WEBVTT

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[Morse code beeps]
[Woosh]
[Helicopter rotor]

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Hi.

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My name is Annika Thomas, and I'm a fellow
with the Aero Astro Communication Lab,

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and today we're going to be talking
about resumes and CVs.

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By the end of this lesson,

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you should be able to understand
what makes a resume successful.

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It needs to be convincing, concise,
organized, concrete and error free.

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You should also learn
how to tailor your document

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and quantify impact
to make your qualifications stand out.

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By the end of the lesson you'll
also be able to grasp best practices

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for formatting, proofreading, and audience
focused writing.

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So some criteria for success

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for your resume or CV is
it should be convincing.

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It should take someone who's reading it

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less than 60 seconds to confirm
whether you're a fit for the role.

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It should be concise, having clear
and succinct communication.

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It should be organized,
having an intuitive

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layout that guides the reader
through the document.

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It should be concrete,
with specific actions

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and outcomes
that result in tangible impact.

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And it should be error free, having zero
typos and consistent formatting.

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Now the

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purpose and types of documents
we're talking about today

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include resumes and CV's,
or curriculum vitaes.

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A resume is a quick
snapshot of your abilities.

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It should be about 1 to 2 pages
or one sheet of paper in limit.

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You never want to be stapling
multiple pieces together for a resume,

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and some typical sections can include
your name, professional website

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and portfolio, contact
information, education, work experience,

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skills, leadership and service, and honors
and awards.

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A CV, on the other hand,
is a bit longer of a document.

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It's a comprehensive record of your
academic and professional accomplishments.

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As a graduate student,
usually a CV is about 2 to 3 pages,

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but throughout the course of your career
it gets longer and longer.

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A CV is going to include
a lot of the same sections as a resume,

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but it should also include
some additional components as well, such

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as your research experience, teaching
experience, and outreach, to name a few.

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Now, your resume or CV

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should be tailored to the audience
that you are presenting it to.

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So you actually want to customize
this document every time you share it.

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So you should understand
who reads your resume.

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Nowadays, when you're applying for a job
that can look like

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an HR scanner or a technical reviewer,
and you want to tailor your document,

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highlighting keywords, reorder sections,
and pruning

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irrelevant content
that doesn't fit to whatever role

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or circumstance
that you are sharing that document in.

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And something that you can do,
which I recommend, is to create

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a comprehensive long resume or CV.

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This is an ongoing, detailed document
with every single role,

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project, and bullet point

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that you've done or written
for something that you've applied for.

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And when you're applying,

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you can copy the relevant parts
into a tailored version for that role.

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So some best practices for

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your resume or CVS
in the process of demonstrating impact

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is to use what's called the PAR framework,

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which is project, action, and result.

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In the PAR framework, we traditionally
start with an action verb.

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In this process,
you want to think of industry specific

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skills and competencies and combine
that with a relevant task.

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So here you're going to discuss
your experience using key

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words and jargon
about the role that you're applying for.

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And now these result in an outcome,

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a result of the task,
and or an accomplishment.

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So think what is something important
or noteworthy that came from your actions.

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And in the process of using the PAR
framework, we want to use

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strong action
verbs like designed, led, or developed

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as opposed to weak passive ones
like participated or researched.

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Now we're going to

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go ahead and do an activity
using the PAR framework.

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So you can find the file that's called
activity PAR Framework Transformation.

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This should take about 20 minutes
to complete.

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And on the activity sheet
you'll find a set of vague experiences,

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including a problem or project
and the corresponding

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strong quantified PAR bullets
using actions and results.

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So for practice, go ahead and take about
20 minutes on this document to rewrite

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the vague versions of these different
bullet points into the full PAR bullets.

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[Alien spaceship

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beeps]

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Now, for some best

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practices in readability and proofreading.

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Your resume should have a scalable design.

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So it should have headers
that allow people to look

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at the different sections
and find them easily, balanced whitespace,

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logical ordering,
and you should bold key phrases.

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Some formatting tips include
that you want to have readable fonts,

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usually you should have at least 11 point,
if not larger,

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and clean layouts and clear headers.

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For proofreading, some strategies
that you can use are to read your document

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aloud, get a second pair of eyes
from a friend or coworker,

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or if you're here at MIT, book
an appointment with

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the Comm Lab and you can have a fellow
such as myself look at it with you.

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Some final resources.

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You can look at the AeroAstro
Communication Lab to see commkits,

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which include sample resumes
and CVS with additional commentary.

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These are open to everyone inside
and outside of the MIT community.

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For tools,
there are some different templates

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that you can use from the Comm Lab
that use resources like word and LaTeX.

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You can also use ATS keyword tools
like Jobscan,

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Zety, and TopResume, just to name a few.

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So for some next steps,

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you want to keep a long comprehensive
living resume or CV

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so that tailoring is quick and systematic
when you want to share this document.

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Start by drafting it
and then tailor using this comprehensive

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or long version to the context
in which you're sharing the document.

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And finally, peer review and finalize it.

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So by now you should be able to diagnose

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strengths
and weaknesses in resumes and CVs.

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You should be able to customize
your document to different roles

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and reviewers, and you should be able
to write clear and impact driven

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PAR bullets that showcase your experience
and contributions.

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[Morse code beeps]