COVERING LETTER
Expresses your interest in and qualifications for a position to a prospective employer.
Introduces the main points of your resume.
Helps you to “sell” your qualifications to the prospective employer.
Purpose:
To attract employers to read your resume
Caution:
Keep your cover letter short
Confine it to three paragraphs
CAREER OBJECTIVE
Purpose:
To describe your motive for job
To identify whether the goal is in line with the organization
Convey your professional expertise, expectations from a job and organization as well as
goals for your professional growth.
Things to Remember:
Objective should be in two to three lines.
Career objective is an opening statement
State your job position first
State your commitment to goal
Don’t be afraid to state what you want from a job and from an organization.
Willingness to take action to achieve your goal
What kind of job you want/ what experience you have to meet the required position
Wrong Example:
To obtain a position where my experience and education can be utilized and expanded.
(No professional growth mentioned, avoid using generic statements, No goals in mind)
Examples for Specific/general
To obtain a position of sales representative in a health insurance industry, where I can
utilize my management and customer relations skills, with the opportunity for
performance based advancement.
To obtain a position as a software engineer allowing me to utilize my knowledge of
Oracle and Linux.
To obtain a post of Marketing Support Representative where skills in administration and
management, program development, public relations, and writing can be used.
RÉSUMÉ
A résumé is a detailed document describing one’s past achievements and future intentions
for a coveted career. It includes information about one’s career goals, education, work
experience, activities, honours, and any special skills one might have.
Purposes
To kindle employer’s interest and generate an interview.
To create interest and not to tell everything about yourself.
Requirements of a Standard Résumé
Properly formatted
Specific
Clean and error free
Short and crisp phrases
Action verbs
Analyze your qualification and job preferences.
Be clear about your knowledge,
Skills,
Accomplishments,
Experience and personal traits.
Ensure job requirements and evaluate your skills.
Special Skills
Computer proficiency
Foreign language
Writing effectively
Solving problems
Making decisions
Use active statements
I was in charge of Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulic Machine Lab for two years.
Corrected: I Supervised Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulic Machine Lab during 2015-17.
Responsible for streamlining a new filing system
Corrected: I streamlined a new filing system that reduced paper work by 50 per cent.
Action Verbs
Accomplished Administered Assisted Budgeted Demonstrated
Generated Identified Initiated Investigated Operated
Participated Recommended Streamlined Transformed
Some Do’s and Don’ts of Résumé
Do’s Don’ts
Mention major activities. Write everything.
Job objective. Use something that may eliminate your call.
Use proper headline. List your strength.
Be honest. Mention any skill you don’t possess.
Update your resume. Mention salary.
Be specific & Use error free language. Criticize your previous employer
To be included in a Resume
1. CAREER OBJECTIVE: 2. WORK PROFILE:
3. ACADEMIC PROFILE 4. ACHIEVEMENTS
5. AREAS OF INTEREST 6. SKILL SETS
7. PAPERS PRESENTED 8. PROJECTS DONE
9. CERTIFIED COURSES 10. INDUSTRIAL VISITS
AND TRAINING
11. LEADERSHIP RESPONSIBILITY 12. MEMBERSHIP DETAILS
13. OTHER CREDENTIALS 14. PERSONAL PROFILE
15. REFERENCE