4.4 Resume & Cover Letter

4.4

Resume & Cover Letter Rough Draft

This assignment consists of two parts: a resume and a cover letter.

First, find a current job posting of an internship (on a job search website, a company website posting, or Lindenwood's Handshake website) that is most closely relevant to the work you are preparing for in your major. This will be the internship that you will (hypothetically) apply to with your two documents.

This internship should:

· ask for at least some skills/experience that you currently have right now or will plan to have with further education--it should be relevant in some way to your educational experience

· be currently hiring--you could actually apply to this internship if you chose to (applying to the internship is *not* required for this assignment)

Documents:

(1) Your Resume: Create your current resume of your past and current education and work experience.  Design the document so that it clearly conveys your training, experience, and skills.  If you have an existing resume, you may use/update that one. This resume needs to be tailored to be relevant to the position you have found--it should emphasize the skills or education requested in the internship job posting.

(2) Your Cover Letter: For the cover letter, create a formal letter of interest to that specific position that you have found.  Address this letter to the head of the company, Human Resources department, or any specified person in the job posting, and indicate your interest in the advertised position.  Explain why you are interested in the job, and why you would be a good candidate for the position.  Write this letter as if you are planning on sending it to apply for the internship. What needs to be in this letter to get you an interview with this organization? Tailor your letter to be relevant to the position--it should emphasize the skills or education requested in the internship job posting.

(3) The Internship Job Posting: include a link to the internship job posting, or a screenshot of the page.

A sample cover letter format is available here    Download A sample cover letter format is available here, as well as in your textbook. Also, look back at Week 4's Reading Quiz for further information about writing resumes and cover letters.

Grading:

The rubric being used to evaluate the pair of documents is as follows:

· Appropriate level of formality—Do the documents communicate in an appropriately formal way to the employer?

· Correctness—Do the documents follow the rules of Standard English grammar, spelling, and punctuation?

· "You" Attitude—Do the documents explain the situation from the employer’s point of view?

· Avoidance of clichés/wordiness—Do the documents communicate in a straightforward, plain language format?

· Honesty—Do the documents communicate the message without hiding or downplaying any essential information? (you’re not unfairly padding your resume, or leaving off anything, etc.)

· Format and content—Do the documents follow an effective format for a resume and the correct format for a letter, and do both documents clearly communicate why you would be a good candidate for the position? (If Dr. Fleitz was the employer, would she give you an interview?)

Good luck!