There are three main types of résumé: chronological, functional, and psychological.
As shown in Figure ., chronological résumés list previous jobs in order from the most to the least recent. This type of résumé is useful for applicants whose
150
previous jobs were related to their future plans and whose work histories do not contain gaps.
The functional résumé, as shown in Figure ., organizes jobs based on the skills required to perform them rather than the order in which they were worked. Functional résumés are especially useful for applicants who are either changing careers or have gaps in their work histories. The problem with this type of résumé is that it takes employers longer to read and comprehend than the other résumé types—this problem makes functional résumés the least popu- lar with employers (Toth, ).
The psychological résumé is the style I prefer, as it contains the strengths of both the chronological and functional styles and is based on sound psycho- logical theory and research. As shown in Figure ., the résumé should begin with a short summary of your strengths. This section takes advantage of the impression-formation principles of priming (preparing the reader for what is to
CHRISTOPHER R. MILLER
1 0 0 1 – 5 4 6 ) 4 0 9 ( 9
8 7 2 3 L F , e ll i v s e n i a G , t e e r t S n i a M 2 1 8
Objective Entry-level management position in financial services.
Education B.S., University of Florida, May 2009 Major: Business Administration
GPA: 3.43/4.0
Minor: Information Systems
Business-Related Courses: Accounting, Money & Banking, Principles of Marketing, Economics, Statistics
Professional Experience July 2013–Present
Assistant Manager. TCBY Yogurt, Gainesville, FL
Responsible for posting daily receipts and making bank deposits.
Further responsible for supervising and scheduling counter personnel, writing progress reports, and handling employee disputes.
August 2012–July 2013
Cashier/Customer Service, TCBY Yogurt, Gainesville, FL
Responsible for assisting customers promptly and courteously, maintaining a balanced cash drawer, and cleaning work station.
May 2011–August 2012
Bank Teller: Barnett Bank, Gainesville, FL
Responsible for assisting and advising customers with financial transactions. Cash drawer balanced 99% of the time. Received excellent performance ratings.
August 2010–May 2011
Waiter, Shakers Restaurant, Gainesville, FL
Responsible for taking food and drink orders from customers and serving them courteously and efficiently. Worked in a high-volume, fast-paced environment.
Activities Member of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society
Member of Phi Beta Lambda Business Organization Vice President, Kappa Alpha Pi Social Fraternity Member of Circle K Service Organization Participated in Intramural Football
Figure 4.12
Chronological résumé
: 151 come), primacy (early impressions are most important), and short-term memory limits (the list should not be longer than seven items).
The next section of the résumé should contain information about either your education or your experience—whichever is strongest for you. The design of the education section is intended to provide an organizational framework that will make it easier for the reader to remember the contents. In deciding which MATTHEW F. JOHNSON
818 Broadway Road, Lexington, KY 63189 (508) 814-7282 [email protected] Career Objective Management-level position in banking services.
Banking & Management Experience
Posted receiptsand made bank deposits daily for Dunkin’ Donuts coffee shop in Lexington, Kentucky. July 2008–present.
Supervised and scheduledcashier personnel for Dunkin’ Donuts coffee shop in Lexington, Kentucky. July 2008–present.
Bank tellerfor Citizen’s Fidelity Bank in Lexington, Kentucky. Maintained balanced cash drawer 99% of the time. Trained in various financial transactions of the banking field. May 2009–August 2009.
Customer Service Experience
Customer service/cashierfor Dunkin’ Donuts coffee shop in Lexington, Kentucky.
Assisted customers with placing orders and was responsible for maintaining a balanced cash drawer.
Assisted customerspromptly and courteously with financial transactions at Citizen’s Fidelity Bank in Lexington, Kentucky. Received excellent performance ratings.
May 2009–August 2009.
Waited on customersat EL Torito Mexican Restaurant in Lexington, Kentucky. After taking customers’ orders, served customers promptly and courteously.
August 2007–May 2008.
Leadership Experience
Vice Presidentof Sigma Epsilon Phi Social Fraternity. Was responsible for assisting pledges with the transition into the fraternity and for raising money for the fraternity philanthropy through various fundraisers.
Coordinatedand participated in the actual intramural team for the fraternity.
Community Service and Campus Activities
Member of Key ClubService Organization on campus.
Member of Management Association.
Member of Phi Kappa PhiHonor Society.
Education B.A., Management University of Kentucky. May 2009.
GPA: 3.44/4.0 Minor: Information Systems
Courses: Accounting, Economics, Marketing, Money & Banking, Principles of Management.
Figure 4.13
Functional résumé
152
information to put into these two sections, three impression-management rules should be used: relevance, unusualness, and positivity. If information is relevant to your desired career, it probably should be included. For example, you might mention that you have two children if you are applying for a position in day care or elementary school teaching, but not if you are applying for a job involving a lot of travel. How far back should one go in listing jobs? Using the principle of relevance, the answer would be far enough back to include all relevant jobs. It is certainly acceptable to list hobbies if they are relevant.
