Hi everyone my name is Elaine Lu. I use she, her and hers pronoun, I am one of the career coaches at Cornell Career Services and today we're going to talk about Resume and Cover Letters. To start off this is today's learning outcomes we're going to understand the purpose of the application materials create bullets for your resume, demonstrate interest, passion, qualifications and experiences for your cover letter and recognize different resources available to help you create and improve your application materials. This is a Career development cycle as you can see this is a wheel so you can cycle around and start at any stage and go around multiple times, the first one is Understand Yourself which is learning about your interests, values, strengths and goals. The next one is Explore Options, utilizing different resources, networking, participating in activities and internships and the last one is take action which is doing the application materials such as cover letter, resume, and interview throughout these three stages. Career Services is here to support you from self reflecting, exploring different opportunities, and creating these document materials to prepare for applications. The Career Development Toolkit is available for all Cornellans whether you're a student, alumni, faculty or staff member if you have a Cornell net ID and have access to Canvas you'll have access to the Career Development Toolkit which is a course that provides modules to support with your career journey whether it is learning about networking, completing assessment, exploring self reflection, creating resume or cover letter, understanding the job search process, these are some of the modules that we have available. To enroll in the Career Development Toolkit you can scan this QR code or utilize the link below to self enroll if you do not have access to this all these modules provide step by step guidance and templates on how to create certain documents or understand the process of these documents or these informations to start off when you're creating application materials whether it's your resume or cover letter it's very important to understand and showcase fit think about this as a venn diagram one side is going to be your talent, strength and interests, values and goals and the other side is going to be the organization mission goals, business needs, culture and values basically what the employer is doing and what their needs and goals are and what they're looking for in a candidate. You really want to find a good intersection of it in between so what is in between your experiences and talents and strengths and what the organization does and what they're looking for so what's inside the Venn diagram, one key tip to understand what the organization is looking for or their goals are is reading the job description or doing research on the company and reflecting on your transferable skills, you may or may not have the exact skills they're looking for in the job description however you do have a lot of transferable skills from things that you have gained from your previous experience whether it's your coursework project, volunteer experiences, part time, full time jobs, or even internship transferable skills are skills that you have that you can talk about the are similarly to what the company or employer is looking for in their candidate. This is NACE Career Readiness Competencies NACE is the National Association of College and Employers and they identify eight competencies that employers and colleges look for in their candidates. The first one is Career and Self Development, Communication, Critical Thinking, Equity and Inclusion, Leadership, Professionalism, Teamwork and Technology. Once again these are some skills that you have already gained from your previous experience whether it's your coursework, project experience, previous opportunities that you have completed in the past these are some things that you can reflect on when you're creating your materials for resume and cover letter. Now we're going to talk about the purpose of your resume, your resume is to describe document and quantify your experiences this is going to show examples of your organizational and written skills and demonstrate your established goals this is going to be your first impression to the employer and this can lead to an interview our Career Development Toolkit resume module has a series of information that you can utilize to develop your resume or enhance your resume I screenshot the table content from the resume module it starts from the format and styles and the content of a resume for format and styles it talks about why you need a resume and what's the best approach, how to target your resumes for specific job or industry and spotting keywords in the job description as well as talking about the format and for the Content section it talks more about different sections that you can incorporate into your resume document, sample templates that you can utilize and download as your own based on different job sectors we have a series of templates that you can utilize and download tips on creating a good or strong bullet. There's also an action verb list that you can utilize just to change some of your action verbs for each of your bullets and talks more about what is a CV, if that's something you're interested in. One key tip is to have a master resume, a master resume is a document listed of all of your experiences it can be several pages by having a master resume you are able to copy and paste specific experiences that you have completed into your one page resume when you're making a tailored document for a specific job sector that you're interested in your master resume can be several pages this is not a document that you're submitted to employers you're utilizing those experience from your master resume and copy specific experience into your one page tailored document to employers through your application material resume, what content do I include, as you can see I incorporate a screenshot of a sample resume from the career development tool kit This is just one of the many samples that we have to offer for students or any cornelians you're going to start off with your heading you're going to have your name or your preferred name, your contact information such as your phone number, Professional Email you can incorporate your address but it's not necessary anymore because everything is digitalized and you can email information now you can also incorporate a professional website you're linkedIn or GitHub within your education section you want to incorporate your degree, the dates that you're expected or you earned your degree, study abroad experiences, any transfer credits, GPA, honors awards, and related courses within your related courses you really want to highlight the courses related to the job sector that you're interested in applying for. But then your experiences this is where you're demonstrating work ethics, ability to reach goals, leadership