If you’re a recent postgraduate, you will have noticed a drastic change in Apple Computers, Inc. over the years. When I was in grade school, I used the blocky computers in my computer class. It was on an Apple computer that I learned to type, play Number Munchers and Oregon Trail, and learn introductory elements of layout and design. I always had fun creating these crazy keyboard macros that would make it so when an unsuspecting user hit a random key, he or she would think that their project crashed when in reality, I had the decency to save it for them on the desktop. I know. I was a rebel without a cause.

Anyways, the chunky and geeky computer of yesteryear has made way to sleeker, sexier models that culminated yesterday in the unveiling of Apple’s newest product: the unfortunately-named Apple iPad. Apart from sounding like Apple’s newest venture into feminine product design, the iPad (a multi-touch slate or pad computer) has actually garnered a lot of hype over the last year or so. In fact, rumor-mongering Apple products is such a hype machine that bloggers can make a living off of breaking down materials submitted by Apple Computer, Inc. to the patent office. So how do they do it and how can we benefit from it?

1. Have a proven track record. The reason Apple is Apple is because of its proven track record. When I first started buying Apple computers, they were for the “creatives that wanted a machine that wouldn’t crash on them”, which is still true. If you’re looking to play games, you probably still want to stay away from Apple computers. Apple has built its brand around the idea that its not prone to crashes or viruses, and its emphasis on good, durable and performance-oriented design. Since then, Apple has revolutionized the mp3 player with the iPod, the laptop with the Macbook and Macbook Pro and the mobile phone with the iPhone. With such culturally relevant products to its name, it’s only natural to look forward to what Apple has to offer in the future.

So what does this mean for you? If you want to hype yourself up (and believe me, you really do) so you can get hired at your next job attempt, you need to start from the ground up. Revisit your resume and cover-letters. Read them over and ask yourself why you included certain elements. You’re marketing yourself as an asset to a particular company. Does your entire resume help you? Does all of the experience you have on your resume help build up your image as the perfect person for this position? Are all of the skills you have listed even relevant? Is the layout of your resume appealing to the eye? You can always make yourself look better. You can always re-word your resume or rework design elements. Learn to build on your previous success to forge a path for your future.

2. Mum’s the word. Apple is notorious for its ability to stay mum on their future products. If anything gets leaked, somebody loses their job. Up until the day before the announcement, the consumer wasn’t sure if it was gonna be called the iPad, the iSlate or the iTablet. There’s a biblical proverb that says, “Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue.” In the tech world, the less you know about a product, the more innovative it probably is.

Imagine if Apple had announced before the unveiling, “We’re going to be developing a product called the iPad. It’s a tablet computer with no ports or updated OS. It’s essentially a giant iPhone with no cellular service and will greatly disappoint the masses.” The truth just doesn’t sound as great. Steve Jobs saying that the newest product is the most exciting product he’s ever worked on and will revolutionize tech as we know it does.

Now check out your cover-letter. This is where you connect the dots on your resume and concoct the argument as to why you are the perfect candidate for so-and-so position. Stay mum on the reality of how you are really feeling. You might not feel that qualified but the key is to present yourself in confidence. Take a hint from Steve Jobs and make grand statements like, “I am willing to take on the challenge of this position”, or “I would be invaluable to your team” or even “I would be a good fit for your company”. Now, you really don’t know if you would do or be any of those things, but if you spin your resume right, the hiring manager may very well believe you and get you that interview you so desperately need.

As I am taking up a blue-collar filler job over the next couple of days that leaves me too physically exhausted to think, let alone string together cohesive sentences, coupled with the fact that I am experiencing the tail end of some sort of sickness I caught over Thanksgiving break, I’ll just post a quick tip with an amusing video.

1. Don’t lie on your resume. Don’t stretch the truth beyond your capabilities. Your resume represents a snapshot of your career stats and if you get hired based on your illegitimate body of work, you’ll quickly be outed when you can’t perform the job up to par.

Don’t be like this guy. Certified fork lift license, my butt.

This is part six of the series “determining your career path“. If you are interested in other articles, just follow the link and look through our database of relevant career material. In particular, we provide an extensive resume building guide.

