Assignment:
This project highlights the importance of taking your audience into account when you are writing. We're going to use the concepts discussed in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 to create a resume and application letter that are tailored to a specific job opening. After finding an appropriate job advertisement, you will analyze your audience and decide how best to develop a resume and an application letter to persuade that audience that you have the right skills for the job. Lastly, you will explain the choices you have made in a memo addressed to me, in order to demonstrate your understanding of the foundational concepts we have looked at so far.
You may use this assignment to apply for jobs, internships, academic programs, or graduate school; the strategies for application will be similar.
Completion Process:
Step 1: Find and copy a job advertisement (or the application criteria for an internship, academic program, etc.) for which you could actually apply now (or within the next few months, if you're close to graduation). You may not change or ignore any aspect of the qualifications or requirements. For example: if you are a junior education major, don't apply for for a school district superintendent position-you're not qualified, and you'd have a difficult time completing this project successfully.
Step 2: Analyze your audience, determining as much as you can about the industry expectations and the company climate, as well as the particular position for which you are applying. What will the interviewer be looking for when reviewing applicants? What strengths and weaknesses do you have as an applicant? Need Assignment Help?
Step 3: Prepare a resume. You must choose either the chronological or functional organization pattern as explained in Chapter 16. Decide which format better highlights your qualifications, and be prepared to explain why you chose it. You can use an existing template when you prepare your resume, but I expect you to modify the contents appropriately to fit one of these two organizational patters, and to include the elements we discussed in class.
Step 4: Prepare your application letter (no longer than one page) responding to the job advertisement. You should format your letter based on one of the models in Chapter 15 of our course textbook. You will need to select the elements of your experience or education that are your strongest selling points, and think about how best to use those strengths to build your credibility with the reader.
Step 5: Write a strategy memo addressed to Dr. Sherwood reporting on the results of your audience analysis and describing your decisions for the resume and cover letter. Your task in this memo to is to help me understand why you made specific choices (and show me that you were making choices based on the concepts we've covered so far in this class). I may or may not know very much about your chosen field or the position you are applying for; you need to explain your audience to me, and explain the WHY behind your decisions in the resume and cover letter. Consider the following questions:
What makes a good candidate for this type of job? (Be specific: personality, experience, and general education matter for all jobs. What does someone in this job actually need to be able to do? What particular skills or knowledge would make one candidate a better choice than another?)
What are your strengths and weaknesses as an candidate? (Be specific: what about your experience would make your audience sit up and take notice? What do you want your reader to notice about you?)
What kind of resume organization did you choose, and why did you think this was the better way to highlight your strengths?
What examples from your experience or education have you chosen to talk about in your letter, and WHY? (The "why" part is very important here; tell me what these examples are intended to show about you, and why you think these are a good way to persuade your audience.)
Submission Requirements
The following items should be submitted together:
- the strategy memo (1-3 pages), including a copy of or link to the job advertisement you used
- the application letter (1 page)
- the resume (1-2 pages)
Remember that neatness counts! A potential employer would be looking at this as the best possible work that you can produce, so proofread your documents very, very carefully before you submit them. Double-check spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Watch out for formatting errors (like a single line of text extending onto a second page in your letter or resume).