Writing for the Robot: How Employer Search Tools Have Influenced Résumé Rhetoric and Ethics     

To date, business communication scholars and textbook writers have encouraged résumé rhetoric that accommodates technology, for example, recommending keyword-enhancing techniques to attract the attention of searchbots: customized search engines that allow companies to automatically scan résumés for relevant keywords. However, few scholars have discussed the ethical implications of adjusting résumé keywords for the sole purpose of increasing searchbot hits. As the résumé genre has evolved over the past century, strategies of résumé “padding” have likewise evolved, at each stage violating one of four maxims of the Cooperative Principle. Direct factual misrepresentation violates the maxim of quality and is of course discouraged, but résumé writers have turned in succession to violations of manner (formatting tricks) and then more recently to violations of quantity and/or relevance with deceptive keywording techniques. The authors conclude by suggesting several techniques to business communication instructors that may encourage students to create more ethically sound résumés.

Amare, Nicole and Alan Manning. Business Communication Quarterly (2009). Careers>Resumes>Search Engine Optimization>Ethics

Employer Preferences for Résumés and Cover Letters    

This article reports the results of a survey of employers' preferences for résumé style, résumé delivery method, and cover letters. Employers still widely prefer the standard chronological résumé, with only 3% desiring a scannable résumé. The vast majority of employers prefer electronic delivery, either by email (46%) or at the company's Web site (38%), with only 7% preferring a paper copy. Cover letters are preferred by a majority (56%). Preferences regarding résumé style and cover letters were independent of national (USA) vs. multinational geographic range, company size, type of industry, or respondent's job function. Smaller companies prefer résumé delivery by email, and human resources workers prefer delivery using the company's Web site.

Schullery, Nancy M., Linda Ickes and Stephen E. Schullery. Business Communication Quarterly (2009). Careers>Resumes>Cover Letters

The Rhetorical Situations of Web Résumés    

This article questions how professional communication genres already well established in print form have been changing as they are transplanted into digital media like the Web. Whereas some technology-oriented genre research has sought how a new medium provides genres with new technological features, this article argues that a more insightful approach would seek how a new medium, together with its users, provides genres with new rhetorical situations. To operationally define rhetorical situations, I adapt Lloyd Bitzer's three situational dimensions of exigence, audience, and constraints. Then, to illustrate how the new rhetorical situations of the Web can influence a genre, I explore the genre of the résumé. Drawing on a survey of 100 Web résumé authors and an analysis of their sites, I show that as each of the three dimensions of the résumé's traditional rhetorical situation has opened itself to greater diversity on the Web, the Web version of the résumé genre has correspondingly reoriented itself. Hence, genres change in response not just to the new medium's technology per se but to the new rhetorical situations that the medium hosts.

Killoran, John B. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2009). Careers>Resumes>Web Design

Rethinking Job References: a Networking Challenge    

Can job references play an active role in shaping your career plans? Would you consider your references as part of your personal and professional network? Although most professionals may respond with a resounding 'Yes, of course!' to these questions, I realized that many of my students were skeptical about job references. To counter this, and to help improve their chances in the job market, I designed a multistep assignment that expanded students' understanding of job references and required them to identify persons who were potential job references and members of their career network. This article provides the details for the assignment.

Muir, Clive. Business Communication Quarterly (2009). Careers>Resumes>Collaboration>Education

The Twenty Most Common LinkedIn Mistakes

You probably know by now that LinkedIn is a powerful networking tool for personal branding and executive job search. In case you don’t, get busy immediately building your branded profile, connecting with people, expressing your executive brand, and leveraging LinkedIn to full advantage. But don’t make these 20 mistakes.

Guiseppi, Meg. Executive Resume Branding (2009). Careers>Resumes>Online>Social Networking