Nowadays, it’s expected that anyone applying for any job position write a well written cover letter. A cover letter ultimately serves as your “pitch”. Why should the employer read your resume? What skills/qualities/experience do you bring that will benefit the company you are applying for? What job are you applying for? These are some of the questions that your cover letter should answer.

Once again, I have a sample cover letter here.

Cover Letter Format

I will first briefly summarize what needs to be in a cover letter, and then discuss these items in further detail. If you cannot concentrate for too long, just read the opening section of this post and that should give you some basic information on what is needed in a cover letter. For those who need a bit more help, the latter portion of this article should help in that regard.

With that being said, most cover letters contain these following elements:

1. Your contact information. What is your name, address, telephone and email. In our sample resume, we see that our applicant is “Jasmine”.
2. The recipients information. Who are you writing to? Who is the person that is in charge of “recruiting” at the company you are applying to? Write their name, title, organization, and the address where the organization is located. On our sample resume, we notice that the person in charge of hiring is “Mr. Billy Bob”.
3. Opening paragraph. The opening paragraph should explain why you are writing this cover letter. What position are you applying for? How did you hear about this organization/position? What is some basic information you want the reader to know about yourself that you’re going to elaborate in more specific detail in subsequent paragraphs?
4. Advertisement paragraph. This is basically where your “pitch” comes. You should demonstrate here why you would be a valuable commodity to the company that you are applying to. What experiences/skills can the reader of your cover letter identify as “necessary” for their company? Why should they hire you for this particular job? Why are you applying for this job to begin with? A good “advertisement” paragraph gives the reader an idea as to why you would be qualified to fulfill the role that you are applying to. This does not need to be only one paragraph, it can be two (as is the case with Jasmine). Just make sure that you stay as specific as you possibly can.
5. The contact paragraph. In the final paragraph, let the reader know that you will “contact” them in a week or two in order to “answer further questions” they may have in regards to your employment status/qualifications. Furthermore, encourage them to contact you by adding a tag like Jasmine did, “in the meantime here is my contact information…” This demonstrates a proactive personality, and when carried out (make sure you actually contact them when you say you will!) can be very impressive to the employer.
6. End the letter with “sincerely”. This is the safe ending tag.

That is a basic rundown of what each section requires. Here is more information/detail on the specific paragraphs that need to be written.

Cover Letter Opening Paragraph

Your cover letter’s opening paragraph needs to be concise, to the point, and well written. If we look a bit closer at the cover letter that Jasmine has completed, we can get an idea of what and how we need to accomplish this goal.

1. Jasmine clearly stated, right from the beginning, what position that she was seeking. There is no doubt/confusion as to why she is sending this resume/cover letter. “I am seeking a summer internship at…”
2. Jasmine clearly stated where she heard about this internship opportunity from. “One your employees Mina Park recommended this position to me.” Referring to a specific person that referred you can be advantageous for a couple reasons. First of all, there is a chance that the person who may hire you knows Mina Park. Second, the person who is looking to possibly hire you may choose to contact Mina Park and ask her about you, which should definitely help your chance of getting hired. Finally, it establishes a connection to the company that is personal. If you do not have a specific person reference, just communicate to the reader how you found out about the job. “From your company’s website, I found out about the sales representative position…”
3. Jasmine gives a brief academic background, and then gets to her point: “I believe the qualities that makes me a strong candidate for this position are both my educational background and my international experience…” You need a basic “thesis” statement like this. You need a one sentence quick explanation of why you qualify for this job. You don’t have to phrase it exactly like it is written in Jasmine’s resume, but the idea should be the same.

Advertisement Paragraph

After writing a short and concise opening paragraph, you need to address the “meat” of your application. This is basically the “body paragraphs” explaining in fuller detail the “thesis” you highlighted in your opening paragraph. For instance, in Jasmine’s case, she stated that the “qualities” that make her a good candidate for the job position are her educational background and international experience. In the paragraphs that follow, Jasmine will spend some time strengthening that position.

The basic structure of each “advertisement” paragraph should be: topic sentence (what are you going to highlight), what did you do/learn (what experience have you had), the skills you gained, and why these skills will help the organization you are applying to.

