame what they have to say about you and lets you verify that each person is a good choice for you.

Reach out to the people you would like to use as references well before you need them. Describe the opportunities you are pursuing, include links to specific job postings if you have identified any, and provide any information (such as résumé) that people might need to refresh their memories about you and your qualifications. Prepare your reference sheet with your name and contact information at the top, using the same design and layout you use for your résumé. Then list the strongest three or four references you were able to get. Include each person's name, job title, organization, work address, preferred telephone number, and email address.

Completing Your Résumé Learning Objective 4 Characterize the completing step for résumés, including the six most common formats in which you can produce a 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. • If your employment history is brief, keep your printable résumé to one page; you can expand on this in your LinkedIn profile and other online platforms.

Keeping Your Résumé Honest Your résumé is a promotional message, so you naturally want to portray yourself in the best possible light. However, you must avoid any temptation to stretch the truth. Not only is this the right thing to do, but résumé fraud has become so widespread that many employers are stepping up their efforts to confirm the information that candidates supply.

These efforts include running background checks, verifying employment details, designing interview questions specifically to expose shaky information on résumés, and using standardized application forms that require candidates to provide specific details that might be missing from a résumé.20 Chances are good that false information on a résumé will be exposed somewhere during the application and interview process. Even if a deceptive candidate makes it past these checks, he or she must then live with the fear of being caught somewhere down the line—people have been fired years into their jobs for falsifying their résumés

5. Taking the Initiative to Find Opportunities When it comes to finding the right opportunities for you, the easiest ways are not always the most productive ways.

To maximize your chances, take the initiative and go find opportunities. Identify the companies you want to work for and focus your efforts on them. Get in touch with their human resources departments (or individual managers, if possible), describe what you can offer the company, and ask to be considered if any opportunities come up.3 Reach out to company representatives on social networks. Your message might appear right when a company is starting to look for someone but hasn't yet advertised the opening to the outside world. 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.

Personal Data In most cases, 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.

Writing Your Résumé Learning Objective 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," you might find that the words and ideas flow more easily. You could also pair up with 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.

When companies take a different approach, the results can expose the flaws in the conventional approach. For example, when firms use blind auditions or blind assessments (see page 534) to screen applicants, in which candidates' qualifications are assessed anonymously,

more women and graduates of community colleges get past the initial screening stage than they do in traditional interviewing processes. Open-source software projects, in which anyone can contribute sections of program code, subject to approval of a governing body, provide more evidence of exclusionary bias. When the gender of contributors is known to the gatekeepers, women's contributions are accepted less often than men's contributions are. However, if the process is anonymized so gatekeepers don't know contributors' gender, the situation is reversed.

Also, assume that every employer will conduct an online search on you, because most companies now do so.9 They want to know what

our LinkedIn profile looks like and whether you've posted anything unprofessional on social media. If they don't like what they see or if what they see doesn't match what they read on your résumé, you probably won't be invited for an interview.

To learn more about contemporary business topics

scan leading business periodicals and newspapers with significant business sections. In addition, thousands of bloggers, Twitter users, and podcasters offer news and commentary on the business world. AllTop (alltop.com/business) 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 (see page 496).

An essential task in your job search is presenting your skills and accomplishments in a way

that is relevant to the employer's business challenges. Customizing your résumé is not difficult if you have done your research. From your initial contact all the way through the interviewing process, in fact, you will have opportunities to impress recruiters by explaining how your general potential translates to the specific needs of the position.

Professional references are people who have had

the opportunity to evaluate the knowledge and skills that you can bring to the jobs you are applying for. Professors and instructors, supervisors, colleagues, and even customers are all good candidates to approach for serving as professional references.

Networking is more essential than ever because

the vast majority of job openings are never advertised to the public. To avoid the time and expense of sifting through thousands of applications and the risk of hiring complete strangers, many companies start by asking their employees for recommendations—and these referrals are one of the most important sources of new employees.4 The more people who know you, the better chance you have of being recommended for one of these hidden job openings.

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 15.4 through 15.6 starting on page 501, you can see how the sample résumés do this, echoing key terms and phrases from the job postings.

Some employers may ask for personal references, people who are willing to

vouch for your character. Good candidates here include people outside your family who have interacted with you in meaningful ways, including coaches, volunteer coordinators, and religious leaders. As appropriate, you may also ask any of your professional references to serve as personal references.

With the widespread use of automated applicant tracking systems (ATSs), matching

your language to the employer's will help you get past the filters and algorithms these systems use to rank incoming résumés. 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.

