{"id":9497,"date":"2023-01-22T13:22:48","date_gmt":"2023-01-22T18:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/?page_id=9497"},"modified":"2023-01-23T13:08:26","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T18:08:26","slug":"engl2116january25","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/engl2116-014spring2023\/engl2116january25\/","title":{"rendered":"January 25th: More on R\u00e9sum\u00e9s and Cover Letters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Plan for Today<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Make sure you review last class&#8217;s webpage, especially &#8220;R\u00e9sum\u00e9 Duties&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Show; don&#8217;t tell<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rleonardi.com\/interactive-resume\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Interesting r\u00e9sum\u00e9 format&#8230;<\/a><\/strong>(for further thought; I don&#8217;t expect you to do one like this)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Finish R\u00e9sum\u00e9 Stuff<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember, you might have a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 and cover letter that you used for a job (that you got), another class (that you got an &#8216;A&#8217; on), or the career center. I will comment on your r\u00e9sum\u00e9s and cover letters based on how effective you are about SHOWING that you&#8217;re the ideal candidate for a job. It&#8217;s not enough to just consider formatting concerns. You must also think critically about how you&#8217;re communicating your qualifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/engl2116-014spring2023\/engl2116january23\/\">Head back to the discussion on workplace culture&#8211;last class&#8217;s webpage&#8211;if you need more guidance.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, even though this is supposed to be somewhat amusing, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/engl2116-014spring2023\/engl2116january23\/peterprofitcoverletter\/\">Peter Profit&#8217;s cover letter<\/a><\/strong>, while absurd, is formatted well and shows why he&#8217;s an ideal candidate. Notice that he doesn&#8217;t use phrases like &#8220;team player,&#8221; &#8220;goal oriented,&#8221; &#8220;punctual,&#8221; etc. He shows his experience and describes the tools he uses. That is <em>showing<\/em> and not <em>telling<\/em>. Show that you&#8217;re the ideal candidate in your cover letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Show; Don&#8217;t Tell<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In case you need more clarification on <strong><em>show; don&#8217;t tell<\/em><\/strong>, I have more discussion of that. The following statements tell the audience what you do, but they really don&#8217;t <em>show<\/em> your duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I am a team player.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I am punctual.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I am a self-started who gets the job done.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You might as well be claiming &#8220;I am good&#8221; or &#8220;I want this job.&#8221; None of those above sentences show you&#8217;re the ideal candidate for a position. They&#8217;re too generic and aren&#8217;t even good for introducing yourself. Notice that all the sentences use <em>be<\/em> verbs, which aren&#8217;t the most descriptive verbs available. Consider these revisions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>As the simulation project manager for our 2019 release of <em>League of Legends<\/em> at Riot Games, I coordinated various development teams (programmers, directors, and actors) to ensure our release was on time and under budget.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><s>I arrive to work promptly when required.<\/s><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><s>I wake myself up and work without supervision on required tasks.<\/s><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2nd and 3rd sentences above, while better than the originals because they use more descriptive verbs, are ridiculous statements. An organization expects you&#8217;ll be punctual and able to work without supervision. Mentioning those attributes raises red flags and would make a hiring manager ask, &#8220;why would they include such a statement?&#8221; Your insistence that you&#8217;re punctual and a self-starter makes readers think the opposite. After all, if you have to bring those up, you&#8217;re setting a low bar&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Cover Letter Value<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I hear all the time that &#8220;jobs don&#8217;t ask for cover letter, so why are you making us write one?&#8221; Well, even though you might know of employment situations that don&#8217;t require cover letters, that doesn&#8217;t mean cover letters aren&#8217;t required for ANY job. Also, this assignment is a chance for you to articulate that you&#8217;re the ideal candidate for a job. You don&#8217;t have to apply to a &#8220;real&#8221; job. You can make it up. This exercise will be more beneficial for you if you aim for a job you&#8217;d like to do, but I&#8217;m not asking you to respond to a specific job ad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2023\/01\/NoCoverLetter.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2023\/01\/NoCoverLetter-1024x602.png\" alt=\"Meme all text: The absolute nerve to ask me for a cover letter. You're already on thin ice dude. I already don't even want this job.\" class=\"wp-image-9516\" width=\"512\" height=\"301\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2023\/01\/NoCoverLetter-1024x602.png 1024w, https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2023\/01\/NoCoverLetter-300x176.png 300w, https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2023\/01\/NoCoverLetter-768x452.png 768w, https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2023\/01\/NoCoverLetter.png 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A contemporary perception of the value of cover letters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The above meme may reflect your view of cover letters, but the exercise for this class is to practice choosing appropriate attributes for your audience&#8211;the employer. Yes, I, an English professor, will be the actually audience, and I will comment on whether or not you&#8217;ve done enough to show you&#8217;re the ideal candidate. Even if you never use a cover letter, having to express why you&#8217;re the ideal candidate is good practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Next Week<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep up with the syllabus readings. You&#8217;ll have to have read Ch. 4 and 7 in Tebeaux and Dragga by Tuesday. We&#8217;ll also be starting our prose revision lessons, so find time to read this short piece on <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/pages.uncc.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2014\/07\/RevisingProse.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Revising Prose<\/strong><\/a> (pdf). This reading is also on <strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/canvas.charlotte.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">Canvas<\/a><\/strong>. The goal of the lessons will be on understanding what is meant by &#8220;efficient prose&#8221; and &#8220;plain language.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Your <strong>Weekly Discussion Post<\/strong> is due Thursday, 1\/26, 11:00 pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plan for Today Finish R\u00e9sum\u00e9 Stuff Remember, you might have a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 and cover letter that you used for a job (that you got), another class (that you got an &#8216;A&#8217; on), or the career center. I will comment on your r\u00e9sum\u00e9s and cover letters based on how effective you are about SHOWING that you&#8217;re [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":598,"featured_media":0,"parent":9408,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9497","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P2HAOx-2tb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9497"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9518,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9497\/revisions\/9518"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}