You need to be as specific as possible. Don’t be broad in this section by making statements such as “I am good at analyzing reports”. For instance, Jasmine states clearly that she “[can] see the big picture, especially in projecting economic outlooks, but at the same time [can] effectively micro analyze quarterly and annual reports”. This is a very detailed and specific assertion of what skills she gained while working at Citibank Korea.

The key component of this section is showing worth. You need to show the person who is considering the “hiring” why you stand out amongst the pool of applicants. What makes you so special? What makes you qualified? Sell yourself; do it effectively.

The contact paragraph essentially speaks for itself. If you have completed this overview on the cover letter, you should have an excellent cover letter ready for submission. You need to write a new cover letter for each position you are applying to, but can use the same basic “content” and “idea”. You only really need to change the person who is receiving the letter, and what position you are applying for. Good luck on your job hunt!

FML is a popular blog that posts up terse, often grammatically-challenged, user-submitted posts about real life events that might cause you to think “F&*% MY LIFE”.  Reading the blog is not the most productive way to spend your time but there is somewhat of a sick enjoyment to be had in chuckling at the expense of others.  Most of the funniest posts are so ridiculous that they might as well be completely made up, which very well may be the case.

I’ve come across a couple posts that deal with irrecoverable resume gaffes that we can all learn a little something-something from..

1. Be thorough.

Today, I realized I had misspelled “Education” on all the resumes I’ve been submitting. FML.

Today, I decided to modify my resume since I’ve handed out over 30 of them in the past couple of weeks and I haven’t gotten any calls back. As soon as I opened it on word document, I noticed that I had forgotten to include my phone number for employers to contact me. FML.

It’s easy to let your mind run faster than your fingertips when you’re on a (writing) roll.  Take it from me.  Most of the time, if I don’t jot down my ideas, I’ll lose the idea altogether. Because of that, I usually end up having to fill or change ten to twenty different words throughout my blog posts!  Even after thorough editing, I sometimes still miss something here or there because of my familiarity with the piece I am writing, so to catch the finer details, I give it to Sam to look over.  Make sure you have at least ONE more pair of eyes look over your resume before you choose to distribute it because you never know when you might make simple spelling mistakes or forget to put your contact information (duh!).  Your resume is essentially your written ‘best foot forward’ so it should be your most well-polished, well thought out and thoroughly-edited piece of writing ever!

2. Take care in your distribution.

Today, I had my first job interview in years. While I was waiting for the manager to come out I realized I had forgotten the resume that I had printed out the night before, since he specifically asked me to bring one. FML.

Today, I checked my email for the hundredth time, hoping to hear back from a potential employer about a job I really want. No response. Why? My email with resume attached has been sitting in my Outbox for the past week. I never actually sent it out in the first place. FML.

This seems like a gimme but you really can’t underestimate what anxiety and nerves can do to a human being.  Tossing and turning all night long before a key interview doesn’t really make for the most stable of emotional states and the sharpest of minds.  When you’re constantly running through mental checklists and mock questions before an interview (or before sending out your resume), you need to make sure you see it through till the end.  You might have your tie knotted just right, hair combed perfectly, nothing stuck between your teeth, a handle on your otherwise foul breath and maybe even the strongest resume known to man, but if you make an egregious error like forgetting your resume on your desk at home, nothing you do or say can make up for that botched first impression.

3. Doublecheck everything!

Today, I sent out my resume to about a dozen jobs on craigslist. I realized that I hadn’t updated it in a while and went to double check it after the fact. My ex at some point had changed my objective to “I’m a cocksucker who needs a job real bad.” FML.

Today, I handed out 30 resumes only to find out, after the last resume was handed out, my brother had changed the last sentence of every paragraph to ‘I am a massive douche bag.’ FML.

So you’ve finally put in the time to get your resume in order.  You’ve carefully selected every single word on that life-encompassing piece of parchment.  All of your accomplishments and assets have been skillfully wrought on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of figurative hammered gold and you almost salivate thinking of all of the hiring managers that you will leave slackjawed, out of breath and wanting more.  Basically, you’ve let Sam and I look over your resume for you.  So you completely trust the contents of that document, right?  Wrong.  You never know what an external party could have done to your personal files.  Whether it be an immature brother, a bitter ex-love interest or even just a nosy friend, a document labeled “resume” always seems to bring out the snooper in most people.  You can never be too sure!  Doublecheck everything before you hand it out or you might regret it!

