In chapter 2 of Anderson's book, technical communication, he shares tips and strategies for obtaining a job. He discusses how to effectively write a resume and a job application letter. He explains how to customize your resume and job application letter to fit the particular job you are applying for. The last major point he discusses are the guidelines to make your resume and job application letter ethical. I believe one of the most interesting and relevant strategies in this chapter was to do a lot of prior research on the company and the position you are applying for before constructing your resume. Anderson states that it is important to know not only the general qualifications, but the more specific ones that are unique to the job. The strategies Anderson gives to collect this background knowledge are to interview someone who holds the current position, talk to your instructors in your major, study the advertisement or job description thoroughly, and use your resources such as the campus employment center and library to read material about the career. Another interesting tip that Anderson discusses is that online applications are almost always read by a computer before a human. Employers use the computer to scan and look for keywords that they believe would appear on a good candidates resume. Anderson then tells us how to successfully get more hits on our resume when its scanned by a computer. He lists the general keywords used for job applications and resumes, which I believe would be a huge help for me because I was unknown to how the online process worked.

     I just entered the engineering program at Wayne State and hope to one day become a mechanical engineer. As of right now, I am nowhere near qualified to apply to either of the two potential job opportunities I found, but hopefully one day. The first potential job opportunity I looked into was a mechanical engineering position for a medical device company in North Carolina. I believe researching wont be that complicated because the job ad provides a great deal of the job details, the specific tasks I will be performing day-to-day, as well as all of the minimum requirements and knowledge I will need to know. Seeing that the job is out of State, I would attempt to interview a current employee over the phone or a video conference. This will give me the necessary background knowledge about the company that can't be found on the ad. The second potential job opportunity I looked into was a mechanical design engineering position in California. This job ad lists all of the responsibilities for the position as well as all the minimum requirements to be considered a potential candidate. The positions main purpose is to create new designs and optimize existing designs for mechanical systems that are used for manufacturing equipment. I would research previous designs the company has produced and their existing designs to get an idea of what specifics they are looking for. Again, seeing that this is an out of state job, I would attempt to interview a current employee over the phone or internet to get all the information necessary that wasn't provided in the ad.

     Instead of revising my old resume to better fit these job ads, I would just start from scratch. This is because all of the information on my old resume is completely outdated and everything about it comes off as unprofessional. I decided that my length should be one page. I decided on this because Anderson states that for most undergraduates one page is the ideal length unless you have extensive qualifications, which I don't.  When it came to choosing which type to prepare, an experiential emphasis was the obvious choice. Anderson states that this type of resume is the best choice for most college students. Another reason for choosing an experiential emphasis is because I don't have any professional experience to use the skills emphasis type.

     This is my first year back at school so I don't have many recent college activities or projects. A few classes that I have taken in the past that I believe would be the most important to this resume would be all my English communications courses, the two Information technology courses, and the oral communications course. A class that I am currently enrolled in that I believe would be important to add to my resume is this technical communication course. All of the skills obtained from these courses are not only helpful, but necessary for the career path I chose.

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First potential job opportunity (Medical device company, NC)

Second potential job opportunity (Mechanical design, CA)

Matthew's old resume