Strategic components of resume, cover letter, and team decision-making

Interview/Resume/Cover Letter Preparation

Strategic Business Communication

Components make up a resume/cover letter

A detailed cover letter usually has five components: an introductory paragraph, a value-selling paragraph, a background summary, an action statement and a statement of appreciation, while a detailed resume has more components. This can include as many as contact information, job objective, professional experience/employment summary, academic achievements/education, skills and accomplishments, activities, recognition and awards, certifications and licenses and references.

For recent graduates, the academic achievements/education component is probably the most important part of the resume, which is why it should be outstanding in it and it should include any honors and/or special awards ever achieved. This part of the resume can also include any projects that might be relevant for a potential employer. The degree has to be mentioned, as it's a relevant part of this component and written as a full name, rather than using a shortcut (e.g. Bachelor of Science instead of B.S.), together with the graduation date. The GPA is not mandatory, being recommended to include is only if it's 3.0 or higher.

Individuals that transferred from another school should mention that in this section, together with the details of the other college (e.g. name of the college, city, and state). The high school information can be left out, once the person is halfway through college.

While writing a good cover letter, individuals should pay attention to factors than can work against them, such as: poor grammar and punctuation, misspelled words, aggressive or pushy tone, exaggeration, lack of focus, self focus at the expense of employer focus and a poor overall appearance. Usually, cover letters are typed unless specified by the employer otherwise.

One of the most difficult parts of a cover letter is the introductory sentence. The individual should use the same words he/she would use to introduce himself/herself to a total stranger. If this stranger reads the resume after that, then the cover letter was a success.

3. Favorite speaker: Randy Pausch -- Last lecture: Achieving your childhood dreams

Last lecture: achieving your childhood dreams was a lecture given by Randy Pausch, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. The lecture received large media coverage, becoming one of the most viewed lectures on the internet and it was an optimistic view focused on the remaining time of the professor and what can be made of it. No doubt the lecture's success is due to the situational context, but the speech/presentation techniques used are also worth mentioning.

The first technique was to introduce the elephant in the room -- mention the disease. The professor talked about it for one minute using PowerPoint slides, thus using visual impression in an oral presentation. If he had not started the speech that way, the audience would have been distracted during the whole presentation and unable to learn from the powerful lessons presented in the lecture.

The second technique was to define the scope of the lecture, mentioning there what he would talk about and what not. This technique enables the speaker to define the boundaries of the presentations and the starting point.

The third technique was to have a strong conclusion. Randy finished strong a 75 minutes lecture and left the audience thinking.

The fourth technique was to show enthusiasm (e.g. he did pushups, wore an Alice in Wonderland hat and gave away stuffed animals). The audience is more likely to pay attention when it has fun if the speaker has fun.

Finally, the fifth technique was to get personal, as the lecture is about his personal lessons of life. Letting the guard down and showing emotions are a good way to connect with the audience.

4. Effective Listening and Assertiveness

Effective listening involves a set of actions, such as: focusing on what is being said, acknowledgement of what has been said, paying attention to body language, asking questions for clarifications and resisting the urge to interrupt the other person(s) or give advice.

Assertiveness, either verbal or non-verbal is a way of communications thoughts and feelings with honesty and in an appropriate manner. An assertive communicator is an individual with self-awareness that knows what he/she wants and needs. A person that is not assertive, and doesn't let other people know his/her feeling and thoughts, forces others to make assumptions about these and since assumptions have a 50% change to be correct, non-assertive individuals have a 50% of being understood.

Other communication styles include: passive -- who gives into what other want; aggressive -- who intimidates others with his/her hostility or rudeness; passive-aggressive -- who avoids an open conflict, but feels angry on the inside; and manipulative -- who tries to get what he/she want by making others feel guilty. The assertive style is the one in which the individual communicates directly and honestly his/her thoughts and feelings, taking responsibility for oneself and being respectful to others. Assertive individuals are effective listeners and problem solvers.

Assertiveness can have a positive impact on communication because it lead to mutual respect between communicators, it increases the communicator's self-esteem and helps him/her achieve his/her goals, it reduces anxiety, it reduces the alienation of others and implicitly the possibility to hurt them, it enables individuals to make free choices in life and to express both verbally and non-verbally feelings and thoughts. However, assertiveness might not be appropriate in all situations, especially in more formal circumstances.

5. Receiving feedback

Feedback represents information regarding how the sender thinks/feels and how he/she is affected by the receiver's attitude. Effective feedback can be defined through effective communication. By effective communication we expect filling the current needs of participants in a way that creates a good feeling for all individuals involved. Therefore, by good feedback we expect to fill current needs of both sender and receiver as judged by each individual and to enhance their relationship, rather than degrading it.

Feedback can be categorized as direct or indirect, intentional or unintentional or perceived accurately or not. Intentional feedback is the one that is goal-oriented, whereas the unintentional one is more of an unconscious set of signals that our bodies send out to others as a reaction to certain communications.