Stop putting off your resume!!!!  This post is for those who need to build a resume and have been procrastinating like mad, or for those of you who already have a resume but want to strengthen it.  If you are not someone who needs either of these things, then I highly doubt you want to read through this post, because it is super long and by the end of it, you will hate me.  However, in the future, when you have to build a resume or prepare a new one for other jobs you are applying to, come back and take a look at this post.  Then I’m pretty sure you will love me for how detailed I get about this subject.  Especially if you are a resume noob, and have no idea where to start.  Then you will probably want to marry me.

For those of you that suffer from chronic ADHD symptoms and can’t make it through this post no matter how hard you try, I have prepared a much shorter (ADHD friendly) consolidated bullet point list here.  It’s not nearly as detailed, but if you get too easily distracted, then the bullet point list might be better for you.  However, if you want someone to really help you through each and every issue, look through this post entirely, and by the end you’ll have a solid resume that you can put in a picture frame and appreciate for the rest of your life.  Kind of like your diploma.

If you suffer from partial ADHD, then my recommendation to you is that you don’t have to do this all in one sitting.  Bookmark this page, and come back to this post later if you need to take a break.  However, don’t put this off too long, or else you’re going to just get lazier, and lazier, and lazier…you know what I mean.  The best way for you to find a job is to get cracking, sit down, and do the necessary work for you to make it happen.

Remember, you have to do a good job selling yourself in any resume. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how sexy you are, because companies will not even accept your resume (most of the times) if you add a picture.  They are, by law, unable to consider your picture when determining whether or not you qualify for a job.  As such, you need to make sure that you come off as the most amazing and confident person ever, without them ever really seeing you.  How you write it then, is obviously going to be super important.

The type of resume that I will be focusing on is the typical chronological resume.  This type of resume basically focuses on listing your different job experiences in chronological order, and what type of roles and responsibilities you had while working at the specified location.

First things first, choose a template:  Template 1 | Template 2

Here is an example of a “finished” resume.  Open it up and take a look at it as well to use as a reference point.

Both template 1 and template 2 are valid choices.  However, the first template has a little added “edge” to it.  The second template is much more traditional and “safe”.  Decide for yourself if you want to be more traditional or not.

If neither of the templates are agreeable to you, then Microsoft Word provides a lot of template options already built in.  If you’ve looked through those and you are still unhappy, you can just build your own.  Just follow the basic principle of the resume, and design it however you want.  Don’t get too crazy with the design, however.  You can spice it up a little, but don’t forget, you’re selling yourself, and not the resume. As such, it’s often better to keep the look of your resume simple and sweet (just don’t put a hello kitty sticker on it and expect to get hired), and let your experience, skills, and words do the talking.

Name, Address, Email, and Phone Number for Resume

If you look at either template, both of them have marked in brackets where you’re supposed to write your name, address, email address, and phone number.  Take the time to do that now, and make sure that you get rid of the brackets.  It would look way too tacky if you kept the brackets in.

Anyways, this section of your resume should be pretty straightforward. The only real suggestion I have to make here is that if you have some weird email address like darkstarlegion@hotmail.com, deathbringer@yahoo.com, or iluvbobaandgirls@highschoolemail.com, I strongly recommend you go open a new email account immediately for professional purposes.  You are not applying to a World of Warcraft guild.  You are applying for a professional job, and so therefore you need a professional email. Typically speaking, having some form of your name in your email, such as samuelkim@gmail.com is the most ideal.  I realize, however, that nowadays that’s very difficult to do unless you have a really cool and unique name.  Find something that works for you, but is professional at the same time.  Then go to a trusted email site like www.gmail.com and make an account that your mother would be proud of (if you don’t already have one).

Is the Career Objective for Resume Important?

I’m sure some of you guys are wondering why I didn’t add a “career objective” section on the resume.  My opinion on the career objective is that it has more potential to harm you than benefit you.  Most people have a very difficult time writing an effective and meaningful career objective, and as such, I generally recommend skipping this part of the resume.  If you wanna “stand out”, write an excellent cover letter instead.  I write about the cover letter here.