Creative Ways to Build Your Network Start building your network now—your classmates could turn out to be some of your most important business contacts. • Then branch out by identifying people with similar interests in your target professions, industries, and companies. • Read news sites, blogs, and other online sources. • Follow industry leaders on Twitter. • You can also follow individual executives at your target companies to learn about their interests and concerns.5 • 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 your 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. • 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.7 • 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.

Be prepared to produce versions of your résumé in multiple formats.

• Conventional résumé • Scannable résumé • Plain-text file • Microsoft Word file • Online résumé • PDF file

This section offers a general job-search strategy with advice that applies to just about any career path you might want to pursue. 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. If you can't 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.

Addressing Areas of Concern • Slow career growth. If you stayed in one position for many years, highlight ways in which you took on increasing responsibility, such as training new hires or filling in for your supervisor during vacations. • Frequent job changes. If you've had several short-term jobs of a similar type, such as independent contracting and temporary assignments, you can group them under a single heading.1 • Gaps in work history. Mention any relevant experience and education you gained during employment gaps, such as volunteer or community work. Also, consider the combination résumé format to emphasize your skills. • Inexperience. Include related volunteer work, membership in professional groups, relevant coursework, and internships. Write a strong introductory statement that summarizes the value you can bring to an employer. • Overqualification. Tone down your résumé by focusing on the experience and skills that relate most directly to the target position. If you are deeper into your career and are concerned about your age working against you, steer clear of phrases such as "decades of experience" and focus your presentation on your most recent and current accomplishments.

• Job termination for cause. Your résumé doesn't need to disclose that you were fired from a previous position, but if you are asked that on an application form or in an interview, you need to answer truthfully. Be prepared with an answer that illustrates how you learned from the experience and will be a positive asset to your next employer.18 • Criminal record. Employment laws related to criminal history vary by state, industry, and profession. If this affects you, you may want to consult your state's department of labor or advocacy organizations such as the National Employment Law Project (www.nelp.org). You don't necessarily need to disclose on your résumé if you have a criminal record, but most employers run background checks and at some point in the application process are likely to ask whether you have been convicted of a crime. Be prepared to discuss new skills you acquired and other positive changes you have made.19

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 LinkedIn profile

Keys to Being a Valued Networker Remember that networking is about people helping each other, not just about other people helping you. Pay close attention to networking etiquette:8 • Be polite in every exchange. Not only is this the professional way to behave, but people are more inclined to help those who are positive and respectful. • Don't speak poorly of your current employer or any past employers. Doing so is off-putting to other people, and it harms your reputation. • Respect other people's time. Don't inundate people with messages, questions, or requests for help.

• Stay away from politics and other volatile topics. Remember that you're building a business network, not a circle of friends. • Follow through on your promises. If you agree to make an introduction or provide information, make sure you do so. • Follow up after meeting people. If you meet someone with shared interests, send a brief message within a day or two to solidify the connection you've made.

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 your 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. Before you upload your résumé to any site, 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. You can also set your résumé to private on sites such as Monster so that you can use it to apply for jobs you find there but it won't be viewable or searchable by anyone.41 To protect yourself from identity thieves and spammers, don't post your résumé to any website that doesn't give you the option of restricting the display of your personal information.

Make Friends with the Résumé Bots When you apply for jobs at most large companies and an increasing number of midsize and small companies, your application materials will usually be assessed by an applicant tracking system before a human ever puts eyes on it. Much of this automated filtering focuses on keywords, so follow these tips for using keywords in your résumé and cover letter: • Use the specific terminology that each employer uses in its job descriptions. • Integrate keywords naturally. Work them into your introductory statement, your education section, your employment history, and any activities and achievements that you include.

• Without going overboard in a way that makes the writing awkward or unnatural, use as many relevant keywords as you can throughout your résumé and cover letter. Don't resort to "keyword stuffing"—trying to game the system by cramming every conceivable keyword into your résumé. Advanced AI systems such as Burning Glass (see page 520) analyze whether keywords are used naturally and in context. • Be sure to cover the full range of hard and soft skills each employer is looking for. Hard skills are measurable, specific abilities, such as using spreadsheets, operating equipment, speaking a second language, designing websites, and so on. Soft skills are the less-tangible, interpersonal side of things—including communication, teamwork, leadership, and conflict resolution. Hard skills are easier to describe because they are specific, such as saying you are fluent in Spanish or have four years of experience designing mobile apps. Soft skills are more challenging to express in a convincing way, so look for ways to quantify them with details, such as "nominated for the company's leadership development program."