English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

Chapter 15, Starting Your Career, for me, was a job search guide because it detailed different methods of searching. For instance, going to a career fair, submitting your resume directly to a company, or using a job search engine to post your resumes to companies. I have never posted my resume on a search engine like “monster.com” so going through the reading and learning about which words are prone with being picked from a list by a computer and not just read by a person. After reading this chapter, I have gone through and analyzed my own resume while changing wording and phrasing, I hope the new changes will help me succeed in job searching.

When first building my resume, I had help from my older siblings to guide me. While working with them, and critiquing my work, the question, “is there more than just one type of writing a resume?” never came to mind. Chapter 15 detailed two different types of resumes, archival and functional, that I could utilize, and I understood more about what my archival resume is and how I could improve it. A functional resume will be used after my first job and during the duration of my career, which will be used to showcase my talents and job skills that have been acquired.

The chapter also explains the importance of keeping an electronic document or online portfolio, as well as having a physical folder with printed documents to take it to an interview and present information more in depth. Since reading this chapter, I have been gathering material and placing it into a folder. This information has been a helpful guide for what materials I needed to keep and discard. I can now elaborate my skills, work experience, and samples of my publications in a more organized manner.

From this chapter, I have been able to set goals that will enhance my resume and job search process. An example of this is through the use of verbs as the first phrases in job descriptions and reevaluating my layout design. I have also begun creating a portfolio folder, and getting to know different types of job search engines. This chapter was more of a refresher, but I am taking away new ideas and building on to what I already knew.