Chapter 12 of Houp/Pearsall/Tebeaux's Reporting Technical Information, 9th ed. (New York: Allyn & Bacon, 1997), presents strategies for finding employment and writing the various documents used in that process. Accompanying the textbook, this chapter of the online instructor manual provides the following:
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table of contents. |
- Know some self-assessment strategies to use in preparation for the job hunt.
- Know how to find information about jobs and about companies and organizations.
- Know some networking strategies to use in finding out about jobs.
- Know the content, organization, format, and general strategies for the application letter.
- Know the different types, content, organization, format, and general strategies for resumes.
- Know some strategies for the different types of follow-up letters.
- Understand the process of interviewing, follow-up, and negotiation.
The application letter and resume are some of the most important features of a technical writing course. You can count on students taking a keen interest in these two applications. In this unit, classroom discussion may be the most self-starting and lively of any that you will have in a semester. For these reasons, it is effective to start the semester with the application letter and resume. This also helps you get to know your students.One problem in the "job-hunt" unit is that some students seem unable to grasp the importance of specifics and examples in the application letter. While the letter is not a summary of the resume, it should cite specifics that substantiate the claims students make about themselves. The details make students stand out, make them memorable, make them seem real. But some students have a hard time understanding or buying this notion. Instead, these students' letters are marred by self-bestowed accolades: "I'm a natural leader," "I work well with other people," "I learn new systems quickly." As instructors, we need to challenge students to cite specifics that substantiate these claims and then get them to drop the actual claims altogether. The same problem with specifics applies to the resume. Some students don't "push" the details enough—they need to dig for all the detail they can in their work experience, education, volunteer work, and personal lives that will build a good resume.
Another problem is that students can get locked in to standardized, boilerplate approaches to resumes. To counter that, it is a good idea to explore as many design ideas as possible. Challenge students to design resumes that show off their background and that work well for the job or career or organization they are targeting. (Of course, nothing is wrong with a certain amount of standardization; employers need to rely on some expectations if they hope to winnow through a tall stack of resumes.)
Some students with little work background will express concerns that their resumes will not be as good as those of other, more experienced students. This is a reasonable concern: more experience means more detail; more detail can make a resume look better. There are several ways to address this concern. The first is to challenge students to dig as hard as they can into their education, extracurricular activities, interests, and the work experience that they have. This is something they'll have to face at some point anyway. Another way is to have them write the resume as if they were just graduating and going out on the job market. This will give them a target to aim for. It will encourage them to think of things they can be doing during their studies, which will give them good additional material for their resumes. One last idea is to give these students the raw material for a resume: as instructor, you write paragraphs summarizing a good, detailed, professional resume, and then ask your students to design a good resume from that material.
Here are some ideas for things to do in class to help students learn about the job-hunt process, application letters, resumes, and other issues covered in chapter 12:
- Give the initial quiz. Have your students take the quiz at the beginning of your unit on the job hunt. It will be a good way to get discussion going on key aspects of this chapter. When students have completed the quiz and have turned it in, you can go through the answers with them as a group.
- Format raw resume material. A good way to open students' eyes to the range of possibilities for resume design is to format raw resume material in two or three different ways. Students can do this in teams; they can do this work in a computer lab; or you can type in their ideas and project the results on the screen for the whole class. For example, give a paragraph that summarizes an individual's work experience at a specific company. Have students produce a paragraph version, a bulleted-list version, and another version using some other format.
- Format material for whole resumes. Another possibility is to have students design an entire resume—essentially the previous workshop activity but with material for a complete resume. Again, this can be done in teams, in a computer lab, or on a computer hooked up to a projector.
- Rank application letters and resumes. Collect a good example of an application letter and a resume, a hopelessly bad example of a letter and a resume, and then ones that are in between, with good and bad characteristics. Have students rank them and explain their reasons.
- Fill out the self-assessment form during class. Get your students to build a file of important data and documents about themselves and bring it to class. Have them fill out the self-assessment questionnaire shown in chapter 12.
- Consult occupational and career resources. Have your students check the resources in the self-assessment section of chapter 12 and then report to the class on what they've found out about the career or occupation they are studying for. Consider having students team up to do this work.
- Gather information about a company. Have your students use the resources mentioned in the information-gathering section of chapter 12 to build some information about a company they might want to work for. Have them report their findings to the class (another good possibility for oral reports!). To make sure that they are selective about the information they gather, use a scenario: for example, they are briefing students about to go into interviews with the company.
- Search for resumes on the World Wide Web. Have you students surf the web for examples of well-designed web resumes. Have them report their findings in class, focusing on the interesting design features they've seen (for example, frames, audio, video, graphics, fonts, color).