Unusual information should be included when possible, as people pay more attention to it than to typical information. A problem for college seniors is that their résumés look identical to those of their classmates. That is, most business majors take the same classes, belong to the same clubs, and have had similar part-time jobs. To stand out from other graduates, an applicant needs something unusual, such as an internship, an interesting hobby, or an unusual life experience (e.g., spent a year in Europe, rode a bike across the country).
ALEXANDER G. BELL
1421 Watson Drive • Ringem, Virginia 24147 (540) 555–5555 • [email protected] PROFESSIONAL STRENGTHS
• Bachelor’s degree in business
• Two years of supervisory and leadership experience
• Three years of customer service experience
• Skilled in using spreadsheets (Excel) and presentation software (PowerPoint)
• Conversational in Spanish
• Excellent accounting and statistical skills EDUCATION
B.S., Business Administration (May, 2009) Radford University, Radford, VA
Highlights:
– 3.33 G.P.A.
– Extensive coursework in human resource management – Minored in psychology
– President, Society for the Advancement of Management (SAM) – Received two academic scholarships
– Worked to finance 50% of own education
– Participated in a variety of college activities including intramurals, two professional organizations, and a fraternity
PART-TIME AND SUMMER EMPLOYMENT Student Manager(August, 2008–present) Radford University Dining Services, Radford, VA
Responsible for supervising 30 students working in the dining hall. Specific responsibilities include scheduling employees, solving customer complaints, balancing the cash drawers, promoting high levels of customer service, and ensuring health regulations are being followed.
Food Server(August, 2007–May, 2008) Radford University Dining Services, Radford, VA
Responsible for serving food to students, keeping work area clean, and following health regulations.
Server(Summers 2006, 2007, 2008) Whale’s Tail Restaurant, Redondo Beach, CA
Figure 4.14
Psychological résumé
: 153 Though it is advisable to have unusual information, the information must also be positive. It probably would not be a good idea to list unusual information such as “I’ve been arrested more times than anyone in my class” or “I enjoy bungee jumping without cords.” The unacceptability of these two examples is obvious, and few applicants would make the mistake of actually placing such informa- tion on their résumés; however, more subtle items can have the same effect. For example, suppose you enjoy hunting and are a member of the Young Democrats on campus. Including these items might make a negative impression on Republi- cans and those who oppose hunting. Include only information that most people will find positive (such as Red Cross volunteer, worked to help finance education, and so on), and avoid information that may be viewed negatively, such as political affiliation, religion, and dangerous hobbies (Bonner, ).
Of the many positive activities and accomplishments that you could list, list only your best. Do not list everything you have done; research by Spock and Stevens () found that it is better to list a few great things, rather than a few great things and many good things. This finding is based on Anderson’s () averaging versus adding model of impression formation, which implies that activity quality is more important than quantity. It is neither necessary nor desirable to list all of your coursework. To practice writing a psychological résumé, complete the Résumé Writing Exercise (.) in your workbook.
T
he Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa was about to open the first new resort in Atlantic City in 13 years.The 2,000-room casino and resort needed to hire 5,000 employees across hundreds of positions. To find enough high-quality employees, the Borgata engaged in a
creative recruitment campaign that resulted in 30,000 well- qualified job applicants.
How would you have
7
conducted such an extensive recruitment campaign?
What factors would affect
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not only the number of
available applicants but the quality as well?
How would you handle
7
the practical aspects of receiving and screening the 30,000 applications?
To see how the hotel handled this situation, follow the Web links on your text website.
Recruitment at the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa
On the Job Applied Case Study
H
arvard economics professor Robert Barro believes that physical appearance is always a bona fide worker qualification as long as customers and coworkers think that it is. That is, if customers want to be served by beautiful people and coworkers prefer working with beautiful people, then it should be okay for companies to recruit and hire based on an individual’s looks.When people refer to someone’s “looks” or “physi- cal appearance,” they are generally referring to that
person’s height, weight, and facial symmetry (i.e., high cheekbones vs. no visible cheekbones; small nose vs. big or bulbous nose). Because looks are subjective, beauty really is in the eyes of the beholder. In the United States, as well as other countries, beautiful people are often judged based on their external char- acteristics, rather than such internal characteristics as personality and ability. And it appears that many employers want employees who are tall and strong (for men), small/petitite (for women), with no visible
Focus on Ethics The Ethics of Recruiting and Hiring Based on Physical Appearance
154
body fat, and a handsome or pretty face. Even those HR professionals who know better can often fall into the “looks” trap when recruiting and hiring.