potentials, or other qualities employers seek through paid or unpaid experiences, Key tip you can cluster your experiences and theme headings such as related experience, project experience, leadership experience these are just three samples that listed out as you can see on the sample template that incorporated into slide It has related experiences, additional experience, and activities. this is really depending on what experiences you have and what you want to highlight first. The last thing is Skills, this is a section where you want to highlight your languages, computer programming, statistical programs, no need to highlight any soft skills like communication, teamwork, or public speaking these type of skills are already highlighted or should be highlighted within your bullets under each of your experiences however within your skills section you can also incorporate some of your interests. One tip for your resume when you're making the format or structure you want to make it consistent throughout your document. You want to make this document easy for the reader now we're going to talk about strong effective bullets within your bullet you want to focus on language and content you want to have a clear, strong language and action verbs that matches the job description if you want to change some of the action verb I recommend visiting the Career Development Toolkit resume module we have a section where it focuses on action verbs and there's a list of different verbs by different categories the content you want to focus on quantifying your accomplishment if you can show results and the methods of how you're demonstrating these results. Now we're going to go over some samples of how to develop strong bullets, the first one is Budget management, the new version of Budget management is manage $5,000 yearly operating budget, track all expenses via Excel with this new version I'm able to understand that the candidate is able to manage $5,000 in a yearly basis and utilize Excel to manage this budget this shows a lot of organizational and technical skills within this budget bullet. The next example is Contribute ideas and executive board meetings the new version is collaborate with executive board of five members to initiate six new service events and manage operation for approximately 100 members this new bullet shows the teamwork and collaboration skills that the individual has with five other members. And they're able to initiate six new service events for 100 plus members in the organization when creating effective bullet some things to do to reflect on or some tips to reflect on is how did I do that? how often did I do that? and what impact did I make? Final tips for a great Resume you want to be strategic highlight your strengths while emphasizing fit and your storytelling you really want to do research on the job role that you're applying for and a job description This way you're able to really tailor your document for that position you're applying for. You want to make sure your document is easy to read and avoid common mistakes such as grammar or any layout that you want to fix now we're going to talk about the purpose of a Cover Letter the cover letter is to introduce yourself and why you're applying for the role You want to state your interest and connect it with the employer's mission and goals show your personality, interest and excitement and elaborate on important qualifications and experience based on the job description you want to synthesize key skills and find common themes from past experience our Career Development toolkit Cover Letter module that talks, demonstrates and talks about ways on how to prepare this document with reflection questions as well as templates that you can read to learn more about the structure or have an idea of what to incorporate as well it's templates that you can utilize as your own to create your own cover letter or improve your document. A tip for your cover letter it's so important to do research on the company to demonstrate why you're interested in the employer and also reading and understanding the job role and responsibilities by doing this you're able to really tailor your document to showcase you fit for the role and fit for the company now to start off with your cover letter the first thing you're going to see is the Heading and the Greeting with your Heading you would want to put your name and your contact information You can match the Heading from your resume to have your own personal letterhead After that you're going to have the date, the name of the recipient and the address as well you want to address the reader by their appropriate title if you can find it based on from the job description and if you cannot find it you can put Dear Selection Committee or Dear Hiring Manager in the Career Development toolkit cover letter module it shows more samples of what ways you can address the reader with your cover letter. The first thing you're going to read is the introduction paragraph this is where you want to hook the reader and grab their attention, how about a strong opening sentence? What interests you about this company or industry or why the specific company or why the specific role you want to state the name of the position you're applying for and describe where you found the position only if it's impressive if you found this position from let's say a networking workshop or by recruiter who directly message you or even through a coffee chat conversation with the employer this is a good way to really show how you found the position in the impressive way, you want to connect the position with your skills and experience that's relevant to what they're looking for in a candidate you want to summarize your skills and experience to entice them to keep reading, Why are you interested in them and why they should be interested in you. Next is your middle paragraphs also known as your body paragraphs you want to show them your skills elaborate on two to three most relevant experiences or skills this can be from previous internship classes or project or any previous experience most relevant your middle paragraphs can be one to two paragraphs long and you want to prove your qualifications with specific examples demonstrate the relevancy of your past experience and make connections with the job description elaborate on what you have to offer the company and provide evidence for fit and not what you hope to gain this is a really good section to read the job description carefully to. Next is the closing paragraph and sign up you want to close it off by demonstrating excitement summarize your body paragraphs by focusing on the main skills and experiences that you demonstrated and show and reiterate your interest and passion and excitement for the role or the company you want to invite further contact and thank them for their time and opportunity and close it off with a professional sign up which includes your signature, print name and contact information your cover letter