Making Résumés and Cover Letters Better

Some Things to Work on for Your Portfolio Revision

Below are a "few" résumé issues I'd like to mention. Remember, your final cover letters and résumés are due with your portfolio. If you want me to look over other drafts, please bring them to me during office hours. Remember, I'm not commenting on these assignments as if I am the actual person hiring you for a job. I'm a disinterested party who wants to keep you thinking about why you're making the choices that appear in your résumés and cover letters.

Here are the big cover letter/résumé issues I'd like us to consider:

1. Try to keep to one page if you have less than 3 years of experience in a particular field--adjust spacing if necessary

2. Show don't tell

3. What can you do for them, not what they can do for you.

4. Close properly--"Please contact me at...if you have any further questions."

5. Proper Block or Modified-Block Format

6. You don't have to have "real" addresses or people in your letters

7. "Enclosure"

8. As my resume shows...[specific skill]

9. SIMPLE DIRECT VERBS for duties

10. Openings--get to the point and offer a snapshot of yourself

11. How do your words work for you? What picture are you trying to "paint?"

12. Full justification isn't very pleasing to read in letters

13. Don't list qualities (hard worker, lots of experience, team player, etc.) in your résumés--they should be obvious in your cover letter

14. When do you add courses to your résumés and which ones are appropriate

15. Is your high school important?  What is NC-based and what might transfer nationally?

16. Parallelism marked by "//"

17. What is your philosophy about the career field you wish to enter?

Remember, I'm commenting on your cover letters and résumés as an English professor who is trying to get you to think about strategies that SHOW you're the ideal candidate. I'm not in the context of the person hiring you, so the comments I give are for further thought.

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