Ch. 15 Creating a Career and Designing Resumes summary

Choosing a career path is one of life’s most important decisions. Before choosing a path you need to take into consideration your needs, skills, qualifications, and values. There are several ways to gain insight about the job market and find a field that interests you; such as visit a campus career center or placement office, searching job listing websites online, networking with professionals in fields that interest you, volunteering, becoming an intern or taking a part time job in the field. Once you have found a position that interests you, you can start assessing your most marketable skills. You can consider you oral and written communication skills; you’re interpersonal interactions, problem solving skills, management and supervision experience, leadership experience and computer literacy. After compiling a list of your skill you can then compare it to the requirements of the position you are interested in. If your skills don’t match, consider pursuing another position. A resume is a written marketing tool that briefly summarizes your skills, abilities, education history and professional experience. The primary purpose of a resume is to get you an interview with a potential employer. Employers will use your resumes to assess your overall professionalism and neatness. A quality resume is neat, well constructed, and error free. Your resume format will depend on your career goals and relevant experience. Some resume formats include chronological, functional, targeted, and integrated formats. In the past I used a combination of chronological and targeted resumes to apply for positions that appealed to me and that I had relevant experience in. A scannable resume is formatted in plain text for electronic scanning systems. A resume should include an identification, your education history, accomplishments, capabilities and professional experience. A cover letter is a brief and persuasive application document that accompanies your resume. Once you have designed a great resume you can begin job hunting. Creating a sold resume is very important, especially in these times when there is so much competition out there. In my past resumes I did use bullets and bold writing which apparently is something you shouldn’t do according to the author. I will redesign my resume following the guidelines of this chapter.