Resume and cover letter
Calvin Huang
PresentationsforCh.3.pptxResume and Cover Letter 1. Analyzing the Resume Genre 2. Building your resume & a cover letter
3 parts:
Resume Analysis
Resume
Cover Letter
A Comparative Analysis of Resumes
Consider the Rhetorical Context:
What position is being applied for? What do you know about the nature of the position?
Who will be reading the resume? (audience)
What type of information do you think the audience would expect to see?
You may need to make some (justifiable) assumptions.
RESUME DOCS ANALYSIS DESIGN
Consistent, patterned indentation
Indentation signals hierarchical organization from general to specific
Consistent, patterned font choices: bold, capitalization, bold and capitalization
Support hierarchical organization
Consistent Spacing
Indicate changes in topic or section
Job responsibilities in bulleted list; no other bullets
Increases scanning efficiency
Length: 1 pg.
Most relevant information selected
RESUME DOCS ANALYSIS ORGANIZATION
Macro: Importance (by relevance to job/experience/rhetorical situation)
Experience most relevant to job being applied for
Areas separated by headings
Within experience: Summary, Description, Exemplification
Main points/responsibilities relevant to job being applied for
Within skills & education (generally): List
Reverse chronological order
the most recent job/activity first
RESUME DOCS ANALYSIS CONTENT
Contact Information
Objective
Education (school, degrees, years)
variable: GPA, academic awards/organizations, area of focus
Relevant Experience
work experience, volunteer experience, activities
Relevant Skills
RESUME DOCS ANALYSIS STYLE
Past and present used carefully
Parallel Structure
content within topics has same grammar structure
Omitting ‘I’ in describing responsibilities
Experience begins with verbs
Vocabulary/Jargon choices relevant to rhetorical situation
Error Free
Finding a job an appropriate job ad
Entry level/qualified job or internship
SDSU career services
Aztec Career Connection
Job and internship listings
Resume, Cover letter, transcript storage service
On-campus interviewing, workshops, info sessions
Drop in appointments
M-TH 1-245 & Fri 10-1145
15 minute
Resume/Cover letter review & quick questions
Other helpful job ad resources
Indeed.com
Linkedin.com/jobs/internships-jobs
Vault.com/internship-programs
Internships.com
Careerbuilder.com
Simplyhired.com
Beyond.com
Ziprecruiter.com/jobs.internship
Stem Internships
dice.com
Stemundergrads.science.gov
Non-profit internships
Idealist.org
Npworks.org
Entertainment internships
Csuentertainment.com/internships
Comparative Analysis Sample
Begin Resume Analysis
Give partner background of the resume you have.
Work out the rhetorical context of both.
Begin looking at what conventions are followed
Consider how the resumes are different and the rationale for those differences.
Comparative Analysis Similarity
Organization/Content: Summary of experience in content areas
Uses jargon related to the area that person is pursuing
Uses action verbs to stress what the applicant did or does in the previous position
A clear focus on the actions which may be applicable to the job being applied for
Comparative Analysis Difference and Reasoning
Ms. Teacher (elementary teacher)
Education contains credential information (content/organization)
disqualifying without it
Ms. Green
(conservation internship)
High school education included after university education (content/organization)
Due to limited work experience and currently a student, hs knowledge has increased relevance
Building/Improving Your Resume
What to say or not say
Transferable Skills
Key Soft Skills
Which of these is a BEST term to use and which is WORST term to use on a resume
Achieved
Go-getter
Best of breed
Results-driven
Hard worker
Increased/decreased
(via CareerBuilder survey of 2,201 HR managers)
Trained/mentored
Managed
Bottom-line
Think outside the box
Resolved
Volunteered
Avg. time spent looking at resume: 2 min. (some studies :45 seconds)
Key Soft Skills
Relate to the way employees relate to and interact with people.
Hard skills: teachable abilities and skills sets- language proficiency, computer programming
Revealed in cover letter and interview.
Some can be shown in resume also.
