Cover letter and Resume

Dr. Smita Dabholkar Singh

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Few rules of thumb for winning cover letters
1. Open avenues of conversation
2. Make the hirer want to find out more about you
3. Show you’re familiar with the organization you are applying to
4. Emphasize how you your education and training especially qualify
you.
5. Be crisp and punchy

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Few rules of thumb for winning cover letters
Arguing from skills and drawing an analogy
6. If, as in most cases you have the right general background for the job
but haven’t been doing exactly the same thing at a lower level, argue
from skills and analogy: “The training I’ve received as a production
line manager gives me the background I need to become a quality
control inspector.” Show how your skills are clearly transferable to the
new job.

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Few rules of thumb for winning cover letters
Arguing from interest
7. If you’re not qualified for a job and you’re not the type of the person
the organization would normally recruit, your choice is to argue from
interest: “ Although I currently work on an oil company, I’ve always
wanted to be a fashion designer.” It may sound absurd, but this
approach works more often than you might expect. If you do have
transferable skills, point them out.

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Use structure that fits the argument
Good conventional cover letters adopt a
Me-You-We model.
Me (first paragraph): I’m very interested in the job, and I have the
following qualifications for it.
You (second paragraph): The following aspects of your organization
challenge me and ensure I can make a contribution to it.
We(third paragraph) :We will work well together, and you should give
me the job

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One exception to the Me: You: We style is the
broadcast letter
• This is the case where you are casting a very wide net with the hope that you’ll
snag atleast one or two expressions of interest. Here you are trying to create a
job opportunity, not applying for an existing position.
• Here you need to grab the reader’s attention immediately. List your
accomplishments vividly: “I’ve doubled my department’s sales in two years” or “
My job at Company X has allowed me to gain more knowledge of Y than anyone
else in the country.”
• Then close with a quick query about whether they might have a position that fits
your background.

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The “I”
• Over use of “I” can make you sound grandiose or self-obsessed.
• There are alternatives like , try : “I was the best performer in the
computer services department, I accomplished A and B and received
top ratings from my superiors among 20 colleagues.”
• Don’t have “I” lead every paragraph. “My” and “me” make a softer
substitute.
• Source( Harvard Management Communication Letter: Writing the perfect Cover Letter)

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The Resume

Three step process :Plan , Write and Complete

Planning
1.Analyze the situation
2. Gather information
3. Select the right medium (ve/isume)
4. Organize the information

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The Resume
Writing
1. Adapt to your audience
2. Compose the message
Completing
3. Revise the message
4. Produce the message
5. Proofread the message
6. Distribute the message

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Planning(analyze, gather, select, organize)
Resume needs to have a persuasive message
1. Analyze your purpose and audience
Fallacy facts
2. Purpose is to create interest – not to tell readers every little detail.
1. A good resume will get you All a resume can do is get you
the job you want in the door

2. Your resume may be read 2. Your resume needs to make

carefully a positive impression in 30-45
seconds. It will be screened
looking at keywords. (Refer
Resume Buzz words by Erik
Herman and Sarah Rocha,
available in the library)

3. Get your resume prepared Prepare it yourself(not to

by a resume service borrow strength and
weakness, psychometric test
catches that)
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Analyzing contd..
• Put yourself in the audience’s position
• And try and answer “why would they want me”
• CV and Resume are same. CVs at times could mean a longer
resume(depending upon the country)
Refer monster.com

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Planning(analyze, gather, select, organize)
About yourself and also about the company
(Specific dates, duties, and accomplishments of any previous job you
have held, formal degrees, skill certificates , dates of memberships of
association if any)
You need to have all the relevant information on your fingertips.

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Planning(analyze, gather, select, organize)
• Word document, plain paper or a CD-ROM, weblink/ e-portfolios
(For instance, if you are applying for a sales position, a video clip can
be a strong persuader, see if you can arrange one?)
But have a basic profile (hard copies) ready every time.

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Planning(analyze, gather, select, organize)
Align your personal strengths with both the general and specific qualities that your target
employees are looking for.
The most successful resume convey seven qualities that employees seek:
1. Think in terms of results
2. Know how to get things done
3. Are well rounded
4. Show signs of career progress and professional development
5. Have personal standards of excellence
6. Are flexible and willing to try new things
7. Communicate effectively
Organizing your resume is a question of portraying these seven

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Planning(analyze, gather, select, organize
contd..)
Do you have something in your history that will trigger an employer’s red flag?
1. Frequent job changes- Find a subtle way to communicate that information
2. Gaps in work history( because of drugs, health- offer honest submissions)
3. Inexperience-mention related volunteer work. List course work and
internships . Offer hiring incentives like “willing to work nights and
weekends”
4. Over qualification- tone down your resume, focusing exclusively on the
experience and skills that relate to the position
5. Long-term employment with one company-itemize each position held at
the firm to show “interior mobility” and increased responsibilities
6. Job termination for cause- be honest. Show what you have done. Show
recommendations and examples of completed projects.

