Resumes and Cover Letters – Page 4

Show Me Your Skills! How to Create a Portfolio that Stands Out to Recruiters

By: Tiffany Franklin

Portfolios have long been part of the job search process for artists, designers, architects, and teachers, but in recent years professionals across industries have started using this powerful tool to convey their experience. With the proliferation of free portfolio sites, it’s now easier than ever to create a web page that will demonstrate the experience you write about in your resume and cover letters. A well-conceived web portfolio will provide examples of your Knowledge, Skills and Accomplishments and offer clues regarding your design aesthetic and the way you organize information. Portfolios bring your resume to life and allow recruiters to learn more about you as a candidate.

Designing a web page yourself vs. the free portfolio sites
Consider your industry and the job to which you are applying. If you are applying for a Web Designer or Information Architect position, you should have the skills to design your own site as the best example of your work and what you could do for that employer. In other fields that will not involve designing web sites for a living, using one of the existing portfolio sites would be a viable option. Here are a few sites to check out – Coroflot, Behance Network, Carbonmade, Cargo, Dribble, Portfolium, Folionix, and Wix. Some people have even used blogging Platforms such as WordPress or About.me to demonstrate their experience.

Experience to Include
In addition to your internship and work experiences, portfolios are great places to showcase your academic projects and other projects outside of class. Create categories of examples to support your skills. Some people list their work by project title, while others will group items under headings such as interactive design, native apps, websites, sketches, logos, and more. It’s up to you to think about your audience (dream job/company) and design your portfolio in a way that tells your story in a compelling way and shows your capabilities in that context.

Tips for Making your Portfolio Effective

• Select your best work and keep the portfolio updated

• Be sure to include your contact information

• Only include work that is your own and include descriptors that show your role in team projects

• Mention the software you use to create the projects you list (Recruiters often use key word searches to find candidates, including specific software)

• Edit every page of your portfolio (spelling, grammar, consistent look and feel); get a second opinion

• Spend time planning your portfolio – clean layout; pay attention to design, colors, and typography

• Look at other portfolios online and consider the qualities that make some stand out from others

• Show the phases of your projects where relevant, from initial sketches to final product

• Include the link for your portfolio on your resume, cover letters and LinkedIn

Remember, Career Services is here to help! Along with resume and cover letter critiques, we can also meet with you to discuss your portfolio and offer suggestions.

The 3 F’s of Resume Writing

by Maxine Mitchell, Graduate Assistant

3 tips for students preparing their resumes for summer internships and full-time opportunities:

Form
Please, please, please keep your resume on one page! Choose a form/style that is aesthetically-pleasing to you, and easy to read. Play around with the placement and titles of each section. Utilize shading, spacing and underlining to draw the readers’ eyes to particular words, phrases and roles. The white space on your resume is as important as the content.
While some fields tend to be flexible about resume formats from potential candidates, others remain quite traditional. Take note of your roles of interest, and do a bit of research to learn more about company culture. We strongly encourage you to preview the resume samples available on the Career Services website for assistance, as they reflect the varying academic/extracurricular experiences of students at Penn.

Formatting
When selecting a resume font (and there should only be ONE), please keep in mind the industry(ies) that you’re applying to. Maintain consistent formatting throughout your resume. Make use of the list of action verbs available on our website to put forth a detailed and concise description of your roles and activities. Prioritize, consolidate, and cut when necessary. After completion, proofread for spelling AND grammatical errors. Career Services offers resume and cover letter critiques – an opportunity for you to get another set of eyes on this important document.

Fun
Last, but not least, have fun! There is no one way to create a resume, so feel free to explore formats, styles and fonts!

Do you have spellcheck blindness?

Dr. Joseph Barber

We have all experienced the phenomenon of working so hard on a particular document that it becomes almost impossible to proofread it effectively. Your brain is so good at figuring out what you are trying to say, that it doesn’t bother to alert you to some minor spelling mistake – you get “spellcheck blindness”. You will spend an awfully long time looking at your resume/CV and cover letter, or at least at a large number of very similar versions of these documents, and the risk of spellcheck blindness becomes quite significant. If there is one type of document that you really want to be perfect, then it will definitely be the one you are sending to an employer where you are highlighting your “attention to detail”. So, stop by Career Services to get a fresh look at your materials, and we’ll be happy to do some proofreading for you.

You definitely want an error-free set of job application materials. However, while we are talking about spellcheck blindness, you might be interested in just how effective your brain is at processing meaning from text – even if that text is somewhat chaotic. You can find a good example of this below, where I have provided two versions of the same poem (which is actually not a bad career advice type of poem). Try getting through the first version, but you can always skip down to the bottom to see the original.

