Create a Resume / Cover Letter – Career Services Administration | University of Minnesota

Create a Resume / Cover Letter – Career Services Administration | University of Minnesota
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Create a Resume / Cover Letter
Resumes
Whether you’ve never written a resume before, or you’re looking for a specific tip, you can find it here. And remember, professionals at your
college’s career center
can meet with you one-on-one and offer the most up-to-date, industry-specific advice.
To ensure your resume is readable by both ATS software and humans, be sure to follow the below guidelines:
General formatting guidelines
Keep font sizes to 10 or 12 point
Select easy-to-read font types
Write content using bullet points instead of paragraph form
Use bold, italics or capital letters to highlight key pieces of information and headings
Have a balance of white space and text
Keep your resume to one page
We strongly suggest using a template provided here or by your college’s career center because they are built specifically for recruiting undergraduate college students and to pass Applicant Tracking System software used by companies to screen resumes. Using the appropriate style resume ensures better success in the job/internship search.
Templates
No major-specific experience (great for freshman and sophomores)
|
Download Microsoft Word file
General resume (great for juniors and seniors)
|
Download Microsoft Word file
Transfer student
|
Download Microsoft Word file
Military experience
|
Download Microsoft Word file
Research/graduate school CV (Downloads as Microsoft Word file)
Federal job resume guide
|
Use resume builder at usajobs.gov
Contact Information
Name, phone number, email, LinkedIn, address, pronouns if you would like
Education Section
University, degree type (eg. B.A., B.S.), major/minors, GPA, graduation date
Study abroad experience
Experience Section(s)
Internships and work (part-time included!)
Student organizations
Academic projects
Research experience
Leadership & Activities
Student organizations
Case competitions, Hack-a-thons etc.
Skills/Certifications
Technical skills (software, databases, etc. *Not soft skills like communication, teamwork, or leadership)
Language proficiencies
Strong Skills Statements
Skills statements describe the experiences and accomplishments that will be of interest to an employer. It is important to tailor the description of your experiences to fit the job duties, responsibilities, and qualifications listed in the job posting.
Use strong action verbs
Use correct tense (present for current roles and past for roles you are no longer in)
Be specific
Original:
Looked at data to create data visualizations
Revised:
Analyzed data in Excel and created visualizations for company executives to understand gaps when reaching target market
Quantify when able
Original:
Managed team and improved sales
Revised:
Led team of 10 sales associates to achieve a 20% increase in monthly sales, resulting in an additional $500,000 in annual revenue.
Applicant tracking systems (ATS) are software applications that employers use to keep record of the hiring process for each applicant they receive. Most employers utilize this system to automatically filter applications based on given criteria in a resume (keywords, skills, former employers, years of experience, schools attended, etc.). Remember to carefully tailor your resume for your industry.
Make minor adjustments for technical skills i.e. If a requirement in the job posting is a specific software program, use that name instead of a generic term.
Directly address qualifications found in the job descriptions and add keywords (if they apply to you). Use the exact same phrasing as the job description in your resume
Know your demographic (who you are applying to)
It is important to know the values and goals of the organization you are applying to! It will better let you know if you align with the role and company!
Researching Employers and Industries
Use keywords
Integrating specific words used in the job description into your resume will make your resume stand out! If the company is looking for a problem solver, let them know you are a problem solver!
Tailor your skill statements for your experience for each position and make sure they are strong and detailed but also concise
Organize your resume by relevance
Your resume should be tailored towards the specific job you’re applying for, so you should list and highlight the most valuable experience at the very top of your resume.
Add/remove (un)necessary experience
Create and keep a resume master list. This will include all your previous experience: old positions that no longer fit on your resume, bullets tailored for different jobs, projects and honors that are only relevant for certain positions. This will come in handy when you are tailoring your resume to a specific opportunity.
Include relevant coursework that demonstrates applicable skills/experience for a particular position.
Cover letters
Your cover letter explains to an employer how your experiences, skills, and interests are a fit for the
specific
position you are applying for. The employer provided you a job posting describing the work and explaining the skills they want in candidates. Your cover letter should address those needs with
examples
of work you have done in the past and skills you possess.
Unlike a resume, you will write a unique cover letter for each position.
If a job posting requires a cover letter, yes, you should write one.
If a job posting says it’s optional to write a cover letter, no, you do not HAVE to write one. The only reason it may be beneficial to write one is if you have a unique expertise or connection to the company that is truly worth expanding on by writing a cover letter.
Research the company to address culture and “fit”
Pursue an informational interview with someone in the organization or use the organization’s website to learn about what the organization values in its business and its people. Use that information in your opening paragraph to explain why you’re interested.
Prioritize skills to address in your letter
Choose to focus on 2-3 skills that either seem to be prevalent in the posting, organization information, and your conversations about the organization; or the ones that you have the best examples for. Look carefully for ”qualifications” or “required skills” in the job posting such as analytical skills, communication, teamwork, and computer skills.
Identify examples of your qualifications/experience
Next, prove that you have the key skills they are looking for in an ideal candidate. Examples can come from your part-time job, class projects, study abroad, volunteer or extra-curricular experience. Unique examples can make you stand out as a candidate.
Draft your cover letter
Use this
template
(
download Word doc
) to draft your letter, which offers more detailed directions.
Proofread!
Make sure that your grammar and spelling are error-free. Have someone else review your letter.
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Labor Market Insights
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Explore occupations by career categories and pathways and use real time labor market data to power your decision making.
First, choose an industry of interest, then filter for occupation. (If you'd like to see data for a specific location only, filter by state.)
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01
Occupation Description
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Employment Trends
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Top Employers
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Education Levels
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Annual Earnings
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Technical Skills
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Core Competencies
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Job Titles
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Occupation Description
Employment Trends
The number of jobs in the career for the past two years, the current year, and projections for the next 10 years. Job counts include both employed and self-employed persons, and do not distinguish between full- and part-time jobs. Sources include Emsi industry data, staffing patterns, and OES data.
Top Employers
These companies are currently hiring for
.
Education Levels
The educational attainment percentage breakdown for a career (e.g. the percentage of people in the career who hold Bachelor’s Degrees vs. Associate Degrees). Educational attainment levels are provided by O*NET.
Annual Earnings
Earnings figures are based on OES data from the BLS and include base rate, cost of living allowances, guaranteed pay, hazardous-duty pay, incentive pay (including commissions and bonuses), on-call pay, and tips.
Technical Skills
A list of hard skills associated with a given career ordered by the number of unique job postings which ask for those skills.
Core Competencies
The skills for the career. The "importance" is how relevant the ability is to the occupation: scale of 1-5. The "level" is the proficiency required by the occupation: scale of 0-100. Results are sorted by importance first, then level.
Job Titles
A list of job titles for all unique postings in a given career, sorted by frequency.