English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

After reading the articles, I compared the detailed advice it gave to my resume. I wanted to know how I measured up in the eyes of human resources. Having the fate of my résumé depend on someone who reads multiple others daily and spends less time reading it than it takes them to brush their teeth did not sit well with me. I asked myself, “How can I make it more appealing and unique then everyone else’s to have mine chosen”?

As I was reading though the assignments for last Friday, the article that stood out the most was “Rands In Repose: A Glimpse and a Hook.” The further down the article I got, the more intimidated I was by this individual. It’s bad enough to be so pessimistic in such a competitive and unforgiving market. And when I read this piece on how an individual looks at a resume, I pray that the person I hand mine into is more merciful.

I think this week’s readings serve up a ton of great information regarding your resume. While all of the readings differ slightly in some aspects as far as what to include and what not to, it should be clear to us now what makes a good resume good and a bad resume bad. I think what should be most important when producing your resume is trying to play the role of the recruiter or HR representative in your head, and thinking objectively about how he or she would judge what you’ve presented.

As was discussed in the instructor’s blog #2, it is so frustrating when you are writing a resume and putting all of this thought and time into it only to have a recruiter spend a maximum of 30 seconds skimming over it. It kind of makes me feel as though it would be impossible to please everyone and it has to do with luck of the draw whether the person that happens to be reading your resume likes the style you have chosen. That being said, I think the most valuable quote on this blog was from the Rockport Institute regarding the selling of a product.

After reading the many readings for this week, I feel like I am back to square one. The first reading gave me a lot of confidence and I felt like my resume would be easy to write if I used its tips. Then I read another and began to question myself. After a couple more readings, I am still quite scared to start writing my resume. I had written all of my past resumes mostly based off of sample resumes, and didn’t make use of the many resources out there to help.

After going over the readings one of my major beliefs about resumes was reaffirmed. That is the fact that nothing beats quantifiable data. This was most apparent in “A Glimpse and a Hook” in which the person looking over resumes described his process. When looking over a resume he says that he concentrates on job history, interests, and schooling and does not look at the professional objective, skills, and summary of qualifications. He also states that cover letters are useless. He (or she) wants the obvious truths about your life to get that quick picture of who you are.

After going through all of these readings I have came to the conclusion that when the instructor said “Resumes are a gamble”, he was exactly right. When you go over all of the assigned reading you will notice that they are all different ways to go about writing your resume. To sum up all of the readings the main point of a resume is to explain you and your experience in the best way possible, while using the least amount of words possible.

My major is Engineering Technology Teacher Education this degree points me in the specific career as secondary education teacher. Unlike most majors mine has a very specific destination in mind. This is nice because I will be very qualified as a Tech. Ed. teacher, however; it is also a little scary because it limits my options for different career opportunities. In this job search I looked for opportunities outside of teaching class.

In this blog I will tell you about what I took from chapter 8 (TCT), The basic principle of the writing formula, and the organizational effectiveness of an outline. Both ideas I have only recently took advantage of within writing.