1. TECWRIT HANDOUTS – PROFESSOR: JONATHAN L. TIU
THE JOB SEARCH
Obtaining a job involves writing a highly effective resume and a
job application letter. They should persuade the reader/s that you are
the most qualified person for the job.
WHAT EMPLOYERS SEEK IN NEW EMPLOYEES

Technical expertise .

Supporting abilities.
Employers want to hire people who can perform their
jobs adeptly with a minimum of on-the-job-training.
Most jobs require a wide range of abilities beyond the
purely technical ones of your degree or specialty. Among others, these often
include communication, interpersonal, time management, and project
management skills.
WRITING YOUR RESUME
• A resume is a job employment document that summarizes the
qualifications and background information of the applicant.
• Begin work on your resume by carefully determining the reader
or readers of your resume. The people who usually read your
resume are :
a. the Human Resource Manager or Personnel Manager
who screens your general qualifications
b. the Functional Manager who assesses your technical
expertise and other abilities

2. c. the General Manager or Company President who has the
decision-making power
• Then define your resume’s persuasive objectives. Your resume
must be packed with favourable information about your
qualifications but it must be something that can be read quickly.
• Plan and decide what you will include and how you will organize
and present the information.
TWO MAJOR TYPES OF RESUMES
1. EXPERIENTIAL RESUME (ENTRY-LEVEL RESUME)
- In this type of resume, you organize information about
yourself based on your experiences, grouping them under
such headings as “Education,” “Employment,” and
“Activities.” Under these headings, you describe your
experiences in ways that demonstrate your qualifications.
- This is the best choice for most college students and persons
who are starting their career.
2. FUNCTIONAL RESUME (ADVANCED-LEVEL RESUME)
- You organize a key section around your abilities and
accomplishments in this type of resume and focus on your
job experiences.
- This works best for individuals with enough professional
experience to be able to list several on-the-job
responsibilities and accomplishments.

3. HOW LONG SHOULD YOUR RESUME BE?
The answer : it should be as short as possible while still presenting
the facts about you that employers will find most persuasive. For
most fresh graduates, this is one page. However, some have
extensive qualifications that justify a second page. Many
experienced workers do as well.
GENERAL STRATEGIES FOR DRAFTING
RESUMES
 Take an employer’s perspective . Make all decisions
concerning your resume by thinking about the qualities an
employer will hope to find in a job applicant
 Think creatively about your qualifications . Your
challenge is to describe the knowledge and experience you
possess that relate to the job you want.
 Put the most impressive facts first . Make a strong first
impression on your readers. Busy employers may quit reading if
the first things they encounter are ordinary and unimpressive.
 Be specific. Don’t say that you’ve “taken several courses on
culinary arts.” Name the courses you have taken.

4.  Eliminate irrelevant information . No matter how proud
you are of some fact, leave it out if an employer won’t be
impressed by it. Don’t bury your good qualifications among
items that are unimportant to your readers.
WRITING AN EXPERIENTIAL RESUME
The following are the sections of an experiential resume:
HEADING - NAME AND CONTACT INFORMATION
Place your name prominently at the top of your page. Enable
the reader/s to contact you quickly for an interview or with a job
offer by including your postal address, email address, and
contact numbers.
PROFESSIONAL OBJECTIVE

5. Most employers want you to tell them your career objectives.
Tell what you can give to your future employer rather than what
you want to gain from them.
Examples:
X Professional objective : A position as a front desk staff
with an innovative and growing international hotel.
 Professional objective : A position in which I can maximize
my interpersonal skills and service-oriented character that
will enable the satisfaction of the hotel guests.
EDUCATION
- Place your education immediately after the heading and
career objective
- Name your school (college or university), degree and
inclusive years of tertiary education

