Even before you leave college, you'll need to know how to craft a resume and the cover letter that's typically expected to accompany your resume for higher-paid professional positions.
- The resume is a one-page summary of your work, volunteer, and on- and off-campus clubs and activities. Because it's a summary, by definition you do not use complete sentences.
- The cover letter goes along with the resume and that's where you get to highlight and expand upon some of your experiences. The purpose of a cover letter is to show how the skills and abilities you've developed at your current or previous positions will apply at your desired position.
For example, you might be a nursing major and you're applying for a position at a Stony Brook healthcare facility, but you've never actually worked in any healthcare-related job before. This is okay! Happens all the time. What you need to do, then, is talk about how the skills you obtained elsewhere will "translate" to the job you're applying for.
Students who have held jobs in fast food restaurants will talk about how those high-pressure environments taught them time management and collaboration skills that prepare them well for a job in, say, a busy pediatrics office.
Students who have held retail jobs, such as at Tanger Outlets, will talk about how they've had years of practice handling customer complaints so they believe they can keep calm and focused in a healthcare facility where patients/clients might not be feeling very well.
Students who have held any service positions will talk about how they've developed highly effective interpersonal skills (or what some call "people skills"), so they are confident that they can talk with customers from a variety of backgrounds and experiences to help provide a high level of service.
You get the idea: Talk about what skills and abilities you have developed and show how they make you a good candidate in this new environment that you're applying for.
Students often need a resume when applying for jobs to help them get through college, for scholarships, for internships, etc., as well as for when they're graduated and looking for a position in their chosen career or field of interest.
Thus, for this class, I require that you create a resume and cover letter. The attached formats provide you with a starting point.
NOTE: Sometimes students already have or would like to use the resume formats that come with Microsoft Word or other software programs, etc. I discourage these in general and do not accept them for this particular class assignment. You should know that they are easily recognizable as common/generic formats, which can turn off readers who view use of them as too common or even too lazy.
Thus, I require that you download and follow the formats I provide here:
- Resume Format
- Cover Letter Format
You have a few choices for developing your resume and letter of application: You may draft them as if you're applying for one of the following:
Attached are past application forms for EOP and peer mentoring so you can see the job responsibilities; to obtain current forms, contact Campus Activities.