How to write knock-down resume and cover letter

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How to write knock-down resume and cover letter

• MBA Internship Support Training

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Writing resume and cover letter

• Thinking about your career
• Analyzing what you have to offer
• Determining what you want
• Writing a resume
• Controlling the format and style
• Tailoring the contents
• Writing the perfect resume
• Writing the application letter
• Writing the first paragraph
• Summarizing your key selling points
• Writing the last paragraph
• Writing the perfect application letter

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Resume

• The purpose of a resume is to kindle employer
  interest and generate an interview
• Handreds of thousands of good resumes cross
  employers desks every working day
• Your resume has less than ten seconds to make an
  impression
• By including too much information, a resume may
  actually kill the appetite to know more
• Prepare your resume yourself - unless the
  position youre after is very high-level and you
  choose the service very carefully

• The purpose of a resume is to list all your
  skills and abilities
• A good resume will get you the job you want
• Your resume will be read carefully and thoroughly
  by an interested employer
• The more good information you present about
  yourself in your resume, the better
• If you want a really good resume, have it
  prepared by a resume service

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Thinking about your career

• Analyzing what you have to offer
• List ten achievements in order of importance
• Look for a pattern in the skills that contributed
  to each achievement
• Ask a friend what you are good at, and compare
  the answers with your own assessment
• List your employment qualifications, including
  education, work and outside activities
• Ask a friend to list four or five of your most
  obvious personal traits, and compare the answers
  with your own assessment
• List the things you liked best about work youve
  done before
• List your interests and hobbies

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Determining what you want

• Determining your functional goals
• Determining your personal goals
• Determining your work environment preferences

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Writing a resume

• Give me a moment of your busy day! Listen to me,
  Ive got something to say!
• Show off achievements, attributes, and
  cumulation of expertise to the best advantage
• Minimize any possible weaknesses

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Donts

• Titles
• Availability
• Reason for leaving
• References
• Salary
• Abbreviations
• Jargon
• Charts and graphs
• Mention of age,race,religion,sex, national origin
• Photographs
• Health
• Early background
• Weaknesses
• Demands
• Exaggerations

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Format and style

• Clean paper
• Margins
• No corrections
• Print, not photocopy
• One-page
• Correct grammar, spellling and punctuation
• Simple and direct style
• Short phrases with action verbs
• example

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Tailoring the contents

• Contact information
• A Job Objective
• A Career Objective
• A Career Summary
• Education
• A Description of Work History
• Focus on your strengths
• Questions to ask yourself
• What specific position do I want?
• What specifically qualifies me for this job?
• Summarize your strongest qualifications

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Education

• Postsecondary schools
• Off-campus workshops, seminars and so on
• High school(only if pertinent)
• Military service (only if pertinent)
• Grades?

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Experience

• Name and location of employer
• What the organization does
• Your functional title
• How long you worked there
• Your duties and responsibilities
• Your significant achievements or contributions

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Accomplishment statement for resume (example)

• Improved morale and teamwork
• Introduced an improved filing system
• Improved customer service
• Contributed new ideas
• Reorganized procedures
• Solved problems
• Improved work efficiency
• Increased sales
• Reduced overdue accounts
• Devised new products

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Common mistakes

• Too long
• Too short
• Hard to read
• Wordy
• Too slick
• Amateurish
• Poorly reproduced
• Misspelled and ungrammatical
• Boastful. Nonrealistic self-evaluation
• Dishonest
• Unusual

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Exercise

• Think about yourself
• What are some things that come easily to you?
• What do you enjoy doing?
• In what part of the country would you like to
  live?
• Do you like to work indoors?
• Outdoors?
• A combination of the two?
• How much do you like to travel?
• Do you like to work closely with others or more
  independently?
• What conditions make a job unpleasant?
• Are you better with words or numbers?
• Better at speaking or writing?
• Do you like to be motivated by fixed deadlines?
• Do you like deadlines?
• How important is job security to you?
• Do you want your supervisor to state clearly what
  is expected?
• Your task
• Answer these questions and write a resume for the
  job of your dream

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Appication Letter

• A
• I
• D
• A
• Be yourself but be businesslike too

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First paragraph

• Your strongest work skills and how they would
  help the organization
• The match between job requirements and your
  qualifications
• The name of someone respected by the reader
• News about the organization that demonstrates
  your awareness
• A question that reflects your knowledge of the
  organizations needs
• An imaginative catch phrase
• The source of your knowledge about the job opening

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Example

• When you need a secretary in your export division
  who can take shorthand at 125 words a minute and
  can write in English and Spanish - call me
• When Tatyana Kim of your human resource
  department spoke to our class last week, she said
  you often add promising new marketing graduates
  to your sales staff at this time of year.

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Your key selling points

• Summarize qualifications that are directly
  related to the job
• Show how you have put your qualifications to use
• Provide evidence of desirable personal qualities
• Refer to your resume

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• What can you write instead of this?
• I completed three college courses in business
  communication, earning an A in each course, and
  have worked for the past year at Procter and
  Gamble

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Closing paragraph

• Always ask for an interview
• Make an interview easy to arrange

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Checklist for application letters

• Attention (Opening paragraph)
• summary opening (your strongest qualifications)
• name opening
• Source opening
• Question opening
• News opening
• Personalized opening
• Creative opening
• Interest and desire or evidence of qualifications
• Present you job-related qualifications
• Adopt a mature and businesslike tone
• Link your education, experience, and personal
  qualities to the job requirements
• Action