Here are some of the common errors I find:

Appearance / Overall

Cover Letters

Resumes

Reference Page

Worth: 200 points

Social Media Resume Assignment

One of the ways college grads are helping to market themselves is through creating a social media resume. Dan Schwabel shares some excellent advice on social media resumes in a blog post at Mashable.

Using a free online site like Wix, Weebly, VisualCV, Google Sites or a new WordPress blog, create a social media resume for yourself.

At a minimum, include/embed the following:

• At least two SlideShare or Prezi presentations you have created (one can be the Trade Book Review you did for this class)
• One podcast (it can be the one you did for this class)
• Three work samples (such as PDFs of news releases, brochures, newsletters, ads, etc.) — NOTE: If you have no client work yet, then substitute in at least two items from the Optional list below
• A hyperlink to your blog
• Hyperlinks to at least three of your favorite blog posts that you have written (to highlight your writing skills in digital media)
• A PDF of your traditional resume
• A hyperlink to your LinkedIn profile

Optional items to enhance your social media resume include:

• A selection of  photos you have taken, to show your photography skills
• Links to client work you have produced
• Links to the social bookmarks you have created
• Links to Facebook fan pages or groups that you have created and maintain
• A Wordle of key words that describe you
• The “Viral” Video you created for this class (if you chose to do one), or another video you have created
• A social media monitoring report that you have created (to show your social media research skills)
• A short video in which you introduce yourself to potential employers
• A link to your Twitter stream (but only if it’s 100% appropriate for a potential employer to view)

NOTE: If you are in my PR Practicum class this semester, this assignment can also serve as your Portfolio.

Here’s a short video that explains this assignment further. NOTE: There may be minor changes/clarifications to this assignment here in this blog post that were not addressed fully in the video.

Many thanks to Chris Taylor, AKA @TBOChris, for inviting me to the studio, to Daniela for moderating the chat, and to my longtime Twitter friend & Tampa Tribune writer Jeff Houck (@JeffHouck) for inviting me to lunch at The Taco Bus after the chat session.

Create a professional-looking resume package as if you are applying for a specific position within a real company.

The draft of the package is due in GeorgiaVIEW on February 4 by midnight. Learn from the feedback you receive on the draft, make changes, and submit your final version no later than April 5 at midnight.

Use the advice in Job Search: A Delightful Dozen Posts I provide in this blog, as well as the vast amount of resume & cover letter advice in WinWay Resume Deluxe, when working on this assignment. You will find the Resume Auditor in WinWay Resume to be especially valuable for you, as it will help you catch common resume mistakes. (Disclosure: I created the Resume Auditor function for WinWay Resume.)

The package will contain:

• Job description or want ad from a specific company
• Cover letter written specifically for this position
• One-page resume, including the URL for your up-to-date LinkedIn profile
• Reference page created specifically for this position

NOTE 1: If you choose not to complete a draft of this assignment for feedback from me, the highest grade you will earn on the assignment is 200 points (of the 250 available).

NOTE 2: Typographical or grammatical errors will count off one letter grade each. It’s THAT important to be error-free in your resume package. (Some employers will not consider an applicant who includes errors in the application process.) Proofread your resume package yourself, and also have at least three other people proof it for you.

• Portfolios for Public Relations Students (posted 22 September 2009)
• Resumes That Resonate . . . Revisited (posted 17 September 2009)
• Soon-to-Be PR Grads Get LinkedIn (posted 1 February 2010)
• Informational Interviews (posted 2 September 2009)
• Resume Tips from Phil Gomes (video, posted 17 February 2009)
• Job Interviews: 10 Things You Oughtta Know (audio, posted 16 February 2009)
• The One Job Interview Question (video, posted 12 February 2009)
• Making the Most of a Phone Interview (posted 10 February 2009)
• Wordle Me This (14 July 2008)
• Join a Social Network, Get a Job? (video, posted 30 June 2008)
• Seeking a Public Relations Internship? (audio, posted 11 April 2008)
• Watch Out for Digital Dirt (posted 9 April 2008)

Are there other blog posts that have helped YOU in your job search? I’d appreciate it if you could share them as a comment here.

Thanks!

