Assignments 6 (resume memo), 7 (resume), 8 (application letter topic memo), and 9 (application letter) all go together. These are the employment documents we have been preparing for by writing the first letter, editing docs, and creating the sales letter and fact sheet. Before you write your resume, I want you to write the instructor a memo that presents your ideas about the resume. Before your write the application letter, you’re also to create a memo previewing that document. Read the resume assignment (7) and the application letter assignment (9) before you write this memo, as well as the instructor’s simple resume format (which is on BlazeView in PDF format and on the web in regular .html format).
The resume is a fact sheet with informative and persuasive purposes designed to present your professional self. More specifically, it’s designed to present you as a good candidate for a certain kind of job or certain area of professional activity. So it’s a strategic document. This memo is designed to require you to spend some time thinking about how best to present yourself as a good candidate for a certain kind of job.
Most important note: The resume and application letter must be written for a position of some kind (paid full-time position, paid part-time position, paid or unpaid internship, co-op position, position in graduate school or law school, position in a volunteer organization, such as the Peace Corps, and so on) that you are able to realistically apply for now or by the end of the spring semester of 2010. That means, for example, that this resume is not to be written for a job you will be ready for when you graduate in the spring of 2011 or whenever you plan to graduate. It’s supposed to be a realistic document for now.
Start the memo with the usual TO, FROM, DATE, and SUBJECT opening.
Write a short introduction that informs the instructor that you are presenting your initial ideas on the upcoming resume assignment.
Break the memo into the following heads and follow the directions under each.
(1) Address
Record the address in full, formal format that you’d like an employer
to use, like this:
140 East Sly Road
Valdosta, Georgia 31602
229-333-3333 | jdokes@valdosta.edu
(2) Job Objective
Create a job objective. Again, this objective
must be realistic for you now or by the end of spring 2010. So choose a kind of position that’s realistic
and that interests you.
Follow this format: Position in X requiring A, B, and C skills. For example,
Part-time bookkeeping position requiring strong accounting, computing, and communication skills.
The resume—we hope—will show that you have these skills.
(3) Degrees
Record the exact, full name of the degree you will receiving from VSU,
including major (which you may capitalize on the resume) and year of planned
graduation, for example
Bachelor of Business Administration—Marketing, May 2011 –or
Bachelor of Business Administration, Marketing, May 2011 –or
Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing, May 2011 –or
Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing and Management, May 2011 –or
Bachelor of Arts in English, May 2011
Record the exact, full name of any previous degree or certificate you might have gotten (which you don’t have to put on the resume: it’s your choice), such as
Associate of Business Administration, May 2007 –or
Associate of Arts in English, May 2007 –or
Associate of Applied Science, May 2007
(4) __________ Experience
Choose the most relevant job experience or the most important job experience
you have had relative to the job objective you’ve listed. If it is the same kind of job as the one you
listed in the job objective, then your head should cite that kind before the
word Experience, such as
Sales Experience –or
Bookkeeping Experience
If you don’t have any experience in the same kind of work as you cited in the objective, then just name the section Work Experience.
Then list the experience and describe it in this form:
Stereo
Connection, Valdosta, Georgia
Assistant Sales Manager, August 2007-present
Coordinate . . . ; direct . . . ; manage . .
. ; present-tense verbs (for current work) and past-tense verbs (for past work)
introduce a series of phrases describing duties, experiences, and
accomplishments. Be specific: cite
numbers of employees, sales figures, percentages, and so on. Do not use I:
start phrases with verbs. There is no I in a
resume.
(5) __________ Experience/Skills
Choose an unpaid experience that you think was/is
relevant to your job objective. For
example, you could choose your experience in Boy/Girl Scouts, a Boys and Girls
Club, 4-H, a fraternity/sorority, an academic club/organization, a sports team—whatever. Decide what skill this experience taught you,
such as leadership, management, project management, event planning, clerical,
people, or computer skills. Create a
head describing the experience/skills you learned, and then describe it in this
form:
Team
Leader, Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) Project, 2007-2008
Led “Fantastic Franchising” project to SIFE’s
national competition in Omaha, Nebraska, where it placed fifth; organized X
number of team members as they interviewed successful franchisers in South
Georgia area…--or
Membership
Secretary, VSU Chapter of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, 2002-present
Identify prospective PKP initiates, mail invitations, create initiation program, and participate in initiation ceremony.
If you can’t think of a position like this, then list your various positions in organizations you have been affiliated with. Position comes first, then organization, then dates, like this:
Organizations
Member,
SIFE, 2006-present; volunteer, Bainbridge Boys and Girl Club, summers
1999-present; member, National Skeet Shooting Association (1998-present)