Perfct Cover Letters & Resumes - You can DO this!

Perfect Cover Letters & Resumes: You can totally DO this!

We live in an age of perfect information, with the answers to many of our most common and most complex issues literally at our fingertips.  You've got a one-of-a-kind story to tell, so let's get it right the first time!

So here it is, a list of probably the best tools available for creating a Cover Letter or a Resume that gets results!

I tried to make this a good mix, from the simplest infographics to full-fledged interactive writing guides.

Cover letters are frequently only one page, so you've got 300 words or less to make it truly effective.  Resumes are the same situation - one page to say it all.

Overall, the best advice I could possibly give you is this: do not use a cookie cutter approach!  Customize your Resume - yes, your resume! - as well as your Cover letter to your audience.  Recruiters, admissions boards, and more know what a form letter looks like as opposed to a thoughtful, well-planned, customized document.  It makes a difference and, frankly, it's your life.  You get out of it what you put into it.  So put in your best!

More specifically, cater your cover letter and resume to the company or school you are applying to, such as finding out names of contacts, reading, digesting and responding to the school's or company's mission, and or values statement.  Additionally, and by no means least, cater your skills and experiences to the position or program to which you are applying!

Resumes

Purdue OWL: Introduction to Resumes – It's not just for APA and MLA citations!  Make your resume count! OWL provides a list of optional sections and offers specific suggestions to tailor your resume for each perspective employer and or academic program.

ALA JobList: Resumes – the American Library Association resume resource page offers a variety of suggested topics for creating and maintaining your resume, including librarian the Resume Review Service Committee (service requires ALA NMRT membership).

UC Berkeley: Writing Effective Resumes Online Workshop – Excellent example-focused video guide that offers a comparison of presentation formats, sections to consider including, as well as industry and objective-based suggestions. Advice from a panel of human resource representatives provides practical tips for improving resumes and avoiding common mistakes.

Entrepreneur.com: How to Impress the Robots Reading Your Resume – Entrepreneur offers an entertaining and informative infographic that can help you understand how to tailor your resume to better appeal to filtering technologies, known as Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), to make your resume less susceptible to being filtered out of the selection process.

Boston University: Anatomy of a Resume – When researching resume writing you will encounter many terms regarding presentation styles and sections, such as chronological versus functional formats. Anatomy of a Resume is an interactive tool that allows users to identify common formats, sections, and styles with descriptions and tips to help you choose which ones best fit your needs.

Cover Letters

Purdue OWL: Cover Letter Workshop – OWL asserts that the cover letter may be one of the most difficult documents you will write and offers a wide variety of advice regarding formatting as well as writing tips to help you get your audiences’ attention.

The Ladders: How to Write a Great Cover Letter – According to The Ladders’ research-based article on writing a cover letter, generalizations (such as a blanket salutation) can make you seem lazy and work against you. This article provides examples from hiring professionals on content and format to help you connect with perspective employers.

The Muse: The Pain-Free Cover Letter Builder – This interactive tool helps applicants create a custom cover letter (requires Muse account).

Boston University: Anatomy of a Cover Letter – Anatomy of a cover letter is an interactive tool that demystifies the components of a cover letter and provides specific recommendations for each section to help you refine your letter and make an impact.

The Muse: 31 Attention-Grabbing Cover Letter Examples – This article lists introduction suggestions for opening statements to cover letters that will help your resume get attention. You can also sign up for a free cover letter writing guide.

And of course, it is our belief that MyStatementofPurpose.com is quite possibly the only writing site you will ever need.

University Rankings for MBA in the US

Key factors in this rankings methodology is Brand Value of the institution, Career opportunities with Fortune 100 companies, Funding available.

