4 Chapter 3: Pursuing Employment Opportunities

3.1 Assess Your Skills and Qualifications

3.2 Find Job Postings

• Where to find job postings
  • o Major job search engines like Monster and Indeed
    • Will strip resume formatting
    • Can share your information
    • May never receive a response
    • Jobs will have hundreds of applicants—floods of poor-quality applicants and spam
  • o Local job boards (ex. HaysHasJobs)
  • o Handshake for FHSU
  • o Professional association job boards
  • o LinkedIn
  • o Find open positions on the website of a company or organization you are interested in working for by looking for links typically titled “careers”, “jobs”, or “employment”.
• Collect as many as you can to get a sense of what is available before devoting your time to applying.
• Create a spreadsheet where you catalog to following for each position:
  • o Job title as listed in the job posting
  • o Reference number for the job if provided in the posting
  • o Company/organization name, mailing address, and website
  • o Required skills, competencies, and qualifications as listed in the job posting
  • o Company background (check About Us section on website and search for news)
  • o Services and products of the company/organization
  • o Clientele of the company/organization
  • o Hiring manager name and contact information
  • o Job posting URL and screenshot
  • o Application closing date

3.3 Traditional Job Search Techniques

• Many positions are found and filled through networking, so it is important to cultivate your professional network. To start doing so:
  • o Be friendly, outgoing, and supportive of your peers in your college classes
  • o Ask your instructors and program coordinators for advice.
  • o Attend industry conferences and network with participants.
  • o Attend career fairs and sign up for interviews with visiting recruiters.

3.4 Resumes and Online Applications

• The goal of a resume is to get an interview
• Resume should be error-free because:
  • o Others may have error-free resumes and set the standard high—you’ll want to measure up.
  • o Errors can be seen as insulting to the employer.
  • o Error-free documents show the quality of work you can do
• Generic Resumes—professionalize your web presence
  • o LinkedIn Profile
  • o Don’t send a generic resume in with a job application—it could be seen as spam

3.5 Targeted Resume Parts

• Reverse-chronological resume: in your activities, put your most recent experience first. Employers want to know what you have been doing lately.
• Functional resume: Rather than organized around your experience, the resume is organized around your skills. Sections detail skills and how it was actuated through training or education and practiced in applied settings. This resume is better for people with gaps in their employment history.
• Combination functional and reverse-chronological resume: This is the most popular format. Here are some of the most common targeted resume parts:
  • o Objective Statement
    • Most resumes do not need this since your application will be tied to job openings through the online application system
    • Objective Statement focuses on what exactly the applicant can do for the employer. Convention requires that this be a one-line infinitive-verb statement that helps the employer understand that your priority is to help them achieve their business goals.
    • Ex. To contribute to an increase in sales at Company XYZ as a top sales representative.
  • o Personal Information Header
    • The personal information header appears at the top of the document because its most important piece, your name, is your document’s title, not “Resume.”
    • Use your full legal name so that, if you are the leading candidate, it will make the employer’s job of due-diligence background checks (e.g., police record checks, checking academic transcripts for proof of credentials, etc.) easier.
    • Make your name 15-point font
    • Include name, physical mailing address, phone number and email address
    • In the United States, do NOT include your social security number, age, marital status, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, picture
  • o Skills and Qualifications Summary
    • A skills and qualifications summary is a concise introduction to your resume that quickly showcases your qualifications. A well-crafted summary saves the reader time by presenting essential information upfront.
    • Include:
      • Key skills: Relevant technical proficiencies, software expertise, or industry-specific knowledge.
      • Core competencies: Proven abilities, such as leadership, problem-solving, or communication.
      • Relevant experience: A brief overview of your work history, focusing on achievements and accomplishments.
      • Target job alignment: Clearly demonstrates how your skills and experience match the job requirements.
    • o Education
      • List your education in reverse-chronological order with the program title and credential type as your bold subheading followed by the institution and its location in plain style either on the same line or on the line below.
      • Program title precedes the institution because it is more relevant in proving that you have trained for the job at hand.
      • Give the date near the margin. If you are still in the program, put “Present” or your expected graduation date—e.g., “April 2020 (expected).”
      • Only list degrees that you have completed or are in the progress of completing.
      • Omit your high school information when you are enrolled in a college degree program. A high school diploma is required for admittance into a college degree program.
    • o Employment Experience:
      • Job Title: Clearly state your position.
      • Company Name: Include the company’s full name and location.
      • Dates of Employment: Specify the start and end dates (month and year).
      • Job Responsibilities: Outline your primary duties and tasks using action verbs.
      • Achievements: Quantify your accomplishments with numbers, percentages, or dollar amounts whenever possible.
      • Skills: Highlight relevant technical skills or software proficiency
    • o Related Experience:
      • The primary reason to use “related experience” instead of “experience” on a resume is to focus on the skills and abilities most relevant to the target job
      • Splitting your experience into multiple sections or only included “related experience” allows you to move the most important experience higher up in the document and eliminate other irrelevant entries.
      • You can also include sections of related experienced titled under these titles: Volunteer activities
        • Unpaid work experience (e.g., co-op)
        • Certifications (e.g., First Aid, WHMIS)
        • Memberships in professional associations or community organizations
        • Honors and awards (for merit, not won by luck)
        • Extracurricular activities
      • o References:
        • References will be submitted in a separate document with your resume, if requested.
        • References are former employers who can vouch for you as a quality employee when asked by the employer you have applied to.
        • Notify your references that you have applied for a job.
        • Include the following for each references:
          • Full name in bold
          • Company/organization they work at
          • Phone number
          • Email address

