TO:
HU3120
Instructor
FROM:
HU3120
Student
DATE:
July
20,
2011
SUBJECT:
Decisions
Involved
in
Creating
My
Career
Documents
I
used
several
rhetorical
principles
while
designing
my
career
documents
to
be
used
in
applying
for
a
full
time
position
with
John
Deere.
By
aligning
my
capabilities
with
business
needs
and
presenting
a
logical,
knowledgeable
argument,
I
believe
I
have
created
a
strong
case
for
the
company
hiring
me
as
a
full
time
employee.
I
composed
my
cover
letter
and
resume
to
respond
to
John
Deere’s
full
time
engineering
opening
(XXXXXxxxxX).
This
is
a
fairly
broad
position
description,
and
the
individual
who
fills
this
position
might
perform
a
wide
range
of
work,
including,
but
not
limited
to,
product
design,
continuous
improvement,
quality
management,
manufacturing
support,
and
purchasing.
John
Deere’s
mission
statement
is,
“John
Deere
has
grown
and
prospered
through
a
long‐standing
partnership
with
the
world's
most
productive
farmers.
Today,
John
Deere
is
a
global
company
with
several
equipment
operations
and
complementary
service
businesses.
These
businesses
are
closely
interrelated,
providing
the
company
with
significant
growth
opportunities
and
other
synergistic
benefits.”
The
company,
under
its
current
leadership,
is
operating
under
a
philosophy
that
earnestly
and
faithfully
meeting
farmers’
needs
will
result
in
a
mutually
valuable
relationship
between
the
farmer
and
the
company,
allowing
for
steady
growth
as
the
company
expands
into
the
nontraditional
agricultural
markets
of
Asia
and
South
America.
The
culture
at
John
Deere
is
one
of
high
integrity,
of
diligence
at
all
levels
of
the
company,
and
of
a
continuous
effort
to
further
understand
customer
needs.
The
company
values
a
diverse
workforce
composed
of
employees
from
a
wide
range
of
backgrounds.
The
most
important
skills
for
this
engineering
position
are
a
close
attention
to
detail,
sound
technical
skills
in
the
specific
engineering
discipline
of
the
applicant,
the
ability
to
work
closely
with
employees
and
suppliers
around
the
globe,
and
an
open
mind
to
countless
changes
as
the
company
establishes
a
greater
foothold
in
the
turbulent
global
agricultural
economy.
As
I
created
my
career
documents,
I
attempted
to
align
my
“points”
to
John
Deere’s
expectations
of
an
engineer
and
to
the
company’s
culture
as
a
whole.
My
cover
letter
focused
on
my
global
perspective
on
my
approach
to
my
work,
my
ability
to
learn
quickly
on
the
job,
and
examples
of
technical
work
that
I
have
done
previously
for
the
company.
From
firsthand
experience
as
a
John
Deere
intern,
I
have
found
that
management
and
coworkers
want
correct
results
and
information,
concisely
reported.
In
writing
my
documents,
I
attempted
to
focus
each
sentence
or
bullet
point
on
conveying
a
fact
that
added
value
to
my
overall
argument
that
the
company
should
hire
me.
I
made
little
appeal
to
emotion
(pathos),
but
rather
tried
to
gain
the
hiring
team’s
favor
with
a
logical
buildup
of
my
potential
contribution
to
the
company
(logos)
and
my
insider
edge
as
a
summer
intern
(ethos).
The
company
is
fairly
conservative
in
most
aspects,
and
always
prefers
quality
results
over
creative
style.
Keeping
this
in
mind,
I
kept
the
visual
elements
of
my
resume
and
cover
letter
fairly
simple.
The
documents
are
information‐based,
immediately
offering
the
information
I
want
to
convey
rather
than
displaying
visibly
personalized
shapes
or
arrangements.
I
feel
that
my
argument
for
being
hired
is
the
strongest
aspect
of
my
documents.
I
believe
I
could
submit
these
documents
to
the
company,
and
the
hiring
team
would
appreciate
my
logical
approach
to
my
argument.
I
believe
that
I
make
strong
alignment
between
my
talents
and
business
need,
and
present
this
alignment
with
the
“authority”
of
one
who
is
familiar
with
the
culture
and
business
thrusts
of
the
company.
If
any
aspect
of
my
documents
need
more
work,
it
may
be
the
order
in
which
my
work/project
experiences
appear
in
my
resume.
I
experimented
with
reverse
chronological
order,
order
of
decreasing
applicability
to
a
full
time
engineering
position
with
John
Deere,
and
in
an
order
of
decreasing
project
difficulty.
It
was
difficult
for
me
to
find
a
system
that
I
could
apply
consistently
while
listing
my
experiences
and
that
would
still
highlight
the
top
skills
that
will
get
me
an
offer.
I
opted
on
a
breakdown
between
jobs
and
school
projects
to
improve
readability,
but
I
am
not
sure
if
it
offers
the
best
order.
The
most
challenging
aspect
of
creating
these
documents
was
providing
details
on
my
project
work
at
John
Deere
as
an
intern
without
revealing
any
trade
secrets
or
writing
on
general
topics
that
have
not
yet
been
approved
for
public
release.
I
found
that
I
could
still
convey
a
sense
of
my
work
experiences
by
focusing
less
on
the
work
itself,
and
more
on
the
personal
and
interpersonal
skills
that
were
stressed
to
do
the
work.
By
working
carefully
around
this
problem,
and
selecting
a
few
details
to
share,
I
feel
I
was
able
to
provide
some
insight
into
my
work
without
compromising
the
company’s
information
security.
By
focusing
on
aligning
my
talents
and
experiences
with
John
Deere’s
needs
and
culture,
I
believe
I
present
a
strong
argument
for
receiving
an
interview
with
the
company.