Fw: my resume

[Tim Altom <taltom -at- IQUEST -dot- NET>]

Actually, as my company's chief marketer, I'd had to say that you may be
viewing this upside down. Whether or not you're a grad student, it seems to
me that what matters is what employers in your chosen area are likely to
value. Do you know?

In our area, I've only quasi-cynically told newbies to get thoroughly
world-class expert on PageMaker, FrameMaker, and Word and that'll qualify
them for most of the open positions. I know that's not entirely the case, of
course, but considering that the first audience for a resume is the HR
department, and HR writes those godawful ads stressing the tools, you're
almost assured of a job somewhere doing something. That's slowly changing as
HR and even techdoc managers begin to grasp what tech comm people do for a
living.

To be honest I'm not a big believer in resumes anyway. Too many resumes
flash across an HR person's desk to be of much value. In my mind, true
marketing for a job is probably the most arduous but fruitful means to
employment. That means personal contacts and visits to most of the techdoc
department heads you can lay hold of. Ask THOSE people what they value.
They're buying. A resume is only an internal selling tool, not an external
one. Ideally you want the techdoc manager thumping down the hallway shouting
your name into the HR manager's ear and insisting that you be hired
immediately. Trying to come in the other way is a crapshoot, in my
experience, although it's immensely easier to broadside a hundred resumes
than it is to market yourself. For great advice about this, check out Harvey
Mackay's _How to Build a Network of Power Relationships_.

In any case, best of luck.

Tim Altom
Simply Written, Inc.
317.899.5882
http://www.simplywritten.com
Creators of the Clustar Method for task-based documentation
-----Original Message-----
From: Melissa Alton <maalton -at- UNITY -dot- NCSU -dot- EDU>
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU <TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU>
Date: Thursday, April 09, 1998 3:54 PM
Subject: my resume


>I have my education at th etop because I've always been told if you have
>less than 2 years of real experiene your education should come first.
>well i have less than 2 years of real experience, plus I am currently in
>grd. school
>
>to me the most important thing is that people realize i am in a tech comm
>grad program
>
>what d oothers think?
>
>
>
>