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13: Building Careers and Writing Résumés
13-1
CHAPTER 13: Building Careers and Writing Résumés
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Chapter 13 addresses searching for employment and creating effective résumés. Readers are
introduced to concepts of self-assessment and understanding employers’ approach to the
employment process, and then offered strategies on how to research companies, make contacts,
and find career planning advice. The chapter discusses how to prepare effective résumés using
the three-step writing process. Readers learn about different organizational patterns including
chronological, functional, and combination résumés. Effective résumé content sections are also
discussed. Traditional, scannable, and online résumés are all addressed.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
Building Careers and Writing Résumés
Finding the Ideal Opportunity in Today’s Job Market
Writing the Story of You
Learning to Think Like an Employer
Researching Industries and Companies of Interest
Translating Your General Potential into a Specific Solution for Each Employer
Taking the Initiative to Find Opportunities
Building Your Network
Creative Ways to Build Your Network
Keys to Being a Valued Networker
Seeking Career Counseling
Avoiding Career-Search Mistakes
Planning Your Résumé
Analyzing Your Purpose and Audience
Gathering Pertinent Information
Selecting the Best Media and Channels
Organizing Your Résumé Around Your Strengths
The Chronological Résumé
The Functional Résumé
The Combination Résumé
Addressing Areas of Concern
Writing Your Résumé
Keeping Your Résumé Honest
Adapting Your Résumé to Your Audience
Composing Your Résumé
Job-Specific Keywords
Name and Contact Information
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Introductory Statement
Career Objective
Qualifications Summary
Career Summary
Education
Work Experience, Skills, and Accomplishments
Activities and Achievements
Personal Data and References
Completing Your Résumé
Revising Your Résumé
Producing Your Résumé
Choosing a Design Strategy for Your Résumé
Considering Photos, Videos, Presentations, and Infographics
Producing a Conventional Printed Résumé
Printing a Scannable Résumé
Creating a Plain-Text File of Your Résumé
Creating a Word File of Your Résumé
Creating a PDF Version of Your Résumé
Creating an Online Résumé
Proofreading Your Résumé
Distributing Your Résumé
Building an Effective LinkedIn
The Future of Communication: Gamification
Chapter Review and Activities
TEACHING NOTES
Finding the Ideal Opportunity in Today’s Job Market
This chapter will help you develop a personal strategy to find and land the ideal job. As you craft
that strategy, it is important to:
• Get organized.
• Start now and stick to it.
• Look for stepping-stone opportunities.
Take the time you have now to explore possibilities, find your passion, and identify appealing
career paths.
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Recognize that companies take risks with every hiring decision, and that many employers judge
the success of their recruiting efforts by quality of hire—a measure of how closely new
employees meet the company’s needs.
An important aspect of the quality-of-hire challenge is trying to determine how well a
candidate’s attributes and experience will translate to the challenges 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. From your initial contact and 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.
When it comes to finding the right job opportunities, the easiest ways are not always the most
productive.
Look for networking opportunities wherever people with similar interests gather, both online and
in person:
• Read news sites, blogs, and other online sources.
• Follow industry leaders on Twitter.
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• Visit trade shows that cater to an industry you’re interested in.
• Volunteer in social, civic, and religious organizations.
Remember that networking is about people helping each other, not just about other people
helping you. To become a valued network member, you need to be able to help others in some
way.
Observe networking etiquette:
• Be polite in every exchange.
• Don’t speak poorly of your current or past employers.
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.
College career centers offer:
• Individual counseling
• Interview practice
You can also find career planning advice online.
Be careful to avoid the simple blunders that can derail a job search—not catching mistakes in
your résumé, misspelling the name of a manager you’re writing to, showing up late for an
Planning Your Résumé
Planning your résumé includes:
• Analyzing your purpose and audience
• Gathering pertinent information
Your résumé is:
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• A persuasive business message intended to stimulate an employer’s interest in meeting
you and learning more about you.
• Intended to get you an interview with prospective employers
Résumés and CVs are essentially the same:
Before preparing your résumé, gather all the information that you might possibly need:
• Specific dates, duties, and accomplishments from any previous jobs you’ve held.
• Every piece of relevant educational experience (for example, formal degrees, skills
You may need various forms of your résumé, including:
• A traditional version printed on paper
• A printed scannable version
Focus attention on your strongest points by adopting the best organizational approach:
• Chronological
• Functional
• Combination
A chronological résumé emphasizes your work experience, placing that section in the most
prominent position (immediately after the name and address and optional objective).
Develop the work section of your chronological résumé:
The chronological approach has three key advantages:
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• Employers are familiar with it and can easily find information.
• This approach highlights growth and career progression.
• This approach highlights employment continuity and stability.
The functional résumé, sometimes called a skills résumé, emphasizes your skills and capabilities,
identifying employers and academic experience in subordinate sections. This pattern stresses
individual areas of competence rather than job history.