77% employers want soft skills
16% identify soft skills more important than hard skills
(via Careerbuilder survey of employers)
Key Soft Skills
Top ten soft skills (via job search study)
Being dependable
Putting together presentations
Solving Problems
Coaching Co-workers
Fitting into the company’s culture
Key Soft Skills
Voicing opinions and being receptive to feedback
Being flexible and focused
Being creative and innovative
Developing new work processes
Taking Initiative
Transferable Skills
A “portable skill”
Acquired through class (professional writing in Linguistics)
Through experience (student gov’t rep developing consensus and motivating)
Gives concrete evidence of qualification for a position
Transferable Skills
Skills applicable to most workplace settings
E.g., organizing, public speaking, leadership
Skills more specific to certain areas
E.g., drafting, accounting, working with CAD, editing, translating
Transferable Skills
Mental Organization of Transferable Skills:
Working with people
Selling, training, teaching, advising, representing
Working with things
Repairing, designing, maintaining, operating, developing
Working with information and data
Analyzing, writing, researching, editing, calculating
Identifying Transferable Skills
List jobs
List volunteer, sports, and other groups since joining college
With transcript, list courses from major field and electives related to employment interests.
Identify what you did.
Describe the actions taken
Remember projects and group work from classes
Bullet Point Devlopment
Select an action verb
Begin with a strong (varied) action verb
Describe what you did and be specific
Did you help someone? Who? How? Did you use specific tools/hardware?
Identify the accomplishment
What did you do? What was the result/impact? What was the outcome?
(if possible) quantify the experience
Can you describe the accomplishment using numbers?
Bullet point development: Example 1
Manage guest relations and front desk staff
Manage 12 team members in daily operations and procedures to ensure superior guest relations
Bullet point development: Example 2
Planned and delivered lessons
Planned and delivered lessons on genre awareness, increasing students ability to identify and emulate genre conventions
Bullet Point general advice
Is the bullet point relevant to the job applied for? Can it be more relevant?
2-5 bullet points per position (ideally)
Begin drafting Resume
If developing your resume, consider changes
If starting a resume:
Consider structure and sections
Consider info to include
Improve bullet points within reason.
Use power verbs to describe duties
Attempt to quantify concepts
Always keep in mind the ad for which you are applying
*Help each other out, ask me for advice, improve your resume!*
Cover Letter
Body Paragraphs
Elaborate on concepts from your resume.
Don’t simply repeat!
Body Paragraphs
An example (from resume):
Focus on independent academic writing through essays requiring synthesis of multiple texts to support and expand on ideas while also teaching and demanding adherence to MLA format, citation, and reference.
In Cover Letter:
Additionally, I am currently slated to teach ESL 2B in the fall at Cuyamaca College. It is the final pre-transfer ESL class before students attend English 120. Although this semester Cuyamaca's program is diverging from Grossmont's, for the past year I taught ESL 106 and followed very similar SLOs to those provided in the equivalent class at Grossmont. The challenge of being the first teacher to introduce properly sourcing work and utilizing sources in writing various genres of essays was quite rewarding as I observed several students improve greatly in the past two semesters.
Content Tools
Make declarative, concrete statements:
I have excelled in my Engineering courses.
Give concrete examples:
For instance, in the final project of Eng. 402, my group and I were required to… On this project, we received an exemplary mark.
Incorporate soft skill ideas:
Through this project, my ability to work in a group improved. Because I noticed not all students were equally self-motivated, I suggested that we meet once a week to work on the project. This suggestion allowed us to stay on schedule and accomplish the numerous tasks.
Relate to the job posting:
In relation to the internship position, my demonstrated skill in using AutoCAD as well as my leadership could be immediately utilized as this position requires both.
Identifying your skills
AVOID/Revise when you only say: learned, did, gained experience
Ex. Ling 305W:
I learned how to do resumes did group work with my classmates
I developed resume competency and facilitated classmates understanding of key concepts
Preparing for Peer Review
Review & Prepare your job ad again.
List the key qualifications, and the key job skills that you think you should mention somewhere in your resume and/or cover letter.
Use the job ad analysis worksheet to help
Have a nice clean, organized list with the job ad
Tasks
In relation to what the job is looking for, develop your transferrable skills:
For each item on your list, write one (or more) sentences and underline the ACTION.
Example: Ling. 305W: I collaborated with group members, identified a professionally relevant writing themes, and incorporated technical knowledge into a final project
HS soccer team, captain: I coordinated team meetings, and utilized complex game strategy
Elaborate on specifics (i.e., grade, hard skills exercised, soft skills, etc.)
Consider what you will put in the resume and how you will elaborate on it in cover letter.
Tasks
Review your job ad again.
List the key qualifications, and the key job skills that you think you should mention somewhere in your resume and/or cover letter.
In relation to what the job is looking for, develop your transferrable skills.
Elaborate on specifics (i.e., grade, hard skills exercised, soft skills, etc.)
Consider what you will put in the resume and what you will put in your cover letter.
Transferable Skill Activity Continued
Using your skills
3. Based on the research into the position and company use/adjust the experiences and skills you include in your resume.