3.6 Resume Formatting and Submission

When a One-Page Resume is Ideal:

• Early career professionals: Limited work experience can often be concisely summarized on one page.
• Career changers: Focusing on relevant skills and experiences can be effectively done in a single page.
• Specific job requirements: If the job description is very specific, a one-page resume highlighting those qualifications might be sufficient.

When a Two-Page Resume is Acceptable: Some still say “never” because a second page is less likely to be looked at. The most important information demonstrating you meet the minimum requirements for the job should be on the first page.

• Mid- to senior-level professionals: With extensive experience, a two-page resume can effectively showcase accomplishments and career progression.
• Complex roles: Positions requiring a deep understanding of various skills and experiences might necessitate a two-page format.
• Industry standards: Some industries, such as academia or research, commonly use longer resumes to detail publications, grants, and projects.

Format for Ease of Readability:

• 11 or 12 pt font, little or no color, caps and bold just for headings and subheadings. Avoid italics and underlining
• 1” margins
• Balance text and white space so there are no large gaps.
• Pages are numbered if you have more than one.

Electronic, scannable, and hard-copy submissions:

• Follow directions exactly. Check required file type and title
• Use a scannable resume converter if applying on Indeed or other job posting sites that will scan your resume.
• Use high-quality paper to print your resume if a job requires a hard copy

3.7 Cover Letter

• Your cover letter should always accompany your resume, and emphasize, expand, and complement several key points related to the employer’s needs.
• Not every job will require a cover letter (or even if they do it might not get read depending on the time of the recruiters) but you can still include one.
• If your resume has been shortlisted, your cover letter could set you apart from other candidates.
• Two types of cover letters:
  • o Targeted:
  • o Written in response to a specific job posting and is the most commonly used type of letter.
  • o Customize the content of your letter to match the job requirements listed in the advertisement. Provide concrete examples from your experience of how you have demonstrated the qualifications listed.
  • o Submit with applications online or when emailing your documents directly in response to a position.
  • o Generalized: Use when you are applying to a company, but you are unaware of the positions that they are hiring for. This type of letter might be used when attending a career event where multiple employers are present but the available jobs are unknown. You can also prepare a generalized cover letter for when you find yourself in an unplanned networking situation; your letter will provide your contact with information highlighting your professional accomplishments.

3.8 Cover Letter Sections

• Your Contact Information: Your first and last name, current address, phone number, and email address.
• Date of Submission: Indicate the date that you are applying and submitting your application for the position. Write out the date in long form, for example, March 31, 2023.
• Company Name, Department Name, and Address: Include the name of the company and/or department that is listed on the job posting, as well as the company’s full address.
• Greeting: Name of the hiring contact included on the posting, personalize your greeting to say, “Dear Mr. or Ms. Last Name.” If by their name, their gender is unknown, you would say, “Dear First and Last Name.” If you are unable to obtain a specific name, “Dear Hiring Manager” is appropriate. As a best practice, the more personalization, the better, therefore, do not use a generic greeting such as “To Whom it May Concern”
• Introduction: Interesting hook, introduce yourself, state what position and company you are applying to, why you are applying, and where you saw it advertised or how you heard about the position.
• Body of the Letter: Provide a summary of your relevant education, experience, and personal characteristics that match the requirements of the job posting and demonstrate how you will meet the employer’s needs.
• Organization: Highlighting what interests you about the mission, vision, values, and/or projects and services.
• Conclusion: Briefly summarize what you will contribute to the company, thank the employer for their consideration, provide your contact information and remind them how you can be reached most easily, you can also clarify which times of the day you are most reachable if you have other obligations. Welcome an opportunity to meet or discuss your qualifications further.
• Signature: Write “Sincerely” underneath your last paragraph, skip several spaces and type out your first and last name. There are several applications that can be downloaded on your smart devices that allow you to create an importable image of your handwritten signature, which offers a nice professional look to finish off your letter when submitting your applications online.

3.9 Cover letter Template

3.10 Cover Letter Tips

• Customize it to the company and job
• Do your research on the company
• Personalize it to the hiring manager or others who may read it
• Be creative—avoid cliché and overused phrasing
• Be consistent with your format and presentation
• Follow instructions for submission and format
• Do not duplicate your resume—summarize instead
• Be concise
• Be aware of organization and flow
• Proofread