- Do some local networking. If you are the daring type, consider using the ideas in the networking section of chapter 12. Have your students schedule informational interviews with local businesses that are related to your students' majors. In these interviews, your students can get advice about looking for work and preparing for certain kinds of occupations. Again, students can report to the class what they learned in these interviews and how the interviews went in general.
Here are some discussion questions related to this chapter:Preparation (pages 362-373)
- What do you consider the best way to prepare yourself for the job hunt in general?
- For one specific job?
The Correspondence of the Job Hunt (pages 373-392)
- What is the relationship between an effective letter of application and an effective resume?
- How much information and what kind should appear on both the letter of application and the resume?
- What are the design elements of an effective resume?
- How are letters and resumes read? Reread? Studied?
Interviewing (pages 392-396)
- In what ways should preparation for the interview differ from preparation for the application?
- What is the best preparation for distance interviewing? How might this differ from one-to-one interview situations?
The following are some suggestions for journal entries related to this chapter:Preparation (pages 362-373)
- In what ways can careful preparation for the job hunt help you clarify your own personal goals and interests?
- What would you hope for yourself professionally in five years? In ten? At the end of your career?
- What do you consider your best abilities and why? How can you best pair your interests with the right kind of career?
- What kinds of personal issues—such as preference for a particular work environment or a job location—should you consider as you begin your job hunt?
The Correspondence of the Job Hunt (pages 373-392)
- You are representing yourself persuasively in a letter of application and a resume. How directly persuasive should these materials be?
- How can you design and write a resume and application to reflect a win-win situation for you and the employer?
Interviewing (pages 392-396)
- What kinds of things do you know about yourself, your interests, and your past history that should wait until the interview for discussion with an employer?
- What sorts of questions should you ask about the job and a company at an interview? Why do such questions represent you favorably?
- What is the best preparation for an interview to make you feel comfortable and confident?
The following are topic ideas related to this chapter. Remember that for most of these ideas, you'll need to do some substantial narrowing before the topic will be usable:The Correspondence of the Job Hunt (pages 373-392)
These topic ideas (with Preparation, pages 362-373) can help you develop job hunt correspondence:
- Write a letter of application for a job you are currently qualified to hold.
- Write a letter for a job you'd like to have when you graduate.
- Write resumes to support each job.
Interviewing (pages 392-396)
These ideas (with Preparation, pages 362-373) will help you develop questions you will want to ask in job interviews:
- What sort of career ladder does the company provide?
- What kinds of duties and changes can a new hire expect?
- What sorts of changes does the company expect? How will they affect new hires?
- What kinds of resources does the company provide to help a new hire become productive?
Here are some ideas for writing projects related to chapter 12, including ideas for collaborative projects:
- Write an application letter and resume. The obvious project for this unit is to have students find a job advertisement and then write an application letter and resume for it. Encourage students to be ambitious and aim for something more than restaurant-server or short-order cook jobs (which might not require the apparatus of a letter and resume anyway). Encourage them to find entry-level positions in the kind of work they expect after graduation.
To turn this into a collaborative project, suggest that student teams organize themselves into these roles:
- Manager. Selects the job opening for discussion, assigns roles, establishes meetings, sets a timetable for activities.
- Researcher. Locates information about the company.
- Author. Drafts a letter of application and a resume in response to the application, distributes copies to all team members.
- Team members. Take part in reviewing the letter and resume in context of information about the company which the researcher presents.
- Scribe. Takes notes on the meeting, writes a summary.
- Editor. Incorporates all suggestions into the letter and resume.
- Design one or more resumes from summarized information. See workshop activity 3 in which you provide students with summarized information that they use to design resumes with. Consider having students create two or three contrasting designs.
- Write a memo using occupational and career resources. Use workshop activity 6, but have students write a memo incorporating the information that they find about the career they are studying for.
- Research an organization and write a memo on it. Use workshop activity 7 in which students research a company that they might want to work for some day. Have students write a memo summarizing information about that company that would be useful in an interview. Make sure that they report only the sort of information would be directly useful in an interview.
- Write a memo on the design of World Wide Web resumes. Have students surf the web for resumes that are designed specifically for the web. Have them describe the design features they see or that they like. (This would be a good scenario for a description project.)
To turn this into a collaborative project, suggest that student teams organize themselves into these roles:
- Manager. Assigns roles, establishes meetings, sets a timeline for activities.
- Team members. Review different WWW resumes, download, make notes, present the findings at a group meeting.
- Moderator. Conducts the meeting.
- Scribe. Takes notes on the meeting.
- Editor. Writes up the discussion of each WWW resume as a report.
- Write a memo on the networking results. Use workshop activity 9, but have students summarize their networking experiences in a memo.