Although some cities have laws against discrimination of applicants based on their height, weight, and/or physical appearance (e.g., San Francisco, CA; Santa Cruz, CA; Washington, D.C.), basically, there is no real protection from appearance-based discrimination unless it singles out applicants based on race, gender, or age. That is, you don’t have to hire ugly people so long as you aren’t hiring them because of their race, gender, or because they are old.
The hiring professionals at the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City, New Jersey, embrace this philosophy. Applicants for positions of waiters and waitresses are told that they cannot gain more than 7%
of their body weight from the time they weigh at hire.
This means that a 125-pound woman cannot gain more than eight pounds over her tenure at the company. Of course, if you are a little too heavy to begin with (not obese, though), you won’t even get an interview.
Defenders of the right to hire based on looks say that physically attractive people are perceived as smarter, more successful, more sociable, more dominant, and as having higher self-esteem. And, customers would rather be helped by those types of employees rather than the less attractive ones. The assumption is that the more beautiful employees a company has, the more clients or customers that business will attract.This, of course, means more money for the company. And, the more money the company brings in, the higher the salaries employees can earn.
So, according to the defenders, it’s a win-win situation.
Well, win-win for the beautiful people, anyway.
And speaking of salaries. In 2005, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis reviewed the correlation
between looks and wages. The research showed that workers with below average looks earned, on average, 9% less per hour than above average looking workers.
Above average looking employees earn 5% more than their average looking coworkers. And Fortune 500 companies seem to hire male CEOs that are about 6 feet tall, which is 3" taller than the average man.
Competency and the ability to do the job are often overlooked when emphasis is placed on looks. Although these beautiful people may be able to do the job, there may be less attractive people denied a position who could do the job more successfully.
So, like Professor Barror implies, as long as we, the customer, prefer looks over highly skilled professionals, companies should have the right to refuse employment to unattractive, short, and overweight applicants.
What Do You Think?
Do you see any potential ethical dilemmas of 7
recruiting and hiring based on looks? If so, what are they?
Is it ethical to take a less skilled applicant over 7
a more skilled one just because one is more attractive than the other?
Is it fair or ethical for places like Borgata Casino 7
and Spa to refuse employment to less than average looking employees?
Is there a more ethical way to balance the rights of 7
companies to have attractive people and the rights of people who are perceived as unattractive?
Do you think that more states and cities should 7
make laws against discrimination of people based on their looks?
Chapter Summary
In this chapter you learned:
Employees can be recruited by a variety of methods, including
7
help-wanted and situation-wanted advertisements, employee referrals, employment agencies, point-of-purchase methods, direct mail, and job fairs.
The traditional, unstructured interview isn’t valid, because of such factors as
7
lack of job relatedness, poor interviewer intuition, contrast effects, negative-information bias, use of nonverbal cues, interviewer-interviewee similarity, and primacy effects.
: 155 The structured interview is a valid predictor of employee performance because
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it is based on a job analysis, all applicants are asked the same questions, and applicant answers are scored with a standardized scoring procedure.
To perform well when being interviewed, you need to be on time, learn
7
about the company, dress neatly, and use appropriate nonverbal behavior.
There are three main types of résumé: functional, chronological, and
7
psychological.
Questions for Review
. Why are employee referrals an effective means of recruitment?
. Describe the principles one should follow to write an effective help-wanted ad.
. If the unstructured interview is so bad, why is it still used so often?
. Is the key-issues approach to scoring interview questions better than the typical-answer approach? Why or why not?
. What psychological principles of impression formation are important to consider when writing a résumé?
Media Resources and Learning Tools
Visit our website. Go to www.
7 cengage.com/psychology/aamodt, where you
will find online resources directly linked to your book, including chapter-by- chapter quizzing, flashcards, crossword puzzles, application activities, and more.
Want more practice applying industrial/organizational psychology? Check
7
out the I/O Applications Workbook. This workbook (keyed to your textbook) offers engaging, high-interest activities to help you reinforce the important concepts presented in the text.
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Predicting Performance Using References and Letters of Recommendation Reasons for Using References
and Recommendations Ethical Issues
Predicting Performance Using Applicant Training and Education
Predicting Performance Using Applicant Knowledge
Predicting Performance Using Applicant Ability Cognitive Ability Perceptual Ability Psychomotor Ability Physical Ability
Predicting Performance Using Applicant Skill Work Samples Assessment Centers Predicting Performance Using Prior Experience Experience Ratings Biodata
Predicting Performance Using Personality, Interest, and Character Personality Inventories Interest Inventories Integrity Tests
Conditional Reasoning Tests Graphology
Predicting Performance Limitations Due
to Medical and Psychological Problems Drug Testing
Psychological Exams Medical Exams
Comparison of Techniques Validity
Legal Issues
Rejecting Applicants On the Job: Applied Case Study: City of New London, Connecticut, Police Department Focus on Ethics: The Ethics of Tests of Normal Personality in