Getting Ready
Whether you've finished your education and are now looking for that ideal position or are applying for your first internship experience, the final steps will determine whether you are hired or not. After identifying positions of interest, you will need to assemble your resume and a cover letter to send to potential employers. If you make the first cut, you'll be asked to come for an interview where the final decision is made. At ABI, we're ready to guide you through each step of the process.
1. Building your resume
2. Writing a cover letter
3. Shining on the interview
Building Your Resume
Your resume is an attempt to describe yourself in glorious detail in a single page - impossible you say?! Probably so - thus we need to focus on what is important to the field or specific position you are seeking.
Start with a blank piece of paper and create headings as you go. What you want to do is capture who you are in writing. Create headings like "Education", "Skills", "Sports", "Associations", "Preferences" and create a list of bulleted items below each category that you think of. Don't worry about spelling, neatness or anything else right now other than capturing yourself in as much detail as you can. You'll probably think a great deal about your education and employment experience, but make your initial list as broad as possible. Do you have years of horse riding experience? How about special success in team sports? Have you participated in special workshops or classes? Are their interesting hobbies you've developed?
Your second task is to organize the material and write out the final product. There are many quality guides to writing online that can help you get started. Jobweb provides excellent guidelines for the construction of your resume. The first rule is professionalism. Read and re-read all documents to ensure there are no errors, typos, grammar mistakes, and so on. Once it's done, ABI students can email their finished product for complimentary review and assistance in producing the highest quality resume.
Writing a Cover Letter
Once you've put your resume together, it's time to work on a cover letter. A cover letter is sent along with your resume - its function is to explain what you're seeking and what your key qualifications are. In brief, there are usually three paragraphs:
- Introductory: state who you are, what position you're seeking, and how you found it
- Body: point out your best qualifications from your resume - ones that match the characteristics discussed in the job advertisement
- Concluding: ask for an interview, offer to call them or otherwise make the next step clear -what you want
One point I can't stress enough in cover letters and interviews is being specific. Hiring managers often have huge numbers of applicants to wade through and they are looking for a reason to quickly discard resumes. They might scan your resume quickly - give them a reason to do so. We said the first rule is professionalism; the second rule is being specific. Anyone can say "I am honest" or "I am hardworking, knowledgeable, whatever". What will make your cover letter and interview responses come to life are details and specific examples. Think of an example that can bring emphasis to a point that mere description cannot. Are you dedicated? Be sure to discuss something that illustrates it - such as staying late to deal with an emergency or deadline. As with resumes, there are many good online tools available such as JobStar Central that provide directions and examples. Once you have one prepared, you can send it to ABI as well for review and suggestions.
The Interview
If I can drill just one point into you about interview preparation:
BE SPECIFIC!
Do you claim to be hardworking? Then mention the overtime hours you routinely put in or a specific sacrifice you may have made in the past (ex: "I worked full time while balancing family and 6 credit hours of online classes each semester."). Pull examples from your work or life experiences that can validate any claims you make about yourself.
There are many excellent books about interview questions and tips for preparation. For example, good advice is available at Careers Springboard and Frequent Interview Questions provides the most common questions along with strategies for responding. At ABI we are happy to help you with any difficult potential questions you may be preparing for or to give you specific recommendations. We can also provide mock telephone interviews to help you hone your skills before taking them on the road.
Check out this Interview Rubric for a quick, last-minute tune-up of your interview technique. |