If, however, you feel like you need/want a career objective, then by all means include it into your resume.  Just make sure that it is specific, meaningful, and really gives your potential future employer a good description of what you can contribute to the company.  Remember, this section is not about you, it’s about what you can do for your employer.  If people request more information on this section, I’ll provide a separate post covering this in detail.  Do this at your own risk.  Because if it sucks, then don’t be surprised when no one gives you a call back.  In particular, if you write something like, “my career objective is to make lots of money!”, I think you better start looking for other jobs to apply to.

List Your Education Background on Your Resume

On the education bit, list the highest education you have completed or are currently in the process of completing.  For example, if you are a current College Student, list what University you are going to, and don’t bother to list your High School.  For graduates, transfers, or those attending graduate school, list every single college you have attended and are currently attending.  Make sure this is done chronologically.  Once again, if you are not sure what I mean, open the sample finished resume and take a look.

Make sure you put the year you finished school (or write Present if you are still attending) and list the BA, BS, MA, etc. that you received upon completion. If your job requires GPA information (find out for yourself if they do or not), then provide that information and any honors you received while attending school.  For instance, if you graduated with magna cum laude or summa cum laude honors, you should obviously list that because it will help your cause tremendously.

List Professional Experience On Your Resume

This section of your resume is the most important section by a long shot.  If you can do this section well, then you will have a solid resume to give to your potential suitors.  Therefore, make sure you take your time to make it as polished as you possibly can.

Let’s start with the basics.  First of all, follow the bracket guidelines and enter your company name, year you started, and year you completed.  Just like with education, “present” is still an option if you are currently employed.  Then list your position and the city you were employed.

You should list your jobs in reverse-chronological order, with the most recent job you did (or are still doing) on top.  This list of jobs should only include jobs that are relevant to the position that you are seeking.  For instance, if you are applying for a marketing position, don’t list In-N-Out Hamburger Specialist as one of your job listings.  Furthermore, the oldest job you should list is 10 years back, unless you did a job more than 10 years ago that really captures the essence of what your new job will entail.  For instance, if you are applying to a position that requires administration skills, and more than 10 years ago you used to work as the head administrator of some company/office, then that is information you probably want to provide here.

As a rule of thumb, you generally do not want to extend your resume beyond a single page.  Sometimes, if you have a lot of relevant work experience that you believe is imperative for you to list, you can go two pages.  Don’t go beyond two pages, and even if you do two pages make sure that it’s very purposeful.  Your potential future employer has to work a little harder if you provide two pages, so they will be upset if you provided a lot of useless information that could have been omitted in favor of a one page resume.

Typically, four to five relevant jobs should easily cover the span of a page, and should be enough to sell yourself and your experience.  If you are not sure what position you had (IE: there was no specific position name for the job you had), then make something up that captures the essence of what you did.  Make your job sound as amazing as you possibly can without lying.  For instance, if you worked at a tutoring center doing random office work, you may choose to word it as “Administrative Specialist” instead of “Office Worker”.

List Job Responsibilities on Your Resume

Once you have a list of your jobs complete (remember, relevant jobs!), you want to begin listing the responsibilities you had while working at these various jobs.  Once again, you want to make this as relevant as possible.  If you are applying to a marketing position, think about all the qualities you would need to possess to be an effective marketer.  You would obviously need to have great communication skills, you would need to be able to think strategically and analytically, and you would need to be competent with technical equipment.  The roles and responsibilities you list needs to reflect this reality, and show your potential employer how you can provide them with the analytical, communication, and strategic experience/knowledge that they need.

Therefore, you need to use strong descriptive words to help your cause.  Let’s evaluate the completed resume’s job descriptions/roles and responsibilities.  To give you some context, Jane Doe is applying for a part time accounting position.  This is my friend’s resume that I helped construct with her.  Let’s analyze some elements of her job responsibilities.

“Mentee and assistant to lead manager of PwC, experience in auditing and accounting, extensive experience with Excel and Word, attended trainings on teamwork, internship development and management essentials.”

