Making Résumés and Cover Letters Better

Some Things to Work on for Your Portfolio Revision

Below are a “few” résumé issues I’d like to mention. Remember, your final cover letters and résumés are due with your portfolio. If you want me to look over other drafts, please bring them to me during office hours. Remember, I'm not commenting on these assignments as if I am the actual person hiring you for a job. I'm a disinterested party who wants to keep you thinking about why you're making the choices that appear in your résumés and cover letters.

Here are the big cover letter/résumé issues I'd like us to consider:

1. Try to keep to one page if you have less than 3 years of experience in a particular field—adjust spacing if necessary

2. Show don’t tell

3. What can you do for them, not what they can do for you.

4. Close properly—“Please contact me at…if you have any further questions.”

5. Proper Block or Modified-Block Format

6. You don't have to have "real" addresses or people in your letters

7. “Enclosure”

8. As my resume shows…[specific skill]

9. SIMPLE DIRECT VERBS for duties

10. Openings—get to the point and offer a snapshot of yourself

11. How do your words work for you? What picture are you trying to "paint?"

12. Full justification isn’t very pleasing to read in letters

13. Don’t list qualities (hard worker, lots of experience, team player, etc.) in your résumés—they should be obvious in your cover letter

14. When do you add courses to your résumés and which ones are appropriate

15. Is your high school important?  What is NC-based and what might transfer nationally?

16. Parallelism marked by “//”

17. What is your philosophy about the career field you wish to enter?

Duty Format for Résumés

Remember, when you describe your past work experience on your résumés, use simple, direct verbs like “Managed,” “Supervised,” “Served,” or “Balanced.”  Try your best not to use the following vague expressions that seemed to pervade many of your résumés.

Please get into groups and describe the following duties/responsibilities using simple, direct verbs like you would on the “Work Experience” section of your résumé.

1. Customer service
2. Cash handling experience
3. Responsible for program to benefit hurricane victims
4. Problem solver
5. Interaction with patrons at a receptionist area
6. Responsible for the actions of 12 employees
7. Company/Organization budget of $100,000
8. In charge of day-to-day operations
9. Responsibilities include, cash register, window-dressing appearance, restocking
10. Responsible for company sales and customer service
11. I have had the following duties:  register utilization, customer interfacing, and sanitation implementation
12. Quality Control/Quality Assurance duties:  basically, this deals with making sure someone else did something right (i.e. QA in a restaurant means making sure the kitchen cooked the right meal, kept off the mayo, and got the food out quickly)
13. Account/Treasurer/Bookkeeper for the Spanish club
14. In charge of troubleshooting

Cover Letter to Analyze

Here is an example of a cover letter.  Notice that she explains how both her work experience and education make her an ideal candidate.  She doesn’t just tell the reader she “has excellent skills related to the job”; she proves it by using specific examples.

I am writing in response to the ad online for an entry level advertising position specifically to work with  Creative Loafing magazine.  I am currently working with the WEND Radio Group and assisting with their quarterly magazine Charlotte Now but would like more involvement.  I feel my experiences and the position with Creative Loafing are a perfect combination.  In addition, I will graduate with a Bachelors of Science in Marketing in May 2008.

As my resume shows, I have the foundation that is required for the position with Creative Loafing.

·        I have been responsible for collecting advertisements and creating articles for Charlotte Now.

·        Also, I have worked directly with our art director at Plow Studios, the advertising director at Salem Radio Group, and the clients who have advertisements in Charlotte Now.

·        I have even assisted some of our clients by creating their advertisements.

My college courses will also aid in working with Creative Loafing.

·        I can use Adobe Photoshop, which is my desktop publishing software package of choice for creating advertisements.

·        I have also had multiple marketing classes (including consumer behavior), which offer me strategies for consulting clients and evaluating markets.

·        I write everyday for my online blog, and I have a minor in English that keeps me writing numerous papers, which continue to improve my communication skills.

Notice how she states her qualifications in a topic sentence, but then offers the reader examples that show she’s qualified.  Of course, she could add a couple more examples of her duties or skills to make her cover letter that much stronger, but the above paragraphs are a good start. One problem, though, is that she starts each sentence with "I ---."  How do we fix that?

It's ok to use bullet points, but ask yourself if they enhance your delivery, or if you're just trying to take up space.