‘if’ by rrdayud kipilng

If you can keep yuor haed wehn all aobut you
Are lnsiog thiers and bianmlg it on you,
If you can turst yusrleof wehn all men dbout you,
But mkae alanowlce for tehir duontbig too;
If you can wiat and not be tierd by wntiaig,
Or bineg leid auobt, don’t dael in leis,
Or benig htead, don’t gvie way to hiatng,
And yet don’t look too good, nor tlak too wsie:

If you can darem – and not mkae dmaers yuor msater,
If you can tihnk – and not mkae ttghhous yuor aim;
If you can meet wtih Tpumirh and Dtseasir
And traet thsoe two iortmspos jsut the smae;
If you can baer to haer the trtuh you’ve spoekn
Tesiwtd by kevnas to mkae a tarp for floos,
Or wtcah the tinhgs you gvae yuor lfie to, breokn,
And sotop and bluid ’em up wtih wron-out tolos:

If you can mkae one haep of all yuor wininngs
And rsik it all on one trun of ptich-and-tsos,
And lsoe, and sratt aiagn at yuor bniiggnens
And nveer baerth a wrod aoubt yuor lsos;
If you can froce yuor hraet and nrvee and sniew
To svree yuor trun lnog afetr tehy are gnoe,
And so hlod on wehn trehe is nhontig in you
Epxcet the Wlil whcih syas to tehm: “Hlod on!”

If you can tlak wtih crdwos and keep yuor vturie,
Or wlak wtih kngis – nor lsoe the cmmoon tcuoh,
If nheeitr feos nor liovng fdriens can hrut you,
If all men cunot wtih you, but nnoe too mcuh;
If you can flil the uigrnonvfig mnuite
Wtih stxiy snceods’ wotrh of dinstace run,
Yuros is the Etrah and envyeirthg taht’s in it,
And – whcih is mroe – you’ll be a Man, my son!

And here is the unscrambled version:

‘if’ by rudyard kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master,
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

don’t blow your cover…letter!

If an employer has not previously met you, your application materials will shape his or her first impression of you. How you present yourself through your writing can make or break your candidacy. Take for instance the dreaded cover letter. Not only should your cover letter be error free, it should set the right “tone.” It’s easy to wrestle with how to highlight your qualifications without coming off as arrogant. After all, you want to show that you’re qualified for the job and someone who will make a great addition to the team! The first cover letter excerpt below illustrates the fine line between confidence and arrogance.

“As you will see from my resume, I have worked in the mental health field for many years and know that you will not find a candidate more knowledgeable about issues impacting children today. I am highly regarded in my current field placement and have been told by multiple supervisors that my skills will certainly be an asset to future organizations. “

Take two. With a bit of revising, an improved version reads something like this:

“With over five years of relevant experience working with children and families in the outpatient setting, I am confident that my clinical skills and passion for delivering quality mental health services will serve me well in the clinical social work position. Most recently, in my role as… “

As you’ll see in the second example, the applicant includes a brief statement of his own skills and interests rather than the praise of supervisors to begin highlighting his qualifications. Don’t forget that your references will do some talking, too. In a competitive job market you want to show you have the skills and experience as well as the ability to work well with others. As you create your own materials for the job search, be sure to review the sample documents and guides available on our website and schedule an appointment with a career advisor for assistance. We’re here all summer!

Converting Your Job Resume Into Your Law School Resume In Five (Relatively) Easy Steps

Your resume is one the several components that ultimately comprise your applications to law school. Many students (and alumni) at Penn usually have some kind of resume in their possession – some are very up-to-date (for those actively applying for internships, jobs, or fellowships) and others have not seen a substantive update since high school graduation. While some applications will ask you to list your most significant experiences directly on the application, there are often only a few lines to do so and the expectation is that you keep that brief and prioritized. With that in mind, your resume is actually a very important aspect of your law school applications since, for many schools, it is the only opportunity to list and describe all of your activities, achievements, and involvements in full detail. Law school admissions committees are very interested in how you spend your time and energy outside of class, so it is essential that you create a strong, accurate, and flattering portrayal of yourself on your resume.

There are several ways, however, that distinguish a law school resume from the aforementioned resume you might use in job or internship applications. In addition to the two sample law school resumes I have provided for your reference on our pre-law website (under Law School Application Components), here are five (relatively) easy steps in converting the latter into the former.

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