resume cover letterss

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Employment & Career Services Committee

Resumes and

Cover Letters

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Seminar Overview

• Resume basics• Resume strategy• Hardcopy resume

guidelines & structure• Electronic resumes

• Cover letters• References• Last comments• Source materials

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Resume Basics

• The main purpose is to get you an interview• The first look at a resume averages 20 seconds• A resume should not exceed two pages in length• Spelling must be absolutely correct.• Things not to include on your resume

– Personal data of any kind– The words “References available on request”– The words “Willing to relocate”

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Resume Strategy

• Tailor the resume to fit each employer• The chronological format• The functional format• Other formats

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Hardcopy Guidelines

• Black ink on white paper• Standard fonts• Font size should range from 10 to 14 points• Minimum use of italics, underlining, etc.• Use white space to enhance readability• Sentence fragments are acceptable• Use numerals, rather than spelling number

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Chronological Resume

• Objective• Qualifications or career summary• Education• Work experience

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OBJECTIVE

A position designing CPU circuits, where experience with superscalar architectures will enhance the final value of the product

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QUALIFICATIONS

Electrical engineer with 12 years of printed circuit board (PCB) layout experience. Has been successful as an individual contributor and as the manager of a 10 person PCB layout group.

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EDUCATION

B.S. Electrical EngineeringUniversity of CaliforniaSan Diego, CA

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• Work Experience– This is the main part of a chronological resume– List each item in reverse chronological order– Different job at the same company count as

separate items– Keep it short

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Example – One Short Item1995 – 1997 Varian Associations, Palo Alto, CA-Senior EngineerDesigned microwave tubes using computer codes. Wrote codes to improve the tube design process. Swept up after everyone else left the building.– Assisted design of framistat, now a major product.– Wrote design code decreasing design time by 90%

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Functional Resume

• The emphasis shifts to skills, and away from specific jobs

• Shrink the work experience section to just the headers

• Put all duties and accomplishments into skill categories

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ASCII & HTML Resume

• Space is not as tight• Use only alphanumeric characters, spaces

and the Enter key.• Use lots of keywords and buzzwords

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Cover Letters

• No more than one page in length• First paragraph• Body• Final paragraph

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References

• Collected on the job• Collected from your network• Perishable!• Always notify your reference before you use

them

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Last Comments

• Focus, rather than shotgun• Stay in control of your job search

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Sources

• “To Boldly Go: A Practical Career Guide for Scientists” American Geophysical Union. ISBN #0-87590-889-6

• “Engineer’s Guide to Lifelong Employability” IEEE Press. ISBN# 0-87942-314-5

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