should not be longer than one page long. Some next step is to visit the Career Development Toolkit and scheduling appointment with a career advisor this is the website career.cornell.edu/schedule and then explore different opportunities whether it's internships, projects, programs, extracurricular activities, networking you can connect with Career Services in Barn Hall, we're open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Here you can see our contact information we do have Drop-in services from Monday to Friday from 1:00p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Barnes Hall in-person, this is our Instagram if you want to connect and follow us, now i'm going to open the floor for questions then answer some Q and A's. The first question is, if a person's resume is above four is this supposed to be mentioned on a resume out of 4.3 or should be out of four? This is a good question because listing a Cornell GPA on a resume can be confusing because we have guidance about this on the Career Development Toolkit Resume section, most of the time Cornell students say out of 4.3. Does leadership need to be a separate section can it not be a bullet under a role in relevant experiences? This depends on how much emphasis the job description puts on looking for leadership, leadership skills, or leadership experiences it also depends on how much opportunity you had for informal leadership if you have enough to have a standalone section in general a more specific heading like leadership experience helps a human or computer system read and interpret your resume is necessary to include your GPA on your resume, it's not always necessary to incorporate a GPA but if you're concerned we suggest making an appointment with a Career Advisor and we can talk more about that we actually provide more guidance of what GPA number you should incorporate on our Career Development Toolkit what format is suggested, sorry, what font is suggested? when it comes to font you want to make sure your font is easy to read for the reader or anything that's easy to print you want to stick to something that's easy to read and easy to print the minimum font size is ten. I have a question about applying to internship for next year summer 2025, I got accepted a summer internship for summer 2024 and I was wondering if I should put down incoming summer analysts for my 2025 application since the deadline is before my internship starts if I do put incoming summer analysts down what would I put down for the bullet point? This is a really good question, it really depends on employer too you can connect with them if you're having any coffee chat coming up or you can actually put this in your cover letter or your resume but you really want to emphasize that you're an incoming summer analysts because for these documents you want to be as truthful as possible talk about some projects that you might be doing based on your interview or the job description but you want to emphasize that you have not started the role yet, you are an incoming analyst if you have any more additional questions about this I highly recommend schedule appointment with a Career Advisor and we can talk more about that. I was wondering if you can speak more on the Skill section please that's something I struggle with personally, I built a lot of soft skills but nothing like Microsoft office and etcetera. Yes, within your Skill section you want to avoid putting these soft skills down because these soft skills are going to be already on your bullets putting some skills like technical skills or lab skills if you're participating in lab or even languages is something that you put in the skill section or even some of your interests if you want more guidance you can speak with a Career Advisor or I highly recommend checking the resume module in the Career Development Toolkit and visit the different templates we have templates varies across different sectors so there's many templates that you can visit to see how other people are highlighting specific skills outside of soft skills onto their resume. Is it beneficial to carry physical copies of my resume with me to hand to potential employers, when would it be appropriate to hand it out? It is not required but it can be a nice touch it is also no longer necessary to print a fancy paper like it in the past sometimes if people have something new to share they share an updated resumes sometimes you can be more creative with formatting with a printed one as well we actually have a module on the Career Development Toolkit that talks about how to prepare for fares or networking series you can visit that to go more in depth however if you're attending to an employer session through Handshake I highly recommend updating your handshake profile because employers can see your handshake profile when you enroll or register for that networking event. What questions should I ask during an informal interview that would make a cover letter stronger in which section would that information go? That's a really good question, you can put that information either in your introduction or conclusion paragraph this is a really good way to show the reader that you met with someone who works in the company or you network with someone and you were able to learn more about that industry that really sparked the interest if you want you can always schedule an appointment and we can talk more about that as well. Should I bring copies to conferences and events I attend? As I mentioned earlier it's not quite necessary but you could do that to have a personal touch if you want to really allow the reader or the recipient to know some of your experiences we have more guidance on the in-person event module on the Career Development Toolkit. Should the experiences on a resume be presented in chronological order or based on significance or can it be a combination of both? It really depends on your experiences and the goals of what you want to showcase to the reader I recommend checking the job description to really understand what they're looking for and from that you're able to tailor your resume based on what the employer or the reader is looking for in their candidate in the Career Development too we have a section that showcase how you can format your resume based on a specific job sector position. Is handshake more useful than linked in for employers? Handshake is especially good for students seeking first time jobs and internship, Handshake is also where employers information sessions are listed as well we recommend students to utilize both when they're seeking opportunities but the thing  about handshake all the opportunities that you see at Cornell handshake those employers are specifically uploading it in Cornell Handshake website they're actively trying to build relationship or connect with Cornell students. Thank you for all the questions and participating in today's session if you have any questions feel free to contact me or connect with Cornell Career Services.