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Chronological or functional or a combination
of both
Chronological
1. After your name and address and optional objective
2. List your jobs in reverse order, beginning with the
recent position and working backward toward
earlier jobs
(under each listing, describe your responsibilities and
accomplishments, giving the most space to the
most recent positions)

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Functional resume
1. Also called skills resume emphasizes your skills.
2. This pattern stresses individual areas of competence, so its useful for
people who are just entering the job market, who want to redirect
their careers, or who have little continuous career- related experience.
3. Works well for an interrupted career
Downside
Employers suspect that people who use this approach are trying to hide
weaknesses in their backgrounds
Combination works!!

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 Writing your Resume(Adapt to your audience
,Compose the message)

1. Treat your resume with the respect it deserves

2. Don’t write your resume in one sitting
3. Learn from good models
4. Don’t get confused by the conflicting advice you’ll read about the
resumes; they are more art than science
5. If you’ re not sure whether to include something in your resume,
ask yourself this: would you be willing to say same thing to the
interviewer in person?

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Writing your Resume (Adapt to your audience,
Compose the message)

6. Translate your past accomplishments into perceived future

potential
( In other words, employees are certainly interested in what you have
done in the past, but they’re more interested in what you can do for
them in the future. If necessary, customize your resume for individual
companies too).

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Writing your Resume (Adapt to your audience,
Compose the message)

1. Write your resume using a simple and direct style ( you may need to
modify your approach for other countries).
2. Focus on what your reader needs to know.
3. Avoid using the word “I”
4. Start with strong action verbs such as these:
Accomplished,coordinated, initiated, participated, set up achieved,
created etc.

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Writing your Resume (Adapt to your audience,
Compose the message)
Avoid weak statements Use active statements that show
results
Responsible for developing a new filing Developed a new filing system that
system reduced paperwork by 50 percent
I was in charge of customer complaints Handled all customer complaints and
and all ordering problems resolved all product order
discrepancies
I won a trip to Europe for opening the Generated the highest number of new
most new customer accounts in my customer accounts in my department
department
Member of special campus task force Assisted in implementing new campus
to resolve student problems with dining program that balances student
existing cafeteria assignments wishes with cafeteria capacity

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Writing your Resume (Adapt to your audience,
Compose the message)

• Name and contact information

1. Your name
2. Physical address (both permanent and temporary if you’re likely to
move during the job search process)
3. E-mail address
4. Phone number(s)
5. The URL of your personal webpage or e-portfolio (if you have one)

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Writing your Resume (Adapt to your audience,
Compose the message)

6. Get a professional- sounding e-mail address for business

correspondence ( such as firstname.lastname@something.com)
Career objective or summary of qualification:
Experts disagree about the need to state a career objective on your
resume.
But in case you want to write one make it as simple and clear as
possible.
Remember, your goal is to generate interest immediately. The objective
should be directed towards this goal

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Writing your Resume (Adapt to your audience,
Compose the message)

Consider the following objectives:

A software sales position in a growing company requiring international
experience
Advertising assistant with print media emphasis requiring strong
customer-contact skills
(both these objectives have an important aspect: Even though they are
stating “your” objective, they are really about the employer’s needs.)

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Writing your Resume (Adapt to your audience,
Compose the message)

• Summary of qualifications(an alternative to career objective):

Ten years of experience in commission selling, consistently meeting or
exceeded sales goals through creative lead generation, effective
closing techniques, and solid customer service

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Writing your Resume (Adapt to your audience,
Compose the message)

Education/technical training
Present it in depth
Showcase your qualifications by listing courses that have directly
equipped you for the job you are seeking, indicate any scholarships,
awards, or academic honors you’ve received.
Include the seminars or workshops attended
Whether you list your grade point average depends on the job you want and the quality of your
grades. If you choose to show a grade-point average, be sure to mention the scale especially if a
five-point scales is used instead of a four-point scale.

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Writing your Resume (Adapt to your audience,
Compose the message)

• Align your past with the employer’s future.

• List your jobs in reverse chronological order. And include any part-
time, summer or intern positions, even if unrelated to your current
career objective.
• “Resume submitted in confidence”
• If you were personally responsible for something significant, be sure
to mention it
• Example( designed a new ad that increased sales by 9 percent . Raised Rs. XYZ in 15 days for cancer research)

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Writing your Resume (Adapt to your audience,
Compose the message)

Activities and achievements

Describe your volunteer activities that demonstrate your abilities. List
projects that require leadership, organization, teamwork, and co
operation. list skills you learned in these activities, and explain how
these skills are related to the job you’re applying for.

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Writing your Resume (Adapt to your audience,
Compose the message)

• Do personal interests and accomplishments relate to the employer’s

business, culture, or customers?

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Completing your resume
Avoid
1. It should not be too long
2. Too short or too sketchy
3. Hard to read
4. Wordy-too verbose
5. Too slick
6. Amateurish
7. Poorly produced
8. Misspelled and ungrammatical throughout
9. Boastful
10. Gimmicky

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