Cover Letters and Resumes Oh My!

Just a few days ago, I began what rapidly became an epic search for spring and summer internship programs. Unfortunately, being unsure of what career I want to pursue after graduation, there were many programs that appealed to me. I soon found myself in a dilemma. I wanted to apply for internships is a WIDE variety of fields. I was concerned about how I could alter my resume and cover letters to appeal to such drastically different audience. For instance, how could I best present myself to both a real estate company and a magazine firm?

Luckily, I read these two articles in the nick of time! The first thing the authors said was, "Your cover letter, like your resume, is a marketing tool." From here, I learned that the cover letter would be an important part of marketing myself to each of my potential employers. For instance, while my work experience has been in several different fields, the cover letter will give me the opportunity to explain what each experience has allowed me to bring to my new potential job situation. One of the pieces of advise given is to personalize the material and another to sell yourself to the company-- i.e. what can do you do for the company? how can you benefit the company?

There are several key components to a successful cover letter, and the first is format. Obviously, the cover letter should be in an appropriate letter format. This means taking into account factors such as the proper parts of a letter, paper size, paper color and quality, typing and printing, and even the envelope. I have written cover letters before, so this was all familiar to me.

Perhaps, the most helpful part of the article was the part where it outlined what should be in each paragraph and how to state it simply and concisely with action language. The author suggests that "Above all, you'd want to sound polite, confident, and professional" in an interview. This is exactly how your words should be interpreted on paper as well. Its important to find the balance between confident and bragging. The author suggests to use concrete examples, rather than vague statements. For instance, rather than saying that I have written many articles for various media formats, it would be better to say that my article "Barker Goes Bananas" published in the Tiger was nominated for the 2008 Young Writer's Awards (Unfortunately, while a good example, this is totally fabricated).

After beginning to read the section on resumes, I was shocked to see that the author suggested that you should not email a resume as an attachment. They say to ensure that formatting looks good in the body of the email; yet, how can you ever be sure how something will turn up on someone else's computer on a differing email account? However, they did make a valid point. Copying the resume into the body of the email will allow the recruiter to see your information in the quickest way possible. Also, this alleviates concerns about attachment viruses. There was also some advise about how to circulate this resume on the web, though I can't say I was too interested in pursuing this course of action after the writer informed me that this was the least effective job search method.