Black Collegian Career Center

The beginning of a new millennium occurs once in a thousand years. The start of a new century occurs once in a hundred years. Clearly, the year 2000 is a major benchmark in the history of the world. Such an historical moment evokes excitement, confusion, reflection and anticipation. One of the single most important things that such a change promises is even more change in all aspects of our world.

College students are already experiencing these change dynamics. Technology has become a major part of college life, very different from the past. Today, 88 percent of college bound students have Internet access and 80 percent use it frequently. Fifty-one percent have an active e-mail address. On my campus, all students can obtain an e-mail by simply applying for it. Much of campus information is now obtained through on-line communications.

Technology is changing how, when and where we do work. Consistent with this demand for change is the change that college graduates and other job seekers must master to effectively manage a job search in the next millennium/the next century.

Thousands enter the job market annually, including college and high school graduates, professionals changing jobs for advancement, displaced and laid off workers, immigrants and the chronically unemployed. Individuals seeking professional opportunities must understand today’s competitive job search environment. Despite a booming economy, employers receive thousands of resumes from college grads. AT&T and IBM receive over one million resumes a year. From November to April, many large companies receive over 1,000 resumes a week. Amid this torrent of job seekers, African-American collegians must become adept at using the most current professional tools for presenting themselves in the changing world of the new millennium.

The best jobs in the next century will require a college education, technical proficiency, analytical thinking, problem-solving and strong, interpersonal communication skills. Job seekers will need to be entrepreneurial in their quest for success, able to sell their skills in diverse work settings, and adaptable to change. Today’s and tomorrow’s job seeker will pursue employment through new and exciting technologies.

The successful job candidate in the new century/new millennium will communicate with employers through the Internet, video conferencing and digital phone systems. They will also use electronic resumes and cover letters to respond to employer demands. To be competitive, Black college students and graduates must understand and utilize today’s technology to design appropriate job search correspondences for the 21^st century.

Increasingly, due to the worldwide access, speed and versatility of technology, employers can communicate instantly with potential job seekers worldwide. The U.S. economy of the new millennium is dependent upon global, educational, environmental, business, cultural and political exchange. The college-educated job seeker must understand that the competition is not just the college student sitting next to him/her in class on campus, not only the college student sitting in class on another U.S. campus, but also the college student sitting in a classroom in Dakar, Paris or Salvador da Bahia.

To translate job search correspondence for the new millennium requires a careful review of what’s hot and what’s not in the traditional tools used in the job search.

• Conducting employer research on-line using various search engines such as INFOSEEK to tailor your resume to a specific employer’s needs

• Scannable resume devices to help employers automatically review thousands of resumes instantly by programming for key words.

• Job search engines on the Internet that direct job seekers to employment opportunities everywhere, such as THE BLACK COLLEGIAN’s JASS (Job Assistance Selection Service).

• Conference and video telephones and video computers that will allow worldwide voice-to-voice and face-to-face interface between employers and job seekers transmitting resumes and other key information instantly.

• Statewide employment opportunities online.

• Resume referral services such as THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Online (http://www.black-collegian.com).

• Resume format discs which allow you to create your resumes and cover letters from hundreds of sample "get results" resumes and cover letters on your personal computer, just by changing the specific details about you.

• Resumes with your e-mail address and even a URL address if you have created your own homepage.

• General-purpose resumes that anybody could have written, that do not link your experience and skills with an employer’s stated needs.

• Resumes that are too long to be read quickly with the flood of resumes hitting an employer’s desk on any given day.

• Resumes that are not technology friendly – meaning unable to be scanned for key words that sell your skills and abilities on line.

• Marathon hard copy resume distribution. Being non-selective in your distribution. Failing to locate employers that want what you have to offer. Wasting money by not surfing the Net.

• Resumes on colored paper that make poor fax copies or are difficult to scan.

• Sloppy resumes that are too wordy with poor grammar, trite expressions, typos and that are not accomplishment oriented.

• Resumes that have no reference to foreign language skills, leadership experiences, career-related employment, study/travel abroad, or technical/computer training or experience.

Based on the increasing use of technology by employers today, you can count on the fact that the essential tool for effective job searches in the new millennium is your personal Pentium-speed computer. The typewriter and paper processes used to develop job search correspondence in the 20^th century will soon become relics of the past.

Given the competitive nature of today’s technology-driven job market, you must be able to design not only a technically smart resume, but also one that stands apart. The technically smart resume is created on a computer for ease of proofing, revision and re-design. As a computerized document, it can be instantly tailored to a specific opportunity. Computers provide the support of spell-check and grammar-check and if necessary, can be forwarded instantly on-line to a hot employer prospect.