6. - Include your grade point average (GPA) if it is impressive
- Include advanced courses relevant to the job ( give the
course title – example: Technical Writing)
- Academic honors (example: cum laude)
- Scholarships
- Study or training abroad
WORK EXPERIENCE
- This includes your on-the-job training or practicum /
internship, part-time job, personal or family business
- List your employers / company name, company address, your
job titles, and employment dates
- Highlight the following facts about your work experience:
• Your accomplishments - describe projects you worked
on, problems you addressed, goals you pursued,
products you designed, and reports you helped write. If
possible, emphasize specific results .
• Knowledge gained – highlight things your learned that
increase your ability to contribute to your future
employer

7. • Responsibilities given - if you supervised other
employees, state how many; if you directed an event,
say how large it was. Employers will be impressed that
others have entrusted you with significant
responsibility.
- Guidelines on how to organize and describe your work
experience
• List your jobs in reverse chronological order
• Put actions in verbs, not nouns - don’t say
“responsible for analysis of data” but “analyzed data”
• Use parallel constructions – use a grammatically correct
parallel construction
NOT PARALLEL
PARALLEL
Trained new employees
Trained new
employees
Preparation of reports
Prepared reports
Answering phone calls
calls
Answered phone

8. NON-ACADEMIC AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS
- This includes your recognition (awards and achievements)
which are not academic in nature. Such recognitions may
have something to do with your excellent leadership skills,
involvement in sports, arts and other non-academic
endeavors.
EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
- Involvement in extra-curricular activities in your school and
community indicates that you are a pleasant person who gets
along with others.
- It may also show that you have acquired certain abilities that
are important in the job you want.
PERSONAL DATA
- Provide your employers with information about your special
abilities (such as languages spoken, cooking skills, etc,),
interests, outstanding personality traits and characteristics.

9. REFERENCES
- Research shows that most employers want applicants to
include references with their resumes (Bowman, 2002).
-
Why include your references?
 Because this will increase your resume’s usability
by enabling employers to contact them
immediately and directly.
 This increases the resume’s persuasiveness by
letting readers see the names and titles of the
impressive people who will speak favourably about
you.
- Employers expect three to five references, so include this
many.
- Select a mix of people who can describe your range of
qualifications (such as your instructors, former employers,
club advisers).
DESIGNING YOUR RESUME’S APPEARANCE

10. - The design of you resume should support rapid reading,
emphasize your most impressive qualifications, and look
attractive.
- Use short, informative headings
- List down in bullets the details
- Italicize important ideas
- Use colors (for the heading)
- Use a maximum of three font typefaces
- Use white space to separate sections
- Create ample margins (1 inch on all sides)
- Achieve visual balance

11. WRITING THE APPLICATION LETTER
- Your job application letter can be a powerfully persuasive part
of the package you submit to employers.
- In a survey, 60% of the respondents composed of executives
indicated that a job application letter is just as or more
important than the resume.
- In defining the persuasive objectives of your job application
letter, consider the following questions:
 Why do you want to work for the company?
 How will you contribute to the success of the organization?
 Will you work well with the other employees and the
persons with whom the company does business?

12. - What are the parts of a job application letter?
• INTRODUCTION
- The major thing to accomplish in your introduction is to
indicate the job you want and why.
- Begin you letter much more effectively by using the readercentered facts you discovered through your research about
the company:
a. Praise the accomplishment, project, or activity you learned
about the company. Praise is almost always welcomed by
a reader, provided that it is sincere.
b. State that your reason for applying for the job is your
desire to contribute to the success of these or similar
accomplishments, projects, or activities.
• QUALIFICATIONS SECTION
- Explain how your knowledge and experience prepared you to
contribute significantly to the employer’s organization.
- Explain the importance of the information in your resume to
the job you want. Tell also how the knowledge you gained will
help you to do a good job for the employer.
- Indicate how the skills you gained will enable you to succeed
in the job you are seeking.

13. • CLOSING
- In the closing of your letter, look ahead to the next step,
perhaps a preliminary interview. Thus, indicate where you can
be reached and when.
- End with a courteous closing.