Job Application Project

Project Description

For Project two, you will be asked to complete several tasks and compose several documents, some of which depend upon your "role" in the class—Project Manager or Employee (e.g. resume, cover letter, job ads, business mission statement, etc.). Regardless of your role, the overarching goal of the Job Application Project is to create, develop, or illustrate your professional ethos and relevant skill-sets to your audience(s). In essence, you are advocating for yourself in this project: your skills, your ideas, your experience, and your ability to serve as a productive member of a group (a group conducting relevant entrepreneurial tasks as they relate to the major projects for the course).

Project Goals

Writing in Context

• writing for a range of defined audiences and stakeholders;
• negotiating the ethical dimensions of workplace and/or business communication;
• representing one's business goals and innovative ideas persuasively, in written and oral forms.

Project Management

• Understand, develop and deploy various strategies for planning, researching, drafting, revising, and editing the important and necessary documents of entrepreneurship, including business plans, marketing materials, white papers, resumes, trademark applications, and grant proposals, both individually and collaboratively
• Select and use appropriate technologies that both effectively and ethically address professional situations and audiences.
• Build professional ethos through documentation and accountability.

Document Design
Make rhetorical design decisions about workplace documents commonly used by entrepreneurs, including

• understanding and adapting to genre conventions and audience expectations;

understanding and implementing design principles of format and layout;

• interpreting and arguing with design;
• drafting, researching, testing, and revising visual designs and information architecture.

Teamwork
Learn and apply strategies for successful teamwork and collaboration, such as

• working online with colleagues;
• determining individual and group roles and responsibilities;
• managing team conflicts constructively;
• responding constructively to peers' work
• soliciting and using peer feedback effectively;
• achieving team and business goals.

Research
Understand and use various research methods to produce professional documents, including

• analyzing professional contexts;
• locating, evaluating, and using print and online information selectively for particular audiences and purposes;
• triangulating sources of evidence;
• selecting appropriate primary research methods, such as interviews, observations, focus groups, and surveys to collect data;
• working ethically with research participants.

Technology
Use and evaluate the writing technologies frequently used in the workplace and for entrepreneurship, such as emailing, instant messaging, image editing, video editing, presentation design and delivery, HTML editing, Web browsing, content management, and desktop publishing technologies.

Deliverables

Resume and Cover Letter for Project Managers AND Employees:

Each group member, irrespective of the role in your group, will plan, design, and draft a resume and cover letter, making appropriate rhetorical decisions as they relate to how you want to position yourself for the Job Application Project. In the end you will be responding to a very specific audience, for a very specific purpose for this aspect of the project. You will not be developing a general resume and cover letter (nor will you simply revise documents created for previous courses).

• Project Managers: Your one resume and cover letter will be tailored for inclusion in your business plan and on your job posting with the purpose of positioning you as a successful entrepreneur on this particular project. This resume and cover letter will also be included as part of your dossier as the Project Manager for this entrepreneurial venture.
• Employees: You will plan, design, and draft two separate resumes and cover letters, which will be specifically tailored for and in response to Job Ads created by the Project Managers (see Job Ads, below). Ultimately, the purpose of these documents is to illustrate your professional ethos and ability to perform the tasks specified in the job ads to which you choose to respond.

Job Ads for Project Managers

If you are one of the aspiring entrepreneurs voted into the top Five in the Business Idea Pitch Competition, you will be a Project Manager for the remainder of the semester. For Project 2, in addition to creating a resume and cover letter (as discussed above), you will be asked to advocate for your project / idea and create three job ads for the positions you wish to have filled--positions that will help in the development of a full business plan and presentation of your original business idea.

E-mails and Online Correspondence for Project Managers AND Employees

Each group member, irrespective of the role in your group, will compose, catalogue, compile, and submit (in Word or some other written format) all e-mail or online (forum or blog) correspondence that you have throughout the project. You will need to be aware of organization (e.g. chronology, to/from), document design, and presentation so that your audience, purpose, and professional ethos is easily understandable by me, your instructor.

Your correspondence with group members, regardless of the medium, should add to your rhetorical positioning for the project and assist in building your professional ethos as a potentially successful entrepreneur. Obviously, this type of communication requires rhetorical sophistication, as the audience and purpose for each instance of correspondence is different. Draft, edit, and present selectively and carefully.

Requirements for Project Managers

• Post to Drupal Forum your resume and cover letter, which should endeavor to illustrate that you will be a successful entrepreneur and project manager on this project.
• Post to Drupal Forum a company profile, company mission, etc., which advocates for your business/business idea. Ultimately, this aspect of your job posting should illustrate to your prospective group mates why this idea is the project they should work on for the remainder of the semester. Essentially, this is a written and visual representation of your business idea pitch.
• Post to Drupal Forum three job ads, which detail the jobs for which you are hiring, the requirements of those jobs, the qualifications for applicants, and the application process (resume and cover letter is required of all)—how you would like prospective employees to apply.
• Hire employees to fill the three positions for which you created job ads. You will need to inform them of your decision via the means you articulate in the job ads.
• Catalogue, compile, and submit (to the instructor as a Word document) any and all email or forum correspondence you have with applicants as it relates to the hiring (or rejection) of employees for the project.

Requirements for Employees

• Read Project Manager and company profile, etc., along with the job ads posted on each of the individual forums. Then, select at least two jobs for which you want to apply.
• Apply for jobs via the means articulated in the job ads (required resume and cover letter), illustrating why you are the person the Project Manager should hire. You may be required to develop materials beyond the required resume and cover letter; be sure to respond to the specific requirements given by the Project Managers.
• Accept one position on which you would like to work for the remainder of the semester.
• Catalogue, compile, and submit (to the instructor as a Word document) any and all email or forum correspondence you have with applicants as it relates to the hiring (or rejection) of employees for the project.

Grading for Job Application Project

This project is worth a total of 10 % of your total course grade and breaks down as follows:

Project Managers

• 25% - Resume
• 25% - Cover Letter
• 35% - Job Listing: 3 Job Ads, Company Profile, Company Mission
• 15% - Project Correspondence

Employees

• 40% - Resumes
• 40% - Cover Letters
• 20% - Project Correspondence