[ATTW-L] Teaching the resume

Wed Nov 7 19:07:39 UTC 2018

Hi All,

Great topic of discussion!!!
I was also going to reference Chalice's work, and Richard also made a good
point about the scannable resume - something that is useful to have on hand
with those nasty electronic app systems that don't want to read a nicely
"designed" resume.
When I teach the resume and job letter, the resume is taught in three
parts. Students start with a somewhat clean RTF document for organization
of content that is converted into and crosschecked with a  plain-text
document. This is their first draft before creating a more visually
appealing resume using tables (although that can get a bit wonky especially
in scannable systems, or if alt text is not used for accessibility) e.g.
infographic for some of my mass comm/viz comm students. I then teach a
visual resume using some of Duarte's principles of Slidedoc that is
viewable in SlideShare that represents and expands on the personality
traits of the letter and resume. This is inclusive of "only" 5-6 sections
so it should not be more than 7-10 pages with a cover slide and closing
remarks. They share this link in their letterhead which is very useful at
job fairs. This is not meant to replace the traditional resume, but some
students have received second looks, interviews, and hires after attending
job fairs where employers may receive and have to sift through 50-100
resumes.

But I again agree with most that the traditional resume is still very
important. What I found interesting and frustrating is that other
departments across disciplines and even career center advisors teach the
resume and its organizational parts differently, as Chalice's research will
indicate. While I understand some industries require certain components,
that is not what I am referring to i.e. are still teaching the generic
"blanket" Objective statement which many industry professionals will say
they don't want to see rathermost say to include a more personalized career
profile or statement that is tailored to the job (preface: some industries
will want to see the Objective, but on the norm it is not necessary nor is
the blaket References upon request at the bottom). What is frustrating is
students feel a bit overwhelmed with the different variations that
different departments are teaching across disciplines. I don't have an
answer specifically for how to overcome the inconsistency of how style is
taught or advised across discipline and among career advisors, but as
someone else mentioned Chalice has done some good and relevant research on
the topic, and I helped her transcribe some of her interviews from her
research a while back which was eye opening.

I do tell students to follow their industry's preferences and we do
research on that in class. I also suggest if they need a digital portfolio
such as my Viz Comm students, to add a Portfolio Available statment at the
bottom of the resume. References are a given and takes up line space,and
most employers will either ask for it in the app system or after an
interview (unless indicated otherwise in the job post) and should be
available either in another document to add into the online app.

Anyhow, the supplemental digital visual resume seems to work well for my
students if designed well. This is not meant to serve in the same way as a
portfolio of documents (although students may add a portfolio section at
the end ) nor is it like LinkedIn.
The only glitch I see is that students have a hard time getting past the
PPT as a drafting tool with the Slidedoc template, which is not meant to be
used as a oral presentation tool with larger fonts. I get this with the
digital reflective portfolio too when students use the Slidedoc in this
same way. It is a great option though if used correctly in conjunction with
SlideShare and a private share link as a branding tool to supplement the
job search materials. Note: There are some really wonky Slideshare resumes
out there that are poorly designed and exceedingly lengthy, which have been
the basis for a good classroom discussion/workshop and possibly online
discussion forum analysis topic.

Kind regards,
Susan Rauch, PhD
Lecturer, Professional Writing (science and technology)
Course Coordinator, Communicating in the Sciences
Massey University
Palmerston North, New Zealand
s.rauch at massey.ac.nz

On Thu, Nov 8, 2018 at 4:59 AM Geoff Clegg <geoffrey.clegg at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm mostly business communication these days so my focus is a bit skewed.
> One of the issues around the resume that I cover concerns design. Far too
> many of my students use templates that get rejected by ATS (applicant
> tracking systems) software. We focus on the importance of information, not
> using graphical templates, and using key terms of from the job ads. We do,
> however, talk about the needs of international job applications, how a
> career fair resume can use different designs than one submitted
> electronically, and the importance of the rhetorical value of a resume in
> combination with a cover letter and interview.
>
> Geoff
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 7, 2018 at 9:52 AM Blackburne, Brian <bdb026 at shsu.edu> wrote:
>
>> Hi, Mark,
>>
>>
>>
>> In addition to the useful resources posted by Rebecca and Lisa, I’ve
>> observed, anecdotally, that CVs and résumés are still as important as they
>> once were. In industry-related contexts, I find that potential
>> clients/employers still like to see a traditional résumé, and in academic
>> contexts, the CV is invariably required for applications; what’s more, many
>> hiring committees are expressly forbidden from using LinkedIn or other
>> social platforms to research/evaluate candidates. Such sources often hold
>> information that shouldn’t be considered in job searches (e.g., sex, race,
>> political affiliations, gender identity, attractiveness, etc.) and could
>> potentially bias those conducting the search. I do think that we must help
>> students create effective job materials across all genres/media, but I tend
>> to focus on the résumé as the go-to document while helping students
>> consider how their online personas may affect their searches when potential
>> employers *do* google them or even ask for social-media handles as an
>> explicit part of the search process.
>>
>>
>>
>> The topic is a fun one to teach. Enjoy!
>>
>>
>>
>> BB
>>
>>
>>
>> *Brian D. Blackburne, Ph.D.*
>>
>> (Pronouns: *he, him, & his*)
>>
>>
>>
>> *Sam Houston State University*
>>
>> Director | Technical Communication
>>
>> Associate Professor | Department of English
>>
>> Treasurer | Association of Teachers of Technical Writing
>>
>> BrianBlackburne at shsu.edu
>>
>> 936-294-3359
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *From: *ATTW-L <attw-l-bounces at attw.org> on behalf of Mark Crane <
>> craniac at gmail.com>
>> *Date: *Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 8:43 AM
>> *To: *"attw-l at attw.org" <attw-l at attw.org>
>> *Subject: *[ATTW-L] Teaching the resume
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I was wondering if you teach resume creation (and by extension, branding
>> one's self and tools like LinkedIn) in your introductory courses, and if
>> so, if you have any suggestions for doing this in a way that is supported
>> by existing research.  My own sense is that resumes, although important,
>> seem to be less important than they once were.
>>
>>
>>
>> We'll be collecting research about resume writing and the semantics of
>> electronic resume filtering processes in class today, but I thought I would
>> "drink above the horses" as it were and ask the experts as well.
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>
>
> --
>
> *Geoffrey Clegg, PhD | Assistant Professor of English*
> English Department
> Midwestern State University
> Wichita Falls, TX 76308
> geoffrey.clegg at mwsu.edu
> geoffrey.clegg at gmail.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> ATTW-L at attw.org
> http://attw.org/mailman/listinfo/attw-l_attw.org
>

-- 
Kind Regards,

*Susan Rauch, Ph.D.*
*Massey University, NZ*
*susan.rauchttu at gmail.com <susan.rauchttu at gmail.com>*
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