English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

Before reading chapter 15, Starting Your Career, I never realized that there were two different forms of résumés, those two forms being the archival and functional approaches to writing résumés. In any class or any time I have ever attempted to write a résumé it has always been archival. The chapter makes it seem like this is the most used and requested type of résumé. I thought it was also helpful that the chapter introduced the functional approach to writing a résumé.

I took plenty of notes on this week's reading, "Chapter 15 - Starting Your Career" in TCT.

Although I've been successful in finding a job in the sense that I have one right now, I wouldn't say I've had a lot of success with my job-seeking activities.

This week's reading, Chapter 15- Starting Your Career, is a practical reading for college students. I like how the author emphasizes goal setting. I feel that a person that sets high but reasonably attainable goals is most likely to achieve them. One point that I feel like the author did not emphasize was that goals should also be measurable. By being measurable a goal can be more clearly reviewed to see if it has been obtained. The author discussed job searching and how the internet opens up a lot of opportunities, but did not leave out the importance of personal networking.

This chapter starts out with tips on beginning and executing a job search. The job search tips provided do seem useful, such as setting goals for your job search and being prepared to hear “no”. Overall methods of job searching have changed drastically in recent years with the invention of job search websites and online resumes. The new online job market can be much more demanding in regards to the quality of resumes and the quality of information provided within those resumes.

Chapter 15 focuses some of the steps that you need to go to when searching for a job. It covered constructing a resume, writing an application letter, forming a portfolio, and interviewing.

When it comes to writing a resume the chapter suggested that you could use a template but then change parts of to make it original. In my own opinion I feel that creating your own “template” by changing font size, color and alignment produces a much better looking resume than anything created with a template. As the book suggests there are multitudes of websites out there with suggestions.

After reading Chapter 15 (TCT), a conversation with an old high school teacher entered my thoughts. I went to this teacher originally just to catch up on things, but eventually we started to talk about my future as a high school industrial technology teacher. The biggest point he tried to express to me was to get real world experience. He told me that real world experience in a field relative to the curriculum I would be teaching would not only benefit me in getting a job but would make me a better teacher.

     Chapter 15 of Technical Communication Today outlines how to begin searching for future career positions as well as how to pursue and follow-up to any potential leads. I found it interesting, and perhaps a bit ironic, that one of the single most important skills to possess in locating a job is the ability to properly search for available positions.

One of the valuable tips I received from the chapter was the reinforcement about using the people you know when looking for a job. I have experienced firsthand how your personal network can help you in job searching. I was able to land my first internship by knowing the owner of a small information technology solutions business. I also liked the helpful tips on creating a personal resume. The resume should only be one page. It should also be organized in a good manner.

I found this week’s reading, chapter 15 “starting your career”, to be helpful but also a bit of a bummer. There were many helpful tips about resume writing/construction, cover letters, interviews, etc. All of this information will aid us in the search for our “perfect” job, but it’s not really a task I’m looking forward to. I wish it was possible to enjoy school all the way to graduation and then worry about this daunting task, maybe it is?

Chapter 15, Starting Your Career, gives so much good advice on how to find a job and how to actually make the correct paperwork to get it.

I recently got hired at Subaru of Indiana Automotive as an intern for this semester, and I had to go through much of what this chapter was about. The biggest thing for me was actually making a resume that showed all of my talents and that I was overly qualified for the job I was applying for.