Business Communications

CSE/ISE 300 Spring 2011Tony Scarlatos

The purpose of a resume& cover letter

• The purpose is not to get you a job, the purpose is to get you an interview. It’s the first attempt to establish a line of communications.

• A resume is not a memoir or a biography. In some ways it’s more about your prospective employer than it is about you. It’s a story about how your skills and experience match that employer’s needs.

• The resume and cover letter should confirm that you understand an employer’s manpower needs and workplace culture. This is shown both in content and form.

The hiring process• Given the vast number of applicants, the hiring

process is one of elimination as much as it is one of selection.

• The trick is to present your relevant credentials without making a mistake that will eliminate you in an early round.

• To do this you have to understand your audience, and give them what they want quickly without anything they might object to.

• So pay attention to detail, get to the point, and “when in doubt, leave it out.”

Two-part Process

• Resume writing is really the creation of an outline. It’s the skeleton that the cover letter fleshes out.

• Cover letters attempt to connect the dots between an employer’s needs and a candidate’s experience and skills. It puts some flesh on the bones of a resume, and it’s tailored to the recipient.

• Students *might* have a generic resume, but each cover letter will be different.

Bio vs. Resume• A bio is a brief prose description of an author’s

experience, and expertise, intended to give the audience an insight into the credentials of the writer. Typically it is only one or two paragraphs. It is written in the third person and included at the end of an article or paper, or in a conference proceeding where the author has given a talk.

• A resume does not follow a prose form and is written in the first person. It is a listing of skills and experiences that has more in common with a spec sheet in terms of style. Attention needs to be paid to formatting and typography so that the resume is legible and attractive.

Bio ExampleTony Scarlatos is Director of the Computer Science Multimedia Lab at Stony Brook University, and has been a lecturer in the department since 1995. He was an art director for 12 years before teaching at Stony Brook, for companies such as Doubleday and Cablevision. Tony's work received numerous national awards, such as the Federal Design Achievement Award, and was published in American Artist magazine. Tony has been a developer of computer-based training software for over 15 years. His work has been supported by a number of grants, including a NY State Department of Education Learning Technology grant, and a Department of Commerce Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program (TIIAP) grant. Tony was senior personnel on an NSF Combined Research Curriculum Development (CRCD) grant, the focus of which has been innovative interfaces in educational games. Prototypes produced by this project are being tested by elementary school children through BOCES, by students at the Cleary School for the Deaf, and by teachers in Brooklyn College’s School of Education. He is dedicated to undergraduate research, having supervised numerous senior projects that were presented at URECA, several of which led to publications. One project developed under the CRCD grant, SmartStep, is currently under license to a commercial toy company.

Resume Example - Chronological

Resume Example - Functional

Resume vs. Curriculum Vitae (CV)

• A CV is a description of an individual’s educational credentials, teaching experience, committee or service work, research, and awards, grants, and publications, that is used in academia. CV’s can be quite long – several pages – even though the entries are brief and it is formatted like a list.

• A resume is rarely longer than one page, and never more than two pages. Resume writers with a lot of publications or awards to list might consider a one page addendum to their one page resume.

Contents of a resume• Contact Information• Objective (optional)• Education (highest degree first)• Related Experience (work or internships,

most recent first)• Projects• Skills (computer, languages, etc.)• Leadership / Activities• Community Service (if applicable)

Resume organization• Can be either Chronological (most recent

employment or current position first) or Functional (skills-based). In a chronologically ordered resume, skills are near the bottom.

• For students and recent grads who may have limited relevant employment experience to the position they are seeking, a skills-first organization is probably best.

• In a skills-based format, the skills section follows educational credentials, ahead of work experience.

Contact Info & Personal Info

• Candidates should be concise in the information they share about themselves. Contact info should include full name, postal address, a professional email (not partyfool@gmail.com), and a cell phone number.

• Do not include extraneous personal information, such as marital status, race, age, health, or hobbies.

• Care should be taken when including URL’s. LinkedIn may be OK, but Facebook is not.

The Objective

• A good objective statement emphasizes how a candidate will use their skills and experience to meet the needs of the organization they are applying to.

• A bad objective statement will emphasize the candidate’s ambitions, and what they think the organization will do to advance their goals.

• Since a cover letter may also include a candidate’s statement of objectives, it is perhaps better to leave it off the resume.

Educational credentials• For those who have not graduated you can

specify the degree you are seeking and the expected date of graduation.

• Include high school (for now, until you have a graduate degree).

• Include GPA if it is over 3.0. Do not round up (a 3.95 is not a 4.0).

• You can include honors (e.g. Dean’s List), study abroad, and other activities (e.g. President of the Computing Society), as a subsection.

Work Experience• Be brief. No need to include your supervisor’s name or

the street address of the business (city/state should be adequate).

• If the business is not well known, include a line about what the company does.

• Be specific about dates, at least as far as the month/year employment started and ended.

• Be accurate about your title.• Use the Situation, Task, Action, Result (S.T.A.R.) format

to specify the impact of your contribution to the company.

Work Experience (continued)

• No need to list every job you ever had. However, some experiences may demonstrate valuable non-technical skills, such as customer service.

• Include unpaid positions if the work experience is relevant.

• Any description over 4 sentences is probably too long.

• Avoid the overuse of bullets.

Skills

• Programming Languages• Software tools and IDE’s• Network administration• Hardware• Include only what’s relevant to your employer• Don’t include basic office skills (e.g. typing, using

a spreadsheet) • Foreign Language (e.g. Spanish) is usually a plus

Formatting and Style

• Most important – legibility. Easy to find information, easy to read.

• Second – make it inviting. Attractive typography, plenty of white space.

• Avoid templates.• Quality printing for hard copy – use good

paper and a laser printer. Avoid decorative papers with pre-printed borders or background colors, binders, etc.

Resume Mistakes• Poorly proofread – contains typos, misspellings, poor

grammar• Descriptions are too long and say too little• Badly organized, repetitive, poorly designed• Overdesigned and illegible – too many bullets, boldface and

italics, too many fonts, too many colors, exotic borders, etc.• Poorly printed• Passive, not active voice (active is results-oriented)• Inclusion of unrelated and personal information• Lack of detail and specifics, use of hyperbole• Fraudulent or deliberately ambiguous statements

Cover Letter

• Intended to make a connection with the potential employer, it is tailored to each employer and position, and tries to demonstrate what you can do for their organization

• Highlights, and expands upon, relevant experience in the resume to make you stand out (but does not repeat the entire resume)

• Brief and concise (3 - 4 paragraphs)• Directed to a specific person if possible• Evidence of your writing/communication skills and

attention to detail

Anatomy of a cover letter• Introduction – opening paragraph

– States the position you are seeking– How you heard about the position (ad, referral, cold

call – be specific)– Introduce yourself (student, recent grad, employed at

another firm – provide details)• Why? – middle paragraph(s)

– Show you know the employer’s business and the requirements of the position

– Connect that to a couple of examples of your experience from your resume

Anatomy of a cover letter (cont.)

• Conclusion – final paragraph– Summarize your strengths, refer the reader to

your attached resume– Ask for an interview– Indicate that you would like to follow-up– Thank the reader for their time and attention

• Sign the letter

Cover Letter Example

References

• If references are not requested, don’t provide them - wait to be asked

• If references are requested, do not use family members. Seek out instructors or supervisors. Ask your reference first before providing their contact information.

• Do not expect someone to drop everything and provide a good reference at the last minute.

• Thank your reference in writing.