English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

Chapter 15’s focus on career building strategies was very pragmatic and somewhat interesting. I found some of the strategies and ideas discussed somewhat common sense and some others I had never really thought about. The chapter’s explanation of how to form your resume and cover letter to tailor to specific skill sets and specific audiences insightful and provided me with some new strategies I had never really considered.
Chapter 15 split up resumes into two different categories, those being functional and archival. I never really knew two different types existed and found this intriguing. The chapter explained how recent graduates will usually stick to an archival resume because of the lack of career related experiences. The chapter specifically highlighted how a functional resumes are designed to highlight the applicant’s abilities and skills by placing them up front in the resume. I never really noticed that there was a specific type of resume to emphasize an applicant’s skills. I suppose as one advances in their career it would become much more practical to formulate such a resume that would really highlight where your true skills are applicable.
The author put lots of stress on the idea of proving yourself to a potential employer in your cover letter. The author explained that you need to prove to potential employers that your education, experiences, and skills will allow you to contribute to their company successfully. I never really noticed that by writing in this manner you target the audience in a totally different way. The author suggested using the “you” attitude. This attitude puts things in the prospective of the reader. Targeting your audience in this manner really changes the way your tone comes out.
Writing these career based documents in the proper context and voice for your different audiences can prove to be a challenge. For example you want to write a resume that would catch your potential boss’s eye, but also a resume that would help HR out in the recruiting process. The chapter discusses the idea of tailoring your resume to be scanner friendly and also to use power words. Making the document scanner friendly allows HR to do their job easily and by using power words your resume may be easily flagged as a good match in the recruiting process. At the same time you could easily write your resume to show your potential boss you posses the proper skills to execute the job well.
There are many things to take into account when writing resumes, and cover letters, and creating a portfolio. I think the key to creating most of these documents is to really put yourself in the shoes of whose going to be handling these documents at any point in time (or what sort of machine), and what they will be seeking from them. When you can take all of these people, or audiences, into full consideration you have probably created a successful document.