Job Materials Project

Purpose
This project is designed to help you evaluate your current professional and educational qualifications, to strategize ways of expanding these qualifications while you are still in school, and to begin constructing internship, graduate school, or job application materials to attain an appropriate position. This project has five parts:

  1. Search for, locate, and analyze three advertisements for internships, graduate programs, or entry-level jobs in your field
  2. Complete a professional inventory in which you assess your current skills, background, and experience
  3. Draft, design, and revise a resume that is organized, aesthetically-pleasing, and tailored to a specific internship, graduate program, or job ad based on your completed professional inventory
  4. Draft and revise a cover letter that is rhetorically-effective and appropriate for a specific internship, graduate program, or job ad
  5. Provide thoughtful, detailed feedback for assigned classmate's job materials

Step 1- Locating and Analyzing Internship/Graduate Programs/Job Advertisements
Begin by finding three internship, co-op, or entry-level job advertisements for a position that interests you and for which you are currently or will be qualified for upon graduation. You may also search for relevant graduate programs if you plan to continue your education following completion of your undergraduate degree. These ads should be substantial in terms of the job description, qualifications/requirements, and organizational information. Choosing to work with an ad that has less than three paragraphs of description or that lacks information about how to learn more about the company/position will make this assignment more difficult to complete and less useful for you.

Search for specific job titles within your field that interest you and for which you have at least some training or experience. You will use these ads to:

  • provide you with key phrases, terms, and descriptions to include in your resume and cover letter
  • locate areas of development for yourself as a professional. One of the goals of the project is to use these ads to assess your current qualifications and find ways of planning for and gaining experience to help qualify you for such work in the future. It is likely that every person applying for a job will have the same educational qualifications, so you'll need to develop skills or experience that will help to set you apart from other applicants.

Analysis
Along with copies of your three advertisements, you will need to turn in a brief written analysis of the qualifications and requirements specified in the ad. Again, the longer the ad and the more information you can find about the company and/or position, the easier this assignment will be to complete. What are the employers looking for, what experiences or qualities seem most important to them, and why?


Resources
Searching for internship and job announcements is an on-going process that requires some ingenuity and creativity. You have to be willing to investigate possibilities and follow links based on your interest. You should strongly consider signing up for AggieTrak through NMSU. Try some of the following databases for getting started, but keep in mind this is far from a comprehensive list. You might consider asking the professional you interviewed if they have any advice on where to locate job postings.

General-


Federal Government-

Specialized-

Regional-


Step 2- Professional Inventory
 This step of the project asks you to complete the Professional Inventory which can be downloaded by clicking here. The inventory will help you to identify your current skills, abilities, and understandings in relation to the internship or job ads you have located. This process will assist you in translating this into a marketable resume entries by providing evidence of your abilities. It will also help you to plan your professional development by isolating areas that need improvement.

This form takes you through a sorting, evaluating, and goal setting process that helps you think about the sort of evidence you will need to persuade potential employers of your experience and skills. To get the most benefit from the assignment, take your time and work through it seriously. This is a good opportunity to prepare yourself for your future and the rigors of the job search. Further, you should be motivated to develop your inventory thoroughly because it is a substantial part of your project grade. Keep in mind that everyone's inventory is likely to be different. Depending on your major and experiences, you will include different items on your form.


Step 3- Resume
 Using what you learned from your Professional Inventory, this step of the assignment asks you to begin constructing your application materials. You will start by building a resume in response to the job ads you have collected.


Content
In order to maximize the number of call-backs your resume gets, you want to be sure to use keywords and jargon specific to your field (i.e. curriculum development, web design, interdisciplinary collaboration, user interface design, internship management, etc). You will also want to look closely at your job ads in order to include phrasing and terminology used by particular organizations.

Further, the more keywords you use, the more likely your resume is to be selected. Expand your list of keywords by including specifics (e.g., include specific types of computer software, hardware, and operating system names). Use synonyms for certain skills or descriptions since the search of resumes may be looking for various options. And finally, avoid vague language such as "results-oriented" or "proven leadership qualities" and instead focus on concrete descriptions of your experience (i.e. scholarship recipient or shift supervisor). Chapter two of your Anderson textbook has excellent and detailed advice on what to include in your resume and how to structure it.


Design
 The other significant aspect of resumes are their design. The layout and design of your resume is vital in both the first impression it provides and in facilitating rapid reading and highlighting of important information. Use the advice in chapter two of your Anderson textbook for advice on design.

Resources
 How to Create a Resume (includes information on scannable resumes)
By Boise State University
http://career.boisestate.edu/RESUME.html

How to Write a Resume
By University of Kentucky
http://www.uky.edu/CareerCenter/resumehowto.html

Creating a Resumes and Cover Letters
by University of Dayton
http://careers.udayton.edu/Services/rescovlet.asp


Step 4- Cover Letter
Cover letters provide a place for you to demonstrate and discuss the abilities and qualifications you list in your resume. They should always convey a favorable sense of your enthusiasm, creativity, commitment, and other attributes that employers value but can’t be easily communicated in your resume. Importantly, your cover letter needs to provide a careful balance between confidence in your ability and emphasis on what you can do or contribute to the organization. The focus should not be on what you will gain if hired but on what you will bring to the job and the organization. Again, your Anderson textbook provides ample information on crafting a letter for this genre.

Resources
How to Write a Cover Letter (with samples)
by Boise State University
http://career.boisestate.edu/CoverLetter.html

Quick Tips for Cover Letters
by the Online Writing Lab at Purdue
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/549/01/

Step 5- Peer Feedback
Looking at the WebCT Discussion thread for "Draft Proposals", read and provide thoughtful and in-depth feedback for your assigned classmate's Job Materials Project using the reply feature. Your comments should be equivalent to at least two paragraphs in length, though you may choose to format it in a different way (such as a bulleted list or with Word's comment feature). In providing comments, I would like you to address the following criteria:

  • Is the resume appropriate for the accompanying job advertisements? In what ways?

  • Is the organization of categories in the resume clear? Does the applicant use a consistent format for all text in each section?

  • How would you describe the design of the resume and what suggestions do you have for improvement?

  • Does the cover letter convey a confident, enthusiastic, and competent sense of the writer? What changes, if any, would you suggest?

  • As an accompaniment to the resume, where is the cover letter best at providing explanatory evidence that helps persuade the reader of the applicant's experience and qualifications? What changes or additions would you suggest?

  • What other specific feedback do you have for this author for how to improve these job materials?


The five steps of this project combine for 25% of your final course grade.