The functional approach has three advantages:
The functional approach is not popular with some employers who may think that you’re trying to
hide something, so if you don’t have a strong, uninterrupted history of relevant work, the
combination résumé might be a better choice.
The combination résumé includes the best features of the chronological and functional
approaches, but it has two potential disadvantages:
• It tends to be longer than a chronological résumé.
• It can be repetitious if you have to list your accomplishments and skills both in the
functional section and in the chronological job descriptions.
Be prepared to address potential areas of concern for employers, such as:
• Slow career growth
• Frequent job changes
• Gaps in work history
Estimates indicate that 40 percent of résumés contain lies in work history, but applicants with
integrity know they don’t need to stoop to lying to compete in the job market. More than 90
percent of companies that find lies on résumés refuse to hire the offending applicants, even if
that means withdrawing formal job offers.
To adapt your résumé to your audience:
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• Translate your past accomplishments into perceived future potential.
• Be prepared to translate your skills and experiences into the language of your target
employers.
• Know yourself and your audience in order to focus on the strengths needed by potential
employers.
To compose an impressive résumé, state your information as forcefully as possible; try to use a
simple, direct style:
• Use short, crisp phrases instead of whole sentences.
• Avoid using the word I.
Most résumés are now subjected to keyword searches in an applicant tracking system or other
database. 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.
• Use the specific terminology used in the job description.
Begin your résumé by identifying yourself and providing your contact information:
• Your name
Stating a career objective is optional: Some experts advise against it, saying that your objective is
obvious from your qualifications, and that a stated objective labels you as being interested in
only one thing.
A good alternative to including a career objective is to provide a summary of qualifications.
A career summary offers a brief recap of your career with the goal of presenting increasing levels
of responsibility and performance.
In the education section, present your academic background in depth:
Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
• Include any off-campus training sponsored by business or government.
• List any relevant seminars or workshops you’ve attended (and any certificates you
received).
• Mention high school or military training only if those achievements are pertinent to your
career.
• If you choose to show a grade point average, include the scale (especially if a 5-point
scale is used instead of a 4-point scale).
In the work experience section, highlight the relationship between your previous responsibilities
and your target field:
• State your functional title for each job.
• State how long you worked on each job (from month/year to month/year).
• Devote the most space to the jobs that are related to your target position.
• Mention any significant achievements on the job (including facts about your skills and
accomplishments).
Include personal accomplishments in the optional Activities and Achievements section only if
they suggest special skills or qualities that are relevant to the jobs you’re seeking For example:
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.
Personal data should be left off your résumé unless including it enhances the employer’s
understanding of why you would be the best candidate for the job.
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Exclude information such as:
• Items that would encourage discrimination (for example, gender, marital or family status,
age, race, religion, national origin, physical or mental disability)
The availability of references is usually assumed, so you don’t need to put “References available
upon request” at the end of your résumé. However, be sure to have a list of several references
ready when you begin applying for jobs; you will probably be asked for it at some point in the
selection process.
As with any other business message, you need to complete your résumé by:
• Revising it
To achieve good résumé design, make sure that you:
• Focus on simplicity, order, plenty of white space, and an easy-to-read typeface.
• Make your subheadings easy to find and easy to read.
You may want to produce your résumé in as many as six formats:
• Printed traditional résumé
• Printed scannable résumé
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résumés and other online formats.
Some applicants also create PowerPoint presentations to supplement a traditional résumé. This
offers flexibility and multimedia capabilities.
When ready to print your traditional résumé:
• Avoid papers with borders or backgrounds.
directly. Before submitting a Word file to anyone, be sure your system is free from viruses.
Creating a PDF file of your résumé is easy with the right software. Adobe Acrobat (not the free
Adobe Reader) is the best-known program.
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. For most job hunters, though, the most important online résumé you can
create is your LinkedIn profile.
Proofreading is extremely important: to impress employers, your résumé must be perfect.
When proofreading your résumé:
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How you distribute your résumé depends on:
• The number of employers you are targeting
• Employer preferences for receiving résumés
When mailing your traditional and scannable résumés:
• Use a flat 9 12 envelope or, even better, use Priority Mail.
• Consider sending both scannable and standard formats to each employer.
Building an Effective LinkedIn Profile
LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) is the most important website to incorporate in your job search.
You can think of LinkedIn as a “socially networked multimedia résumé.” An effective LinkedIn
profile includes all the information from your conventional résumé, plus some additional features
that help you present yourself in a compelling way to potential employers.
Tips for building an effective profile:
• Add a professional but not overly formal photograph.
• Write a headline that includes keywords and expresses who you aspire to be
professionally.
• Write a summary that captures where you are and where you are going, again
interests.
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The Future of Communication: Gamification
Gamification is the addition of game-playing aspects to an activity or a process with the goal of
increasing user engagement. On several collaboration and brainstorming systems, gamification
