Week 4 Thursday

Good Morning,

Just a quick reminder that your final Faux Pas Case documents (individual project) and Research Design Plan (group project) are due on Friday. For the Research Design Plan, have one person on your team submit the final version for grading. In the comments box in the submission window, please include the names of everyone on your team. That will help me speed up the grading somewhat.

We have a very messy week ahead of us next week, with a holiday right in the middle. So, if you want to try to work ahead, feel free to do so. If you have participated in peer review, you may submit Job Project draft documents and/or Reommendation Report documents for the optional instructor review immediately. I'll get comments back to you on a rolling basis as those drafts come in, starting this afternoon/evening.

General tips for the Job Project

Finally, I want to offer some general observations that apply to the Job Project:

Resume

• Keep the resume on 1 page, unless you have extensive work experience relevant to the specific job you’re applying for. 
• Aligning your name in the top left (instead of center) ensures your name gets read first; if you’re aligning elsewhere you should explain your thinking in your PAM (it’s okay to align wherever, you just need a reason.) 
• ALL CAPS make subheadings harder to read; if you’re using them you should explain why in your PAM. 

• Try to keep your objective to 2 lines; focus on what you can do for them, not what they can do for you.
  

• The objective statement should function like the “thesis statement” (think back to freshman composition) for your resume. It should highlight your 2-3 highest qualifications (your best skills that match up with the most important things the ad says they’re looking for.)
  

• All body text should be indented considerably to avoid violating the “column test” and make it easier for readers to scan your document.
  

• Use parallel grammatical structure for your bulleted lists of skills, and start every bullet item with a strong action verb. But don’t overdo your use of bullets. Use them strategically to highlight the most important information. 

Cover letter

• Include any info that identifies the job – date you saw it, job listing #, etc. Saying only that you saw the job “on your website” without an accompanying date or other identifying information is sure to lower your grade.
• The last sentence (or thereabouts) in your opening paragraph functions like the “thesis statement” for your cover letter; it should highlight your 2—3 best qualities, and you should have body paragraphs that then develop those main ideas. 
• It’s not enough to make a claim that you possess “x” quality; you need to show (with a carefully chosen example) how you acquired that quality or how you have used that quality. Anyone can say they have certain skills or attributes, but if you offer a specific examples, your letter will be much more effective. 
• The most important thing in the cover letter are the examples that SHOW you have a particular skill or attribute. Be selective in your choice of example and be sure to be descriptive so that the reader can see how you have used this attribute in the past. 
• Surface errors, proofreading errors, mangled syntax, and awkward sentence structures have a significant, negative impact on your grade on this assignment (and on your chances of surviving the screening process during a real job search); if you know you have problems with sentence structure try to go to the Writing Lab or get proofreading help from friends who are stronger writers. 

JAM and PAM

These are analytical documents. I’m more interested in WHY you made your choices. Don’t just tell me what you did. 

• Discuss why your choices are the best choices for this particular situation. 
• Make explicit connections between your choices and the job. 
• Make explicit connections between your attributes and the job requirements. 
• Finally, if you use the 407A Memo Template, remove the footer so that it doesn’t show up on all of the documents.

One more week, folks. Keep up the good work. Keep working hard.
If you have any questions/concerns, please let me know.

Dr. Staggers