A few things to notice here are how she opened up her job responsibilities with “mentee and assistant”.  Most people would probably have stated “assistant to lead manager”.  However, adding in that “mentee” bit is very helpful because it gives the reader the impression that Jane Doe received a lot of hands on personal training from the “lead manager of PwC”.  Carefully phrased wording like this can really help sell your usefulness to the company.

Then Jane Doe begins to specifically list her experience at PwC so that she can show her potential employers why she is qualified to take on that accounting job.  Notice how she lists here “extensive experience” in Excel and Word.  The reason why Jane Doe chose to highlight those two specific qualities is because any accounting job will require a high competency in Excel and Word.  Therefore, she wanted to make sure that her point got across.  This is a very important selling point because many employers don’t have time to teach you all the basics of how to run their software, especially if you’re applying for a position that isn’t an internship.

Furthermore, adjectives such as “extensive” can be very helpful, especially when they’re true.  You do not want to add that tag if you really don’t have extensive experience, because then when you get the job (if you get the job) your inexperience will show, and it could end up really hurting you.  But if you do have extensive experience, then you should definitely add it (or an adjective like it) to help sell your cause.

Finally, Jane Doe lists elements she received training in, and made sure to specify that she learned about “teamwork, internship development, and management essentials”.  Basically, through that short and simple list, Jane Doe has communicated to the employer that she’s 1. Competent at working with other people (a quality that is important for ANY job), 2. Understands how to train other employees, and 3. Has a basic understanding of management skills.

If I went through each item on her list, I could point out reasons why her wording is powerful and really helps to sell her strengths, but that would make this post longer than it already is.  You should get the idea.  You need to use wording and phrasing that really helps to sell yourself to whatever job you’re applying for.

One final point I want to make is that Jane Doe chose to add her experience as the head coach of a volleyball team.  This may seem pointless, but when you think about it, the fact that she has “developed curriculum” and “worked individually with students” to help them succeed, and gained “tons of leadership and teamwork experience” are all relevant to almost any work environment.  Jane Doe has just effectively communicated that she’s good at working with people (both corporately and individually), is a leader, teacher, and is respected enough to be a head coach.  Think about what makes you such a valuable commodity to the company(ies) you are applying to, and sell yourself in that way.

Lists Skills and Interests on Your Resume

This is where you list any technical skills that you have that can benefit your company.  For instance, in Jane Doe’s resume, you can see that she lists “above average with Microsoft Excel and Word”.  Although this aspect was covered beforehand, she listed it again here for repetition (to emphasize to the potential employer that she really knows her stuff), and because this section is where you’re supposed to list that stuff.  Be honest here, but at the same time, try to make yourself sound as good as you possibly can.  For example, to say “average” is probably not a great thing to say.  Average has somewhat of a negative connotation to it.  You may choose to phrase it as “working and competent knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel” instead.

Listing your type speed is also very important for your employer to know, but only if you are applying to a job that’s going to require a computer.  There are plenty of ways to find out your type speed, just google it and find out that way.

Another thing you can list here are any languages that you know how to speak, and how good you are at it.  For instance, if you are Asian (or some other ethnic orientation that may not speak English well), letting your employer know that you are “extremely fluent in English” can actually help them know not to be concerned with any potential communication issues.  Furthermore, being “conversational” or fluent in another language can help you get a job because, in most cases, knowing more than one language can be useful in some way.

Finally, your interest section is simply a place where you can connect with people on a level that exists beyond “technical” stuff.  Not only are you a worker, you are a person.  No one wants to work with someone who’s socially awkward or a robot.  People are attracted to people, and especially in a work environment where you have to see each other on a continual basis, being able to connect is very important.  List some things that you love to do.  Jane Doe listed “basketball, volleyball, piano, guitar, and traveling”.  If the person who’s looking at your resume enjoys the same things, that person may immediately develop positive feelings about your resume, and that can definitely help you get the job.

Email Resume to Friends After You Are Finished

After you are done with your resume, send it out to any friends you trust (English Majors would be nice) so that they can look over your resume and correct any grammar/word usage errors.  You are finished!  Congratulations!  If you did everything, you should have a solid resume to send out to all your potential employers!