ENC 3250, Professional Writing: Assignment 3 Cover Letter & Resume Presented by T. E. Roberts, Instructor University of South Florida, Sarasota-Manatee Week 4 Summer C, 2015 Length of this lecture audio: 00:xx:xx © 2015, T. E. Roberts

ENC 3250, Professional Writing Week 4, Summer 2015 Slide 1 of 14 Week 4 Topics Cover letter tips Resume tips The Linkedin Profile & website posting Assignment 3: Getting Started

ENC 3250, Professional Writing Week 4, Summer 2015 Slide 2 of 14 Cover Letter Tip 1: THINK! Use uncluttered, readable, simple format Put yourself in reader’s place … would you be insulted if your name or address were wrong? Would you assume the writer is careless, ignorant, or both? Always include date and signature (easy to forget these if you’re in a hurry) If sending by U.S. mail, check recipient’s name in inside address and on envelope — they must be the same

ENC 3250, Professional Writing Week 4, Summer 2015 Slide 3 of 14 Write at least two drafts of letter Ask a disinterested person to review it (not friends or family members — choose a neutral observer) Do not adapt an existing letter without customizing and proofreading it carefully George Brown, President Acme Roadrunner Explosives, Inc Somewhere Street Anytown, Florida Dear Ms. Smith: I would be a perfect fit for the Charge Nurse position at ABC Hospital. Cover Letter Tip 2: DRAFT! Imagine the look on Mr. Brown’s face when he sees this salutation and opening sentence.

ENC 3250, Professional Writing Week 4, Summer 2015 Slide 4 of 14 Cover Letter Tip 3: POOFREID Spelling mistakes may seem unimportant, but the reader sees them as a sign of carelessness, ignorance, and lack of professionalism Correctness of grammar and word usage reflects qualities most employers seek -- confidence and attention to detail At a minimum, check your writing with MS Word’s automatic review function (but it is not always reliable!) A cover letter and resume convey your all-important “first impression”

ENC 3250, Professional Writing Week 4, Summer 2015 Slide 5 of 14 Cover Letter Tip 4: WRITE RIGHT Be neither too formal nor too familiar Get to the point — readers are busy persons (they will give you 10 to 20 seconds if you’re lucky) Write three to four concise dot-point phrases to show how your qualifications match those called for in the job ad (see sample letter in the instructions) Be prepared to answer this question in one word: Why would this person want to interview me? You don’t have to be perfect, but you do need to be honest, engaging, and well-matched to the job opening

ENC 3250, Professional Writing Week 4, Summer 2015 Slide 6 of 14 Cover Letter Tip 5: UNIFIED APPEARANCE Headings in resume and letter should be identical. Body text should be in same typeface. Do not use Microsoft letter or resume template. Stick with the format seen here.

ENC 3250, Professional Writing Week 4, Summer 2015 Slide 7 of 14 Resume Tip 1: LENGTH Stick with a single page unless you are writing a curriculum vitae (c.v.) for an academic position Don’t use small type or cramped margins -- allow plenty of white space The resume is a summary of facts that will attract an employer, not an autobiography Focus on achievements that match the job requirements, not job titles or responsibilities You won a swimming medal in regional competition — Congratulations! Is this relevant to the potential job? (If it shows qualities desired by employer, yes; if not, no.)

ENC 3250, Professional Writing Week 4, Summer 2015 Slide 8 of 14 Resume Tip 2: MATCH-MAKING Do not list a “Job Objective” -- it may exclude, not include List all of your jobs and college work, excluding high school years Show in concise, relevant detail the match between you and the job Job requirement: “Experience with MS Access” Your resume and cover letter: “Three years using MS Access to track contributions in support of $13.6 million United Way fundraising campaign in Anyname County, Florida” “Concise” does not mean merely “brief” — it means “conveying the most meaning in the fewest words” (a/k/a “biggest bang for the buck”)

ENC 3250, Professional Writing Week 4, Summer 2015 Slide 9 of 14 Resume Tip 3: DESIGN & FORMAT AVOID MS Word templates... Don’t deviate from the resume format shown in syllabus -- it works! Use 10- to 12-point Arial or Times Roman (not unusual typefaces) in MS Word Find room for everything by EDITING, not by using smaller type and narrower margins Consider not just the word count but also the TIME needed to read the document Separate the four Assignment 3 pages (job notice, cover letter, resume, and Linkedin profile) with a forced page break as noted in formatting instructions

ENC 3250, Professional Writing Week 4, Summer 2015 Slide 10 of 14 Resume Tip 4: RELEVANT DETAILS Be specific and concise: Managed five staff handling $150,000 weekly payroll; received “Service Excellence” award two consecutive years in competition with 22 other employees Trained more than 15 customer service associates, two of whom are now managing store departments with combined $12.4 million in annual revenues Choose details that make sense If applying for an accounting job, downplay role as, for example, a daycare supervisor and emphasize financial tasks If you want to get called for an interview, research the employer’s needs and show clearly how you can meet those needs

ENC 3250, Professional Writing Week 4, Summer 2015 Slide 11 of 14 Resume Tip 5: CUSTOMIZE Tailor the resume to recipient’s actual job opening … a generic resume wastes your reader’s time and will likely yield a generic rejection Don’t send resumes “shotgun style” … this may look efficient to you, but it looks thoughtless to recipient In job leads, quality beats quantity Emphasize same details in letter and resume (the documents may be separated by recipient) Memorize all this information for the interview … if you cannot answer questions about your own resume and cover letter, the employer may consider you inept, dishonest, or both

ENC 3250, Professional Writing Week 4, Summer 2015 Slide 12 of 14 The Linkedin Profile Your resume is the basis of this profile Linkedin may include both self-description and description by others Format is determined by the Linkedin template, but you may use plain style for this assignment Professional networking via internet resembles traditional methods, but Linkedin reaches much further See links in syllabus for help with Linkedin profiles Be aware that Linkedin has its share of critics

ENC 3250, Professional Writing Week 4, Summer 2015 Slide 13 of 14 & Website Posting Stick with.doc/.docx or.pdf format Keep a.txt (ASCII) version of resume for posting on a website where this is requested If using Facebook or other social media for job-hunting, use professional, not casual, tone Keep all correspondence, web archives, bookmarks, and other career-related information in a single folder, both digital and paper; back it up every day — this is vital, irreplaceable information & Website Posting

ENC 3250, Professional Writing Week 4, Summer 2015 Slide 14 of 14 Assignment 3: Getting Started Write the letter and resume in response to an actual job listing that fits your interests and skills as if you had completed your USF undergraduate degree Assemble and check your work carefully … in a highly competitive marketplace, even a small error can cost you an opportunity Follow instructions in syllabus and at this link: Assignment 3 consists of four separate pages: job notice, cover letter, resume, and Linkedin profile See sample here: Due by 6 pm on Monday, June 15, 2015, with audio codes for Week 4 & 5 lectures Contact me if you have a question... Don’t guess at how to do this important assignment Assignment 3: Getting Started