Results tagged “internship” from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters Tips Blog

This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:

Anonymous writes:

I have applied several times to a particular company and just discovered, much to my horror, that I had been spelling the city’s name wrong (at least three applications so far). It’s a two-word name and I made it one word. Worse, it’s a company I do business with regularly and that’s one of my “ins” into the company, my “knowledge” of them, and yet I didn’t know such a small thing. How embarrassing, but worse, how damaging to my credibility.

I just applied for THE position I had been waiting for and it was after I mailed that letter that I realized the mistake I had been making. I was hoping so much to finally get an interview with this company and now this. Is there any way to recover from this error? Should I follow-up with an “at least I’m consistent” light-hearted, letter or hope they didn’t notice as it was going to a different department?

The Career Doctor responds:

If the job you are applying for is that of an editor or proofreader, then perhaps it’s a major blunder, but otherwise I think you can just let this error be. In the great scheme of cover letters, it is MUCH more important to get the name of the hiring manager and name of the company spelled correctly — and I am assuming you did that.

Look at DeLand, where I am based. Most of the mailed correspondence I get spells it as Deland, and don’t even get me started about how people pronounce it. Regardless, while I would of course recommend all job-seekers have perfect spelling and grammar in your cover letters, I would not make a big deal of your oversight.

I might be concerned, however, about someone who has applied for three different positions within the company. Are the positions similar? Do you have any sense why you were not interviewed for the previous positions? If you do have a few contacts within the company, I would ask them whether there is any “word” on your reputation from the people within the departments you are applying to.

And speaking of cover letters, wanted to share this comment from a job-seeker who had asked me how to make a bigger impact with his cover letter for an internship — and I told him to deliver it to the manager personally, but when doing so to be prepared for an on-the-spot interview, which is just what happened: “Just writing to thank you again for your advice with my cover letter for an internship and how to deliver it. I found the manager’s name, and went to deliver my letter to her today. She was so impressed with my initiative of actually delivering the letter by hand, that she interviewed me on the spot, and wants to set up a more formal interview in the near future. Thanks so much, your edits and advice about actually hand-delivering the letter were invaluable, and I really appreciate your time.”

Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.

This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:

Anonymous writes:

I have applied several times to a particular company and just discovered, much to my horror, that I had been spelling the city’s name wrong (at least three applications so far). It’s a two-word name and I made it one word. Worse, it’s a company I do business with regularly and that’s one of my “ins” into the company, my “knowledge” of them, and yet I didn’t know such a small thing. How embarrassing, but worse, how damaging to my credibility.

I just applied for THE position I had been waiting for and it was after I mailed that letter that I realized the mistake I had been making. I was hoping so much to finally get an interview with this company and now this. Is there any way to recover from this error? Should I follow-up with an “at least I’m consistent” light-hearted, letter or hope they didn’t notice as it was going to a different department?

The Career Doctor responds:

If the job you are applying for is that of an editor or proofreader, then perhaps it’s a major blunder, but otherwise I think you can just let this error be. In the great scheme of cover letters, it is MUCH more important to get the name of the hiring manager and name of the company spelled correctly — and I am assuming you did that.

Look at DeLand, where I am based. Most of the mailed correspondence I get spells it as Deland, and don’t even get me started about how people pronounce it. Regardless, while I would of course recommend all job-seekers have perfect spelling and grammar in your cover letters, I would not make a big deal of your oversight.

I might be concerned, however, about someone who has applied for three different positions within the company. Are the positions similar? Do you have any sense why you were not interviewed for the previous positions? If you do have a few contacts within the company, I would ask them whether there is any “word” on your reputation from the people within the departments you are applying to.

And speaking of cover letters, wanted to share this comment from a job-seeker who had asked me how to make a bigger impact with his cover letter for an internship — and I told him to deliver it to the manager personally, but when doing so to be prepared for an on-the-spot interview, which is just what happened: “Just writing to thank you again for your advice with my cover letter for an internship and how to deliver it. I found the manager’s name, and went to deliver my letter to her today. She was so impressed with my initiative of actually delivering the letter by hand, that she interviewed me on the spot, and wants to set up a more formal interview in the near future. Thanks so much, your edits and advice about actually hand-delivering the letter were invaluable, and I really appreciate your time.”

Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.

College students, be sure to include class and team projects on your resume. You have probably participated in many projects during your college years that have real-world applications and that have helped you polish your transferable skills. If you have lots of relevant internship and job experience, you may have less need to detail class projects on your resume.

But if your experience is sparse, class projects are a perfectly legitimate way to beef up your resume. In one of our favorite examples of a student resume that makes the most of class projects, the student is quite upfront about the fact that these are class projects; yet she portrays them with the same weight and seriousness as she portrays her internship experience.

You could also consider detailing your class projects on a supplement to your resume.

Read our article, Emphasizing Your Classroom Transferable and Marketable Skills for more ideas on how skills honed in the classroom apply to the real world.

Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.

Among the resume “rules” you may have heard is the one in which resumes should be limited to one page. While it’s true that most entry-level job-seekers should try to limit their resumes to a single page, this length is rarely appropriate for those at senior and executive levels. Top-level job-seekers will find it virtually impossible to capture the breadth of their experience and accomplishments in a single page, and some employers expect longer resumes from those candidates, sometimes up to five pages. In a 2007 survey by Accountemps, a specialized staffing service, only 7 percent of senior executives from human resources, finance and marketing departments favored one-page resumes for executives, while 61 percent favored two pages. Respondents were receptive to three-page resumes for executive roles, with nearly a third (31 percent) citing this as the ideal length.

One-page resumes can be useful for candidates in certain situations, such as networking, in which the job-seeker wants to give potential network contacts a thumbnail glance at his or her career.

A summary of guidelines on resume length:

• One page is usually preferred for college students and new grads, but those with rich campus backgrounds and work/internship experience may need two pages.
• Two-page resumes are suitable for many job-seekers.
• Three or more pages may be required at the senior level.
• Job-seekers should never sacrifice readability (tiny type, narrow margins) just to squeeze a resume into a certain number of pages.
• When a resume spills onto an additional page, it should fill up at least half of that page. If not, try to condense.

See our article, The Scoop on Resume Length: How Many Pages Should Your Resume Be? for a variety of opinions and guidelines on resume length.

Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.

As the saying goes, we get only one chance to make a first impression, explains Elizabeth Freedman in her article for Quint Careers, Cover Letters That Count. In a competitive job market where human resources departments are flooded with applicants, a first impression may be your only opportunity to make an impact. When trying to land a first job or internship, a strong, succinct cover letter is one of the best tools you can use to get noticed. And unlike other first impressions, the cover letter puts the opportunity to succeed largely in your hands.

Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.