So you’re looking for a job and you’ve just completed your resume, and it’s looking good: the formatting is right, it’s concise, and you’re pretty satisfied until you get rejected for job after job. What’s the matter? Well, you have not framed your resume, and I don’t mean mounting it on your wall in a picture frame.
Framing is a technique that is most often used in media, marketing, and politics. It is how newscasters get you to view a certain story in a certain way, how companies convince you to buy their products even though you don’t need it, and how politicians get you to vote for them even though you don’t agree with them at all. Sounds a lot like manipulation, yes, but it is useful. Framing, in technical and more positive terms, is the rearranging of content so that the writer emphasizes what he or she wants the reader to focus on. This is one of the most crucial parts of resume writing, and by this I mean arranging and rearranging the content of your resume so that you look like the best candidate.
When framing your resume the most important thing you can do is research the job and the company.
Do Your Research:
Know the Job
You need to know something about not only the job but the employer. Not all technical writing jobs, for example, are the same at every company. The first place to check, of course, is the requirements section on the job listing and cater your resume to that company’s requirements. You should also pick and choose which of your other qualifications or past jobs could boost your resume a bit. But, do not include that one summer when you worked as a counselor at a day camp because if it is not relevant to the job you want it will not help you, and it will clutter your resume.
Know the Company
While you should check the requirements on the job listing, you should also get to know things about the company that are not on the job listing, for example, do they use the agile method, or are their technical writers expected to sit alone in an office in the back near the bathroom. Your resume could play up to this. You could emphasize the jobs you had where teamwork was encouraged or emphasize those jobs where you were expected to be productive without much overhead. Or add them both to show that you can work in any environment because you’re flexible.
Once you’ve done your research and you know the job and the company you are ready to frame your resume and essentially sell yourself which is what any good resume attempts to do. The thing to be sure of is that you do this for every job because the most important aspect as I have explained is knowing the audience. Even if you are applying within the same company your audience can still change so be sure to frame your resume specifically for your audience each time. Happy job hunting!
For more information visit:
http://rockportinstitute.com/resumes/
http://masscommtheory.com/theory-overviews/framing-theory/
http://ruby.fgcu.edu/courses/twimberley/EnviroPhilo/IPCCFraming.pdf
Ashley Sylvester
Technical Communication at UAHuntsville 
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