1	Harvard University (MA)
1	Stanford University (CA)
3	University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
4	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
5	Northwestern University (Kellogg) (IL)
6	Columbia University (NY)
6	University of Chicago
8	Duke University (Fuqua) (NC)
9	University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
10	University of California–Berkeley (Haas)
11	Dartmouth College (Tuck) (NH)
11	University of California–Los Angeles (Anderson)
11	University of Virginia (Darden)
14	New York University (Stern)
15	Cornell University (Johnson) (NY)
16	University of Texas–Austin
16	Yale University (CT)
18	University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler)
19	Carnegie Mellon University (PA)
20	Indiana University–Bloomington (Kelley)
21	Emory University (Goizueta) (GA)
22	University of Southern California (Marshall)
23	Purdue University–West Lafayette (Krannert) (IN)
24	Vanderbilt University (Owen) (TN)
25	Ohio State University (Fisher)
25	University of Rochester (Simon) (NY)
25	Washington University (Olin)
28	University of Minnesota–Twin Cities (Carlson)
29	Georgetown University (McDonough) (DC)
30	Michigan State University (Broad)
31	University of Arizona (Eller)
32	Arizona State University–Main Campus
32	Tulane University (Freeman) (LA)
34	Case Western Reserve University (Weatherhead) (OH)
34	Penn State University–University Park (Smeal)
34	Rice University (Jones) (TX)
34	Thunderbird Graduate School (AZ)
34	University of Maryland–College Park (Smith)
34	University of Wisconsin–Madison
40	Boston College (Carroll)
40	University of California–Irvine
42	Brigham Young University (Marriott) (UT)
42	Georgia Institute of Technology (DuPree)
42	Southern Methodist University (Cox) (TX)
42	Texas A&M University–College Station (Mays)
42	University of California–Davis
42	Wake Forest University (Babcock) (NC)
48	University of Georgia (Terry)
48	University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign
48	University of Notre Dame (IN)

Best Books: Writing Statements of Purpose, resumes, cvs, & letters

1. Graduate Admissions Essays: Write Your Way into the Graduate School of Your Choice by Donald Asher A great reference. Develop your own formula for writing success, but don't be formulaic! Create a list of points you want to hit, and then create your 10-15 Statements of Purpose, customizing each one for a particular school or program. Or you can look me up at mystatementofpurpose.com 2. Resume Magic: Trade Secrets of a Professional Resume Writer by Susan Britton Whitcomb A good reference. Nowadays you need a great resume visually ‘and’ informatively. Employers do not have ADHD, they simply need to be able to scan your resume quickly to get the intel they are looking for. Look at DK (Doring Kindersely) books to see cool layouts, and then stick your resume into one. Visual impact is incredibly important. Make your own or look me up at mystatementofpurpose.com 3. Essential CVS (Essentials) by Jennifer Vesperman A good reference. Nowadays you need a great cv visually ‘and’ informatively. Employers do not have ADHD, they simply need to be able to scan your cv quickly to get the intel they are looking for. Look at DK (Doring Kindersely) books to see cool layouts, and then stick your cv into one. Visual impact is incredibly important. Make your own or look me up at 4. Instant Recommendation Letter Kit - How To Write Winning Letters of Recommendation (Third Edition) by Shaun Fawcett Don't get trapped in the cookie cutter! If your letter looks like a copy/paste from a list of nice things to say about anyone and no one, you need to rethink your process! Be thoughtful and specific. You owe it to the person you are writing about or yourself. Employers & schools don't want to read dry impersonal letters. Write your own, or look me up at mystatementofpurpose.com 5. 1001 Letters For All Occasions: The Best Models for Every Business and Personal Need by Corey Sandler 6. Cover Letter Magic: Trade Secrets of Professional Resume Writers by Louise Kursmark 7. How to Write a Great Query Letter by Noah Lukeman The list author says: 8. How to Write the Perfect Personal Statement: Write powerful essays for law, business, medical, or graduate school application (Peterson's Perfect Personal Statements) by Mark Alan Stewart Peterson's has some of the best advice on creating a winning Statement of Purpose, giving loads of examples and advice. It's a daunting task, and it's never easy to write about yourself. Tackle the task with this book or you can look me up at 9. Perfect Personal Statements, 2nd ed (Peterson's Perfect Personal Statements: Law, Business, Medical, Graduate School) by Mark A. Stewart Another of Peterson's amazing guides! Best advice on creating a winning Statement of Purpose, giving loads of examples and advice. It's a daunting task, and it's never easy to write about yourself. Tackle the task with this book or you can look me up at 10. Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning an M.A. or a Ph.D. by Robert L. Peters Some of the best advice on creating a winning Statement of Purpose, giving loads of examples and advice. It's a daunting task, and it's never easy to write about yourself. Tackle the task with this book or you can look me up at 11. Get Into Graduate School: A Strategic Approach for Master's and Doctoral Candidates by Kaplan Another of Kaplan's amazing guides! Best advice on how to get into grad school including how to create a winning Statement of Purpose, giving loads of examples and advice. It's a daunting task, and it's never easy to write about yourself. Tackle the task with this book or you can look me up at