The technically smart resume includes a powerful introductory letter (cover letter) that identifies your potential value to an organization. Developing your technically smart resume is an ongoing activity; updating must be done regularly to keep it current. Each time you apply for a job, target your resume to a specific employer - write a specific career objective and redraft it for each position you are seeking. Such updating can easily be accomplished when you have your resume on the computer. If you do not yet know how to work with a computer, go to your Career Center for assistance or appropriate referral.

If you have never written a resume, begin by taking inventory of your skills and achievements. Via the computer or on paper, brainstorm about your experiences and accomplishments, listing everything regardless of how important or relevant you think they are. Review the list and highlight the statements you feel are the most valuable.

Your skills and accomplishments are the key ingredients of the resume, but you must organize the information into a recognizable, coherent format.

Your career objective is critical. Target it and your qualifications to specific jobs and companies. A strong career objective assists employers in determining which candidates to interview.

The smart, millennial resume is one that works for you and fits your style, but also meets the employer’s expectations regarding format and technological sophistication. The smart, millennial resume is honest, accurate, objective, clear and concise, uses achievement-oriented phrases rather than sentences, is no more than one to two pages (unless absolutely necessary), and is professional in tone and content. The smart, millennial resume also skillfully uses key words from the job description to ensure that the employer’s electronic resume scanner will not screen it out. Remember, no "perfect" kind of resume exists.

There are many resume formats, but two standard resume formats, chronological and functional, are particularly well suited for college students and graduates. Both formats are described in this article. Use your College Career Center to learn more about writing resumes, to learn other resume styles and most importantly, to get your resume professionally critiqued by your College Career Center before submitting it to prospective employers. The chronological resume focuses on the dates you obtained your education, work experience and leadership activities. It begins with educational background and previous employers, listing most recent information first and working back no more than five to eight years or to high school. College graduates with limited work experience usually find the chronological resume most effective.

If you have extensive, diverse work experience and relevant professional skills, have gaps in your educational progress, or have been out of the job market for some time, you may find the functional resume a better choice. The functional resume allows you to focus on transferable skills, abilities, and experiences that you have acquired regardless of setting.

The functional resume has the same categories as the chronological resume, but allows more freedom in organizing the information. If you have more work experience, placing your work history before your degree emphasizes your strengths to the potential employer. Also, categorizing your work history by skill areas rather than chronologically, is a way to circumvent employment gaps.

A smart, standout cover letter gives your resume focus and appeal. The cover letter briefly alerts the employer to your resume's contents. Today’s effective cover letter specifically and concisely points out the most relevant skill sets mentioned in your resume and relates them to the stated needs/qualifications of the position. The cover letter also clearly articulates your strong desire to bring your skills and abilities to a particular organization.

The personalized aspect of a cover letter is its major strength. To create a standout, millennial cover letter, always address it to a specific individual, preferably the person most likely to have decision-making authority for the position sought. Obtain the names and position titles of key contacts in the organization by networking at career fairs and reviewing on-campus recruiter information in your College Career Center. Aids such as Standard & Poor's Register of Corporations, Directors, and Executives, Dun & Bradstreet’s Million Dollar Directory, and other research sources provide mailing information and can produce actual mailing labels!

Solid research allows you to avoid writing "To Whom It May Concern." If you aren’t sure, call the company to verify your target’s name and title. The ultimate question that you must answer throughout your job search is, "What can you do for the employer?" The cover letter lets you highlight skills or accomplishments that have particular value to the organization. Their inclusion in the cover letter communicates that you have researched, identified and can fulfill the company’s needs.

The cover letter also has an important closing section that indicates follow-up requested or that will be initiated by you. Your action-oriented closing allows you to initiate the exchange of further communication and to have some control of the process.

There are hundreds of cover letter and resume books and publications to aid today’s job seeker and many helpful resume development guides on the Internet. There is no excuse for not being able to write a good resume or cover letter. Creating the smart resume that showcases you for the new millennium requires accessing state-of-the-art computer technology, doing company research on-line, exploring job search engines on the internet, refining your computerized resume with the help of resume formats online and seeking the most up-to-date assistance from the professionals in your Career Center.

Finally, never let someone else write your job search correspondence for you. Experienced employers tire of the canned resume. Besides, you will need to be able to sell yourself in the interview just as you have sold yourself in the cover letter and resume. Better to develop these skills now. You will be glad to have them as you move in and out of the job market during the course of your professional career. Here’s to a new century, a new millennium and your future success.

Linda Bates Parker is the director of the Career Development Center, University of Cincinnati.