English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

The quotation in the instructors blog regarding resumes, “I keep seeing resumes that are little more than buckets into which a lot of data has been dumped in the apparent belief that I will fill in the gaps,” certainly hits home with me due to my IT background. It is completely understandable that just filling any report and or resume with loads of data just to give it bulk would be an overall bad idea. In writing my draft resume I will try to be careful about needlessly including insignificant details.

This weeks readings about resumes has only reinforced what I have already learned and have been told, resumes are the most important part about getting a job. Most of the work that needs to be done when trying to get a job needs to be working on the resume. When working on the resume the single most important part would have to be overall appearance. If your resume looks like trash your chances for getting that job will be going there as well.

Although different employers may handle resume’s differently, they all have something in common: they only glance or scan through the resume’s until they convince themselves that the resume is worth serious attention. Because of the limited time that employers have to read resume’s, many people believe that a resume should be as short as possible so that the employer can read it all. “Instructor Blog #2” says just that. At a first glance this sounds like good advice, but let’s examine it carefully.

So it appears that writing the perfect resume based on the courses reading and past advice will be harder than IU basketball winning another game or the Cubs winning the World Series. CCO stresses to have a clear cut objective and good cover letter, while the article from Tech Life even said not to bother with a cover letter or objective.

I found all of the posted articles to be very informative and quite interesting. I actually came out of reading these, thinking to myself that my resume really sucks when I think of it. Fortunately I haven’t needed it in over a year now! I really think the most key point I got out of these readings was to put yourself in the shoes of a recruiter/resume reader. Really this goes back to considering your audience, as we have discussed before.

This week's reading featured a gauntlet of tips and information on creating a good resume. I've never had to craft a resume in the past, so this is all new to me. In my attempt to absorb all this information and in a few days churn out a rough draft of my first resume, I'll highlight some things I'm going to seriously take into consideration.

From the article “Resume and Cover Letter Guide: Drafting Descriptions”, I learned a number of very important things about creating a resume. Creating a resume is extremely important for college students because the ultimate goal for the majority of college students is to graduate college and get a desired job, and a well drafted resume is key in landing the perfect job.

After reading the articles on forming a resume, I have realized that I might as well just write my name on an envelope, spit in it, then mail it to my future employer. It is probably better than me sending an actual resume about myself. All these articles mention separating yourself from the crowd. When I read this I can't help but think, "I am the crowd." There is nothing really special about me, I get average grades, I am in a few professional practice clubs, and I have webbed feet. I feel like every other resume boasts something better than my freakish feet.

Douglas Richardson's Skeptical Resume Reader Tells How He Really Thinks was an eye-opener.

The article's message (think about your resume's reader) was not unexpected; if the concept was new to any student in this course then the ship has set sail without that person. Still, the pointed delivery was not just comical; it really made me think - not the message but some of the specific material the article presented.

For this week’s reading response I personally enjoyed the article by an HR coordinator titled “Skeptical Resume Reader Tells How He Really Thinks.” I found it interesting to hear from an HR coordinator what they do actually think about resumes that they receive. I like how the author was very up front with their opinions about how they view resumes. He admits that he only spends around 30 seconds looking at a resume. He stated that he may make a second pass of about another 15 to 30 seconds. That means that in total you probably only get about 1 minute of the readers time.