To turn this into a collaborative project, suggest that student teams organize themselves into these roles:
- Manager. Assigns roles, establishes meetings, sets a timeline for activities.
- Team members. Each attends and takes part in at least two different meetings of an active career or professional group.
- Moderator. Conducts the meeting to discuss networking activities of each team member.
- Scribe. Takes notes on the meeting.
- Editor. Writes up the discussion of networking activities, summarizing the kinds of activity and the benefits of each.
Case Studies in Technical Communication
The following cases draw upon the concepts and strategies presented in this chapter:
The following point summaries focus on key points in this chapter of Houp/Pearsall/Tebeaux's Reporting Technical Information:
OVERVIEW OF THE JOB HUNT |
Preparation |
APPLICATION LETTERS |
Beginning |
RESUMES |
Content and organization of resumes |
FOLLOW-UP LETTERS |
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The following provides ideas for writing assignments related to this chapter of Houp/Pearsall/Tebeaux's Reporting Technical Information:
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Assignment: Write a brief, factual letter applying for a specific job
for which you are currently qualified. Summarize your qualifications
and request an interview.
Audience: Write for the person who will be the primary reviewer of your application. A description of job duties and qualifications is a required part of the audience analysis for this assignment. Goal: To use facts to show that you are a qualified applicant for a specific job opening. The letter of application documents that you have applied for a specific job, summarizes your best qualifications, introduces your resume, and asks for an interview. Put yourself in the place of a reader who has to review and evaluate many applications. For such a reader, the best letter states the applicant's qualifications directly and is one typed page. The Letter: The first paragraph names the position you wish to apply for and states that you are writing to apply. Say where you heard about the job. (Don't waste time and postage applying for "any openings available.") Paragraph 2 states your qualifications. Provide specific information about yourself that can be documented, like work experience or duties, courses you've taken, or your grades. Avoid generalities and conclusions. Don't describe your attitude, your potential, or your personal qualities. Stick to the facts of your experience and education. Don't worry about overlapping information that appears on both your resume and your application letter; your reader may not necessarily read both. Your closing paragraph should state the times and places you prefer for an interview. If the job requires you to be ready for work by a specific date, state when you will be available. End your letter simply and directly. Style and Tone: Write in a simple, factual way, as if you were writing about someone else, not yourself. Don't try to impress with flattery or hype, and don't explain the ways in which employment will benefit you or in which you will benefit the employer. This kind of self-promotion doesn't reflect a serious attitude. Instead, limit yourself to the facts about your experience and qualifications. These are far more powerfully persuasive about your attitude and ability. Format and Neatness: Your single-spaced application letter is a first impression. Make sure it's well-groomed and correct. |
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Assignment: Write a one- or two-page fact sheet documenting your
qualifications in a readable, easy-to-skim format. The resume must
reflect your real and current experience and education, not fictional
or inaccurate information.
Audience: Write for the same reader who'll be reviewing your application letter. Target the resume for the same job opening. Provide a description of the job duties and qualifications with an audience analysis. This is required. Goal: To provide a quick, specific, and well-documented overview of your qualifications. A resume is an easy-to-skim overview of an applicant's work experience, training, and credentials. The three essential elements in a resume are factual information, useful organization, and readable format. Factual Information: To prepare a good resume, list all the events in your life you consider related to the job opening, arranging events by groups. Consider education, on-the-job training, work history, volunteer work, honors and awards, and professional memberships. Provide a date and a context for each entry. Use parallel format for each section. Use reverse chronological order; put the most recent events first, not last. Your finished resume should list only items directly related to the job you wish to apply for. The information you select must be factual, showing your work-related knowledge, skills, and abilities. Never put the date of composition on your resume. This automatically makes your resume outdated. Useful Organization: When you have selected the information, group it, arranging the entries in each group with the most recent information first. Some helpful and typical resume headings are Education, Work Experience, and Honors. Leave out strictly personal information about hobbies, marital status, social clubs, age, gender, religious preference, or your ethnic heritage. Photographs are not included. A stated career goal is optional. If you include one, however, make it specific, not vague or wordy. State the goal in terms of the immediate opening you want, not your ultimate career goals. If you use more than one page, use the space well to design for readability and to provide useful, work-related information. |
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Find an advertisement for a job you're interested in—one for which
you are qualified now or one for which you hope to be qualified after
graduation. Tape this ad on the cover sheet to the application letter
and resume that you write for this job opening.
Application Letter. Application letters will be evaluated on these criteria:
Resume. Resumes will be evaluated on these criteria:
As with all writing assignments in this course, use the standards of good writing style, grammar, punctuation, usage, and spelling for both the application letter and the resume. Do a neat professional-looking job of producing these two documents; use good paper, neat margins, appropriate type styles and sizes. |