Résumé Assignment
Overview
For this assignment you will do three things:
- Research to see what sort of jobs or internships they have in a field you are interested in—write down at least two of those jobs.
- Write a résumé that will help you land a job that you researched.
- Draft your résumé so that it is letter perfect, and then write a cover letter
The résumé is, essentially, your calling card for any job you want to land. Our goal here is to make your writing on work in the 21st century count for something. To that end, you want to make sure that your résumé is absolutely perfect grammatically, well thought out, and beautiful to look at. Your résumé should be tailored to a particular type of job or internship in a particular field.
Process
Step One: Research Jobs or Internships
Your first task is to visit the career center (Located on campus in Bldg. 599) or search newspapers or online for a job opportunity or an internship. Find, and print out or copy, at least two opportunities for an internship or a job.
The Internship Program at Career Services maintains two binders of employer internship information for local and out-of-the-area employers in addition to employer directories. Drop-in hours: Monday through Friday 8:30am-11:45am and 1pm-4:30pm.
To do your research, read papers, call up people you know, and check out the websites below:
For local internships: Gaucholink:
For national internships:
For local jobs:
For national jobs:
Step Two: Drafting
We will do two drafts of this piece, and you will have two very organized peer review sessions—as well as comments form me. Be sure to make good use of your peer review and my comments. Remember, you must write a résumé and a cover letter.
Step Three: Take the Résumé for a Drive
On this optional step, you can send out your résumé (along with a cover letter) and see what sort of response you get. There is extra credit involved here, but the real reason to do this is to land a job or internship.
Requirements
This is the one time that your grammar must be perfect—because if it is not, then your résumé and cover letter are destined for the round file next to the reviewer’s desk. To that end, here are your requirements:
- Perfect spelling and grammar (although you can use incomplete sentences in a résumé )
- Inclusion of the following areas (you can include others):
- Contact information
- Objective
- Education
- Previous Experience
- Honors and Awards
- Length: one to two pages—not more or less
- Drafts: You will create two drafts at least, and the final draft will be turned in on résumé paper
- A cover letter that puts you, and your abilities, in the best possible light.
Resources
For this assignment, you really need to look at résumés and do the reading that I assigned. With a résumé it is vital to actually look at samples and write the résumé that best works for you. To that end, below are some online resources for you to look at. Also the career center has samples to look at, and I also have many sample résumés to view in my office.
Résumé Reading:
- The Purdue OWL Readings:
Résumé Resources Online
- Sample Résumé s:
- Monster.com Résumé s:
- Online Technical Writing:
Due Dates
- Draft One: THURSDAY: 6-26-07
- Final Draft: THURSDAY: 7-5-07