As I’m sure that all of us are well aware, the construction of resumes, cover letters, and other professional job materials have to be constructed explicitly, meticulously, and with a set audience in mind in order to reach their maximum effectiveness. This insight is no secret, and it is something that we try to teach our students each semester. 

Recently, though, as evidenced throughout A Framework for Resume Decisions: Comparing Applicants’ and Employers’ Reasons, our traditional understanding of resume instruction (what should go on a resume, what sections should be highlighted over others. etc.), as well as our understanding of what employers may value have been shown to change in key areas. This is not to say that everything we know is suddenly wrong and that the world of resume instruction has suddenly been turned on its axis, instead, the changes we have seen shine new light on what employers may be looking for, preferring, or not paying attention to on “standard” resumes. 

For example, the text discusses experience, relevant education, and the relationship between these two as it relates to their favorability on a resume, which can be seen throughout the following. “Few of the “rules” of résumés are hard-and-fast. There are gradations to employers’ responses about each feature because their recommendations are based on underlying reasons (phrased as “if” statements): for example, many of them said coursework was acceptable if (a) the position is entry level or (b) the applicant just graduated college, or (c) the applicant needed more information on their résumé, or (d) coursework was the most relevant thing an applicant had.”. While this may not be entirely surprising, having the concrete evidence to indicate that relevant coursework (in the event of little to no experience) would be accepted. To many of my students, lack of relevant job experience in their field was one of the biggest questions and causes of anxiety, having the ability to concretely say that coursework can be accepted as a “last ditch” effort was certainly welcoming information to pass along. Furthermore, regarding skills and experience, as well as outside work experience, the text indicates, “Unique experiences help. Course projects were acceptable only if they were something unique, like working with a real client or organization. Computer skills are the same, with advanced skills (like proficiency in an industry-spe- cific software) more impressive than general Microsoft Office.” as well as “Work outside of regular classes is important. Internships are most desirable because they are competitive, demonstrate skills, and build networks. Volunteer work and student leadership were equal to each other, but less impressive than internships because they were less competitive to obtain.”. While these two points may be less revolutionary than the previous point, understanding exactly what employers want and look for is welcome information for both myself and the students. When presented with this information in class, my students were somewhat relieved that this information originated from a trusted study, as opposed to just my own knowledge of traditional resume construction.

While many of the insights gained from this resource were fantastic in terms of examining resume construction in new, revolutionary ways, there were areas in which a consensus could not be reached among what was actually desired on certain resumes, for example. “Most obvious is that there is little agreement: for example, six employers (25%) wanted a list of References (including two who wanted them on a separate page), nine employers (38%) wanted some mention of references but no list, and another nine (38%) did not want any mention of references at all. The Skills Summary is even more complex because employers fell into multiple responses. While 13 employers (54%) wanted to see a Skills Summary, 20 of them (83%) did not want to see terms such as “hard worker” in the Skills Summary. The disagreement in partici- pants’ opinions can frustrate people who are learning to write a U.S. résumé.” While this information may seem like a detracting factor in terms of developing new pedagogy relating to resume construction, personally, I found this quote to be somewhat reassuring and informative. Essentially, this quote indicates that there is still incredible nuance when constructing a resume and applying to a job. As a result of this, it is paramount that the students use their best judgement, fully comprehend their audience, and read the job ad meticulously in order to choose what skills/sections to highlight on a resume. Not only was this information important to pass along, it only added more (welcomed) emphasis on audience understanding, constraints, and other rhetorical principles of resume/job pacted construction. 

What does this mean for us as instructors, though? How can we take this new information and present it in a way that not only doesn’t contradict our other points on resume construction, but shines new light on the subject as a whole? Personally, this was a challenge that I was able to overcome in several ways. The first of which would be to develop new activities, announcements, or resources that help students understand what these companies are looking for and how they can better appeal to the needs of these companies. For example, developing out two resumes, one that implements the changes indicated throughout A Framework for Resume Decisions: Comparing Applicants’ and Employers’ Reason based on these companies’ suggestions, one that adheres to a more “traditional” format, and explaining to the students what resume is more effective and why. Additionally, aside from, and in conjunction with developing out new resources, I additionally provided excerpts from A Framework for Resume Decisions: Comparing Applicants’ and Employers’ Reasons, that explains in detail the statistics and exact information from the text that is the basis for these changes/improvements. Having access to these documents allows for the student to, on their own time (if they so choose) develop an extremely comprehensive understanding of what the respective employer is looking for and how they could best appeal to that employer by utilizing these new insights and existing knowledge on audience analysis and rhetorical awareness.

Moving forward, I intend to incorporate these insights into the Unit 1 assignment on a regular basis. Seeing as it has essentially shone new light on the subject, utilizing this information will be key in helping future students accomplish their goals of drafting out comprehensive and professional employment documents.