Writing a good Letter of Recommendation

Professors, bosses, etc are all notoriously busy people. When you approach them for a Letter of Recommendation, they may ask you to write your own and then they will sign it. This doesn't necessarily mean they cannot remember you, or think of anything nice to say about you, it's one more chance for you to sell yourself to your prospective school, clients or potential workplace.

Warning: the professor/boss is going to read what you want them to sign. If you lie or exaggerate, you're going to be writing it again. They will allow some "poetic license", but it is their reputation on the line if they allow you to lie/exaggerate. If all you did was fax some press releases for them, saying that you were "the cornerstone of the department's communications and PR" is a big fat lie. What you can say is that you "provided administrative support in a consistently reliable and professional manner". See? Easy, right? Read on.

Secondly, this is where you get to do some role-playing. You have to put yourself in the professor's or boss' position, and write about you. Yes, it's you again, but you can do it.

Here's what needs to be covered:
(for the purposes of this blog, we're going to pretend it's your professor who's "writing" the letter of recommendation)

To start with, the reader is going to want to know how enthusiastic your professor is about recommending you for PhD Thermonuclear Research. You want to use words like:

strongly recommend, recommend, recommend with reservations, I do not recommend for admission (If you choose the last option, you can go back to your daily life and not worry about sending the letter in the first place).

Second: describe how long the professor has known you and under what circumstances he/she has known you. If you've only known the professor about two hours, choose a different professor. Talk in terms of months/years, or say, "It was a pleasure having Peggy Sue in three of my advanced brain surgery courses, from 2006-2009." You do not necessarily have to pick a professor you took courses with. If you work for a university as a work/study student, professors may know you from work you've done for them or others in their department. If all they can say is, "you should see John collate and staple!", then choose another professor.

Third: evaluate yourself for the reader in comparison with others in your class in terms of those your professor has known or may have known during his/her professional career. Describe the comparison group you are using. This means, you would say something to the effect of, "John was a pleasure to have in class. In my 30 years of professorship, I never knew a more energetic or engaged student." You have then identified yourself in their class and out of 30 years worth of students in a professor's career.

Lastly: (here's the "body" of the Letter) Addressing your abilities to pursue graduate studies and research, if applicable. Address your ability to work with peers, supervisors and subordinates; teaching potential; any outstanding abilities, talents, liabilities and weaknesses; and oral and written communication skills.

This is where you "blow your own trumpet" where you show off all that you are and more importantly what you are capable of. If you say you can "handle the pressures of graduate study” and your professor remembers you crying during pop quizzes, you may want to highlight your other skills. If you gravitate towards group leadership positions, then mention it. Do not be afraid of using your accomplishments.

Above all! This is your chance to talk about you in the best light possible, and as someone in authority. Use your boss'/professor's position, seniority and experience to work for you. You've worked hard to get where you are, so do yourself justice! All those times your boss made you feel like an idiot, well, it's payback time, baby! Show them that you know that they know how awesome you are!

Quite possibly the best online writing service around can be found here: MyStatementofPurpose