{"id":483,"date":"2024-12-01T12:40:49","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T12:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parwcc.com\/?p=483"},"modified":"2024-12-18T12:42:06","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T12:42:06","slug":"who-are-you-writing-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parwcc.com\/who-are-you-writing-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Are You Writing For?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eleven people applied for the Recruiting Coordinator position at Southwestern Illinois College (SWIC). As part of the four-person hiring committee, I reviewed all the r\u00e9sum\u00e9s to help find the strongest candidates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two were immediately disqualified for targeting the wrong position in their cover letters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of the nine r\u00e9sum\u00e9s that remained:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">8 were not professionally written. This is a guess, of course, but an educated one. The most visually appealing r\u00e9sum\u00e9 included one with a two-column format and a photo. It was not selected.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">6 were two pages; 2 were three pages long.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All of them included a customized cover letter, as requested in the job ad.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In general, my fellow committee members were much more critical of the cover letters than they were of the r\u00e9sum\u00e9s.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4 were selected for interviews. I agreed with three of those choices.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s where it stands as of this writing. By the time you read this, there is a good chance that an official offer has been extended and accepted. One person is going to have an even happier holiday season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eight will not\u2026at least not as a SWIC employee.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some of them will perhaps start a position at one of the 10 other jobs they applied for using the exact same r\u00e9sum\u00e9. Some of them will postpone their job search until after the new year. Some of them will go to holiday parties and tell their friends how tough the job market is right now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And a large percentage of the unchosen will never suspect that NOT A SINGLE APPLICANT appeared to customize their r\u00e9sum\u00e9 for the position. Some had professional experience that was more aligned with the job requirements, but clearly it was up to the reader to make that connection.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For some of them, it might not have made a difference.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But for those of you who serve clients in competitive job search situations, think of targeting the r\u00e9sum\u00e9 as a bare minimum, drop-dead, gotta-do checklist item that is sure to help them stand out among a pool of DIY r\u00e9sum\u00e9 writers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marketing guru Seth Godin said it this way:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>\u201cIt\u2019s so tempting to write for everyone. But everyone isn\u2019t going to read your work, <\/b><b><i>someone<\/i><\/b><b> is\u2026.Name the people you\u2019re writing for. Ignore everyone else.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the case of the new SWIC Recruiting Coordinator, someone who ignored that advice is still going to get a job offer. But the candidates who ignored that advice and were not interviewed could have increased their chances tremendously by thinking about the mindset of the people they were writing for.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I expect to see more of this dynamic as AI empowers people to try writing their own r\u00e9sum\u00e9 or cover letter with a few simple prompts. In the wrong hands, AI is hardly an equalizer. It ensures we\u2019ll have more work in the future. Strategic and authentic writing are both in high demand, still the byproduct of critical thinking.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I look at it this way. I see all these fancy video clips and recipes for the most appetizing meals and desserts, so simple even a non-cooking fool like me could do it. Except even if it turns out good, it\u2019s an accident at best.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stay in your lane, amateurs! Don\u2019t you know that we\u2019re trained for this?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eleven people applied for the Recruiting Coordinator position at Southwestern Illinois College (SWIC). As part of the four-person hiring committee, I reviewed all the r\u00e9sum\u00e9s to help find the strongest candidates.\u00a0 Two were immediately disqualified for targeting the wrong position in their cover letters. Of the nine r\u00e9sum\u00e9s that remained: 8 were not professionally written. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":414,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-resume-writing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Who Are You Writing For? | PARWCC<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tailoring resumes and cover letters to specific job postings is one of the most important parts of being a resume writer. By analyzing a recent hiring process at Southwestern Illinois College, Master Writer Suarez points out that many applicants failed to customize their applications, despite being explicitly asked to do so. 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By analyzing a recent hiring process at Southwestern Illinois College, Master Writer Suarez points out that many applicants failed to customize their applications, despite being explicitly asked to do so. This oversight significantly reduced their chances of securing an interview. Suarez emphasizes the value of professional resume writing services, particularly in today&#039;s competitive job market where AI tools can be misused. 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