• Tailor your resume to the specific position that you’re applying for. Use the same phrasing in your resume that you’ve found in the employer’s want ad whenever possible.
• If you have less than 10 years of experience, it’s best to stick to the traditional one-page resume. Each additional 10 years may help to “earn” you an additional page. (If you want or need to provide more details, offer the URL of your LinkedIn profile. See my profile.) If you are not yet out of college, it’s presumptuous to think you need more than a one-page resume.
• If your blog has content that may be of interest to your potential employer, include its URL on your resume.
• Pepper your resume with terms that are relevant to the career field and industry in which you desire employment. Phrase your work experience in terms that are relevant to your career goal.
• Use reverse chronological order (most recent first) when listing your experience and education.
• If you are still in college, it’s okay to leave your high school on your resume if you have available space for it, especially if you did something noteworthy during your high school years. After you graduate from college, leave high school off your resume.
• Always start every bullet point in your experience section with an action verb. Use past tense for previous jobs and present tense for current jobs. Never start a bullet point with “responsible for” or “duties included.”
• If you have little paid work experience, provide details on projects done in classes to show that you are prepared to enter the working world.
• Volunteer experience counts too! Don’t forget to include service projects you’ve been involved with.
• Explain acronyms and cryptic group names on resumes. A potential employer will not automatically know that SOCS stands for Society of Communication Scholars, ILA stands for International Listening Association, or that PRestige is a public relations firm made up of college students.
• Many employers assume that if an organization’s name includes greek letters, it’s a social fraternity or sorority. If you belong to something Phi Kappa Phi, indicate that this is an honor society.
• What to do about that GPA? If it’s above 3.0 (on a 4-point scale), you may want to include it. If it starts with a 2 or lower, definitely leave it off. Or, you can include your GPA just in your major if you’d like, for example “3.4 GPA in Major.”
• Before you graduate, you can still include your anticipated degree on your resume. For example, “Bachelor of Science in Public Relations expected in May 2010.”
• Use the same header for your resume, cover letter and reference page. Everything should coordinate.
• To make it look more professional, use your computer, not a pen, to address the envelope.
• Check postage prices before mailing your resume. You don’t want it to arrive postage-due.
• In your cover letter, watch for overuse of the words “I” and “my.” Instead, be company-focused.
• Remember to sign your cover letter.
• Never in a million years should you start a cover letter with “To whom it may concern.” Use the name, or at least the title, of the hiring manager instead.
• For your reference page, include complete contact information for each reference. Include name, title, company, mailing address, e-mail address and phone number.

For entry-level public relations positions, Jennifer Abshire of Abshire Public Relations & Marketing offers these additional suggestions:

• Leave the objective off, or customize it for the specific position you’re applying for. Don’t use a generic one that you found on a template somewhere.
• Include all your work experience, even if it seems not directly related to the position. (The worst that will happen is that it will show that you are a hard worker.) Abshire holds in high regard people who are well rounded and street smart, rather than with a high GPA and no work experience or community involvement.
• Send a few samples of your writing or design work along with your resume.
• If sending your resume (and samples) electronically, make one PDF file that has all the information in it, rather than sending multiple attachments. (For an inexpensive and easy-to-use program for creating PDFs, try CutePDF.)

After you’ve created your resume, have several people proofread it for you. Set it aside for a while. Then measure your resume up against this Resume Checklist.

Updated from my original Resumes That Resonate: Tips for Entry-Level Positions.

Find more videos like this on PROpenMic

In these days of travel budgets being slashed to bare bones, many companies are doing more phone interviews than ever. One of my PRCA 2330 students was just invited to a phone interview for an internship. She asked for some tips specific to phone interviews. Here’s some of my best advice:

• Know the details of the interview. For example, do you call the interviewer? Or does he or she call you? Be prepared at least 15 minutes ahead of time, and be aware of time-zone differences.
  
• If possible, make or take the call from a landline telephone, rather than a cell phone. You don’t want to have to worry about your call being dropped part-way through. If you must use a cell phone, be sure you’re in an area with exceptionally good coverage.
  
• If the interviewer calls you on your cell phone, be sure that he or she hears a “regular” phone ringing, rather than a snippet of your favorite song. Call tones (or ring tones, depending on the lexicon of your phone provider) are sometimes confusing to callers who expect to hear just a ring.
  
• Whether it’s a cell phone or a landline phone, check to see that the battery is fully charged before you begin to speak.
  
• Do your best to be in a quiet place, away from chatty roommates, barking dogs, etc.
  
• Prepare your interview area carefully. Be seated at a clean desk, and have a copy of your resume in front of you. Also have information about the company printed and available for you to refer to if you need it.
  
• Have a cup of water with a straw nearby. It’s best to have no ice. 
• No gum chewing. Though I love to chew gum, I know how awful it sounds to others at times.
• Dress professionally, even though you know the interviewer cannot see you through the phone. We tend to act more professional when we appear more professional.
  
• Avoid typing while talking, especially if you have long nails like I do. The sound of typing may make it sound like you’re not interested enough in the discussion to give it full attention.
  
• Take notes as needed during the interview.
  
• If the interview is done via Skype (or other) video chat, check your equipment with a friend ahead of time to ensure you know how to make or answer the video call. Make eye contact with the camera just as though you were talking face-to-face with the interviewer. Practice this with a friend! It feels quite awkward the first time you try it.
  
• Immediately after the phone interview, send a short (yet professional) thank you e-mail to the interviewer. Then follow up that e-mail, the same day if possible, with a hand-written thank you note.
  

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00/9257237/

*To tweak my resume, this is what I did:

• for words that I wanted to have joined together (like “public relations”), replace the space between the words with a tilde (public~relations)
• took my name and copied/pasted it about 15 times, so that I was sure my name would be the largest word in the image
• replaced variations of a word (like communicates, communication, communicate) and standardized it to one word (communication)