Page 302 - Keys to College Success

shows you what part of a typical contact list might look like. If you don’t get a job now
but another opens up later at the same company, well-kept records will enable you to
contact key personnel efficiently.

Your Résumé and Cover Letter
Cover letters and résumés allow you to introduce yourself to prospective employers.
Here are a few basic tips on giving yourself the best possible chance at employment.

Cover letter and résumés. The purpose of the cover letter is to get the reader to
look at your résumé. Keep your cover letter short, but attention getting. Make sure it is
focused on the job and company you are interested in. A good cover letter usually cov-
ers four main points: Plan for Career Success
1. The position you are applying for and how you learned about it
2. Why you are the best person for the job (your abilities)
3. Why you want to work for the employer
4. A call to action (how you plan to follow up)

Résumé. The purpose of your résumé is to get the reader to call you in for an inter-
view. Design your résumé neatly, using a current and acceptable format (books or your
career office can show you some standard formats). Make sure the information is accu-
rate and truthful. Check it for errors and have someone else proofread it as well. Type
or print it on high-quality paper (a heavier bond paper than is used for ordinary cop-
ies). Key 10.6 shows an example of a professional résumé. Here are general tips for
writing a résumé:
■ Always put your name and contact information at the top. Make it stand out.
■ State an objective whenever possible. If your focus is narrow or you are designing
this résumé for a particular interview or career area, keep your objective specific;
otherwise, keep the objective more general.
■ Provide a “core competencies” section that lists your key skills.
■ List your post-secondary education, starting from the latest and working backward.
This may include summer school, seminars, and accreditations.
■ List jobs in reverse chronological order (most recent job first). Include all types of
work experience (full time, part time, volunteer, internship, and so on).
■ When describing work experience, use action verbs and focus on what you have
accomplished. Try the P + A = R formula when writing job tasks—identify a prob-
lem, the action taken to solve it, and the results. For example: “Organized randomly
filed client records in alphabetical and date order, reducing the time to access them
by 80%.”
■ Always make sure the descriptions in your job history demonstrate the skills listed
as your core competencies section and that they relate to the job for which you are
applying.
■ Include keywords that are linked to jobs for which you will be applying.
■ List references on a separate sheet (names, titles, companies, and contact informa-
tion). Put “References upon request” at the bottom of your résumé.
■ Use professional formatting and bullets to emphasize important information. Stick
with one font family for the body of the résumé and one for the headings (usually
larger and bolded). Use italics sparingly because they are hard to read.
■ Get several people to look at your résumé before you send it out. Other readers
will have ideas you haven’t thought of and may find errors that you have missed.
Prospective employers often use a computer to scan résumés, selecting the ones that
contain keywords relating to the job opening or industry. Résumés without enough key-
words probably won’t even make it to the human resources desk. When you construct

265