Memo To: Josh Smith - Professor From: Samuel J.

Goldstein Accelerated Pre-Medical / Medical Student Subject: Evaluation and Analysis of Resumes and Cover Letters Date: July 21st, 2011 The purpose of this memo is to explore specific choices made in job applications that will be sent to PSUKnowHow and Kaiser Permanente. Design and content decisions were made based on the audience being written to and the rhetorical situation surrounding each company. PSUKnowHow Private and Group Tutor Company Background and Job Description PSUKnowHow is a small business in the State College, Pennsylvania area that provides tutoring services to students for many of Penn States classes and also for various standardized tests such as the SAT and MCAT. The company requires tutors to have a minimum of a 3.8 GPA, and an extensive working knowledge of all subjects that he or she wishes to teach. Familiarity specifically with the Penn State curriculum makes providing help to students excessively beneficial. It is important that all tutors are very professional, courteous, and friendly because students stay with tutors that can calmly teach tough subjects with clarity and eloquence. Audience Analysis I know Jeremy Robinson, the owner of PSUKnowHow, on a certain level because I am in fact one of his students. This gives me the luxury of knowing his personality and the overall feel of how PSUKnowHow is run. Mr. Robinson is an easy-going guy, but is very qualified and focused on his work. Providing the highest level of tutoring services is his goal and he supplies nothing but the best. PSUKnowHow is looking for employees that can tutor in either a single subject or multiple subjects depending on their knowledge. They interview each candidate and put them through a thorough screening process to make sure that they are fit for the job. As a tutor, it is very important that you know all information on a given subject quickly because students pay by the hour. If time is wasted, the students will not return to PSUKnowHow. Rhetorical Decisions The overall outline of my cover letter is simple and professional. This shows that I have the ability to provide clear work, and can present information in an easy to use fashion. In my cover letter, I chose to primarily touch on my Penn State education and my experience as a non-profit tutor. PSUKnowHow expresses a need for tutors who know Penn State classes specifically because they have a better knowledge of exactly what each student needs to know. The style I chose for my resume was slightly different than my cover letter. The resume uses color to break up sections because creativity is necessary in providing education for a broad range of people. Some students learn visually, and this usage shows my creative side. The resume begins by highlighting my education, the most relevant information for PSUKnowHow. Following this are my grades in specific coursework. The resume is arranged by most important information to least. The interview is where PSUKnowHow decides whether or not to hire, so the purpose of the resume and cover letter is to get noticed.

Kaiser Permanente Research Assistant Company Background and Job Description Kaiser Permanente is a large, non-profit healthcare group that was founded in 1945 and is now based in Oakland, California. Kaiser currently employs upwards of 164,000 people and has a yearly operating revenue of approximately 42 billion dollars. Kaiser values patient wellbeing and the health of the community extraordinarily. As a research assistant, Kaiser is looking for someone who can provide all basic secretary tasks such as answering phones and following up on patients, but also desires an assistant who has strong computer skills and who can arrange data in graphs and spreadsheets for the overall benefit of the community. Audience Analysis Considering Kaiser Permanente is as large a company as it is, the interviewing process is a much less personal ordeal than that of PSUKnowHow. Contrary to PSUKnowHows emphasis on the interviewing process, Kaiser has to sort through thousands of job applications and places large emphasis on each applicants resume. As stated above, Kaiser is simply looking for an assistant who can facilitate any tasks of the researchers. Kaiser does not have the manpower to care about each applicant individually, so the cover letter and resume have to explain why they need you and what you can do for them that other applicants cannot. Rhetorical Decisions Considering that Kaiser Permanente is a huge organization and is able find any mediocre assistant rather easily, in my cover letter I decided to quickly state how I am qualified for the job, and then go into how I am overqualified. I then explained how my over-qualifications can benefit Kaiser. I used this strategy to set my application apart from the rest of the applications they would receive. Having a deep understanding of the topics being researched could aid in the research process and make researching more expedient than if an uninformed assistant was being used. My resume begins with my education stating some of my relevant coursework and my major program. The fact that I am taking almost all science related classes and that I am in the Penn State / Jefferson PMM program sets me apart from most other applicants. I also decided to include my writing history in coursework because assistants do a lot of technical writing. Following this section, I continued to talk about my personal skills. I chose to do this because my work and leadership experiences are not as important to Kaiser as my skills and education. Giving information about my computer skills and persona are much more important than talking about my experience as a Caddy. Although this information may be relevant, it is subordinate to other materials in my resume. Closing The order of each document and the content presented were chosen carefully keeping in mind audience and personal needs. The goal of a job application is to have a company hire you. With this in mind, each decision was made in creating the job applications with the final goal of looking the best to each company.