Feedback can also be categorized as positive or negative, person-focused or message-focused, immediate or delayed, low-monitoring or high-monitoring, and supportive-critical. The positive or negative one reflects the extent of optimism or pessimism of the response given. The person/message feedback reflects whether the focus is on the person who sent the feedback or the message. The immediate/delayed one is focused on the timeline of the feedback. The monitoring one has to do with the spontaneity and sincerity of the feedback. Finally, the supportive-critical one reflects the divergence or convergence of the feedback with the original message.

Self-centered feedback is a combination of the feedback types previously mentioned, being a person-focused one, most likely supportive, intentional and positive. This type of feedback can enhance the communication content if it reflects a sincere, unbiased opinion, but because it's likely to be subjective, it can distort the feedback message and implicitly become detrimental to the communication.

6. Interviewing

It is said that non-verbal communication accounts for more than 90% of the message sent out in an interview. In fact the verbal content weights only 7% of the message the interviewer receives from the candidate. The non-verbal communication is divided into body language and the way the candidate speaks, such as the tone of the voice. This type of communication has several ways of being expressed, such as posture, eye-contact, voice delivery and the hands' position.

Posture has to do with the way the candidate seats in his/her chair. This should be upright, but not too stiff; otherwise it wouldn't inspire self-confidence and the feeling of comfortable. Relaxing and leaning forward, roughly 10 degrees towards the interviewer, should reflect interest and involvement.

Direct eye-contact with the interviewer, when this one is talking reflects active listening. The overuse of eye-contact can seem challenging and lecturing for the interviewer. Experts suggest the eye-contact for about 10 seconds before briefly looking away and then re-establishing the eye-contact.

A controlled and clear voice should inspire confidence to the interviewer. It is advised to talk to the interviewer as an equal, rather than a subordinate, avoid monotone voice or high-pitched one, and breathe or pause before or after a question. Smiling or nodding could be appropriate at times, but the candidate needs to be careful not to overdo it.

Hands' control might not seem very important, but they can send various messages to the interviewer, so the candidate needs to be careful with them. Therefore, if the candidate doesn't' know what to do with them, he/she should rest them on the table or in his/her lap. Experts' opinion is that the less the candidate moves his/her hands, the more in control he/she is.

7. Difficult Question

When asked difficult questions, the candidate feels instinctively that the interviewer is probing, making the former feel like he/she is under great scrutiny. As one prepares his/her responses before the interview, one might want to consider what information these difficult questions seek: that is, are there ways in which the candidate can become a liability to the company through his/her answers? or, if the company intends to invest in the candidate after being hired, what kinds of things would this one need to overcome? Is the candidate kind of person who can deal with things when these get rough, or not?

Experts suggest being honest, but reassuring in answering sensitive questions. The candidate should use tact and choose his/her words carefully so that he/she shows respect for other people in his/her responses. Also, he/she should usually use understatement in his/her reply to sensitive questions because when people hear something slightly negative, they tend to focus on this aspect in a way that is out of proportion when compared to its significance in day-to-day life. For instance, if one says during the interview that he/she is not always organized, the interviewer might imagine a desk full of papers strewn everywhere or deadlines missed. However, in reality one's conception of disorganization might not be the same as the interviewer's conception of disorganization, but rather closer to his/her conception of organization.

Most of the interviewer's difficult questions could be answered honestly in many ways. The candidate just has to choose the version of the truth that is most appealing, which is also the version that helps support the main message.

There are many ways to answer to difficult questions. Persuasive appeal, quality of evidence and the avoidance of fallacies are some of them. The persuasive appeal was used even in antiquity by the Greeks and it has three dimensions: ethos -- which is the speaker's credibility; pathos -- which implies appealing to the listener's emotional and psychological needs; and logos -- which are the logical arguments. A persuasive appeal should start with a claim, continue with the evidence that supports the claim and finally the speaker's reasoning to for using the chosen evidence to support his/her claim.

Logical evidence is part of the persuasive appeal because it comes to support the claim made by the speaker. Verbal evidence is any statement made by the speaker that supports his/her claim. Real evidence is a material thing that comes to support the claim (e.g. murder weapon in a murder trial). Evidence should be relevant, material, clear, credible and recent to be able to really support the claim.

Fallacies are flaws in thinking that need to be avoided and/or examined by both a good speaker and a discriminating listener. Fallacies can come from hasty generalizations or false division.

Reference list:

Hackman, J.R. And Morris, C.G. 1975. Group Tasks, Group Interaction Process, and Group Performance Effectiveness: A Review and Proposed Integration. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.). 1975. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 8: pp. 47-99. New York: Academic Press.

Hackman, J.R., Brousseau, K.R., and Weiss, J.A. 1976. The Interaction of Task Design and Group Performance Strategies in Determining Group Effectiveness. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, Vol. 16: pp. 350-365.

Janis, I.L. And Mann, L. 1977. Decision Making: A Psychological Analysis of Conflict, Choice and Commitment. New York: Free Press.

Pierce, J.L. And Newstrom, J. 2000. Leaders and the Leadership Process. McGraw Hill: Boston, MA.

Wittenbaum, G.M. And Strasser, G. 1996. Management of Information in Small Groups. In Nye,

J.L. And Brower, a.M. (Eds.) What's Social About Social Cognition? Research on Socially Shared Cognition in Small Groups. pp. 3-28. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.