Introduction^[1]

Looking for and landing the perfect job may seem like a daunting task. If you are uncertain where to start, know that most successful job applicants feel the same uncertainty at some point. This chapter will walk you through the process of applying for jobs from start to finish. Perhaps most importantly, it will provide you with two distinct tools that can help you to construct the materials for a strong, effective, and successful job application: 1) the résumé and 2) the cover letter. Finally, the chapter concludes with advice on the interviewing process.

The Job-Seeking Process

Job seeking is a process that involves multiple steps in order to obtain the desired position. Besides the résumé and the job letter, job descriptions, interview questions, writing samples, hiring materials, and the thank-you note sent post-interview are other materials you might find yourself reading and writing as your hiring process moves forward. If the big-picture job seeking process were visualized through a flow chart, it might look something like Figure 5.1:

Most job candidates begin with research to gain a clear picture of their target (see Step #1 above), or ideal job, along with the company where they would like to be employed. From there, they may think in terms of creating a compelling marketing campaign (Step #2) through a unified job packet. Research (Step #3), of course, will occur throughout this process, all the way up until the interview (Step #4) and through the final stages of negotiating and closing the offer (Step #5).

While this graphic helps to visualize both the big picture and some of the individual steps involved, it is only one of many variations of the job application process. This chapter will provide a framework for you to construct your own process.

As you research and pursue job choices, keep in mind that the job search process requires a high degree of self-awareness—not only of strengths, but also of weaknesses. In general, most people find it easier to identify and discuss their strengths. However, knowing your weaknesses is just as important to your job search as knowing your strengths. Here are a few reasons to be able to speak fluidly and confidently about weaknesses:

• Employers want to hire individuals who are self-aware, which requires an awareness of both strengths and weaknesses. Being self-aware is the only way to improve.
• During an interview, a prospective employer may ask about strengths and weaknesses. Employers know it takes a certain level of maturity to talk about your weaknesses. They want to ensure you have achieved that level of maturity before extending an offer.

Remember that everyone has strengths and everyone has weaknesses, including every CEO, every company president, every manager, and every one of your coworkers. You will be in good company when considering and discussing your weaknesses. The trick, if there is a trick, lies in your plan to strengthen them. Having a plan to strengthen a weakness is impressive, especially if you have already taken steps to do so.

Finding Job Openings

Investing the preparation time to write your employment materials, including researching available positions, can save you many headaches in the job process. Finding a suitable opening itself can be time-consuming; if you are serious about finding employment, you have to dedicate the time and energy to make your materials competitive.  Here are some resources to get you started:

• Job boards: Browse sites like Indeed, CareerBuilder, Glassdoor and Monster to search for jobs in your field.
• Specialty job lists: Look for lists of jobs in specific industries such as food service (Poached), nonprofits (Idealist), or media (MediaBistro).
• Company, organization and government web sites: Visit the employment section on websites of companies you admire; search federal, state, county, and city websites for government job postings.
• Your own network: Talk to friends, past employers, and professors, or visit LinkedIn to search for openings at companies in your network. If you are a member of any social media groups that are career-oriented, check for mention of available jobs there.
• Your college: Visit your college or university placement office/career center and attend job fairs. Here at UArk, you can also check Handshake for openings.
• Craigslist: Many job seekers also use Craigslist to look for work; just be aware that Craigslist postings often lack detail and may come from headhunters or placement agencies, rather than from the direct employer. Scams have also been reported on Craigslist job boards, so verify the legitimacy of any posting before providing personal details.

Once you have found a job, be sure to print and/or save a copy of the job posting or job description. You will use this document to help you tailor your application materials. Companies often delete the job posting once they have received sufficient applicants, so it is important that you save your own copy of the document, along with the date and location you found it (this information is often referenced in the job letter); you might also copy and paste the text into a new document, or bookmark the webpage.

Constructing Modular Materials

It probably sounds like a lot of work to create a new set of employment materials for every job opening you will identify. While it is true that it takes time and effort to customize application materials for each new job application, you do not have to create a new résumé and cover letter for every job opening. Instead, you can create modular materials with moving parts that can be adapted and reorganized for each job.

For example, if you are a nursing student wanting to work in a different (or indirectly related) field during school, you might consider applying to be an administrative assistant, a medical translator, or a biology tutor. Several different résumé formats are available to you. However, you may choose the skills-based résumé format to place more emphasis on a specific set of current qualifications and slightly less emphasis on your education or work experience; you might create three different templates of your résumé that emphasize and expand upon different skill categories: administrative, communication, and educational.

The same holds true with the cover letter. Once you have a letter draft, you can work with it as a template for numerous other jobs, keeping the overall format but revising some key sentences. It is quite likely that the final paragraph of your cover letters will change very little if you are applying to multiple jobs within the same career field or industry. The central paragraphs, on the other hand, may undergo substantial revision, depending on how different one potential job is from another. Just make sure to change the name of the potential employer and company for each application; addressing a potential employer by the wrong name is the surest way to remove your materials from consideration.

Crafting Résumés

The purpose of a résumé is twofold: first, to serve as an overview or quick summary of your skills, experience, and education as they relate to your career objective; secondly, to function as a marketing tool that conveys your personal brand. All of us want our résumés to stand out from the stack. The best way to create an eye-catching résumé is not through gimmicks or flash, but rather through substance and customization. As a marketing document that sells your candidacy, your résumé should have a format that is pleasing to read, efficient in its use of the English language, and very concise. Once you have several years of experience, it is acceptable to have a two-page résumé, although résumés may range from one to three pages. You should aim for a full page as a new job-seeker, while you build experience and generate content.

Regardless of your starting point—whether you are unsure you can fill a two-page résumé, or whether you think it will be difficult to fill a single page—this chapter will help you accomplish your goal: designing an exceptional résumé. Remember, as the most critical component of a marketing campaign in which you advertise your professional self, your résumé must be clear, concise, and error free. Most seasoned recruiters scan a résumé in about seven to twenty seconds; because they have many documents to review, they look for reasons to reduce the number of résumés that demand a second look. This means that a single error can be all that is needed to discard your résumé and your candidacy. However, recruiters also have an eye for key details, so they will quickly recognize a well-constructed résumé and discard one that is poorly designed.

While writing your résumé, it is important that you keep in mind not only its purpose, but also its general goals, which include the following:

• To make an exceptional first impression. Your résumé will likely be the first impression a potential employer has of you and your qualifications, so it must hold attention long enough to propel your job search forward.
• To quantify strengths, responsibilities, abilities, and accomplishments. Mentioning factual, numerical examples of praiseworthy attributes and skills will allow you to boast without sounding boastful. For example:
  • If you reduced errors by 35% and increased profits by 55%.
  • If you have been a student teacher with 35 students and student grades improved by 25%.
  • If you are part of a marketing team that has increased new patient accounts by 10% last year.
  • If you worked in the school library and the number of lost books has declined by 50%.
• To argue, in an articulate and polite way, that you are well suited for the job. Based on the content of the job ad, you will want to address how your education and/or work experiences (including internships and volunteer work) have taught you both technical and “soft” skills that will help you perform the listed job duties.
• To represent you when you are not there. Your résumé can be uploaded to online global job boards like Monster and CareerBuilder. It can be sent to a company’s online database with a push of a button, where it will be shared with dozens of recruiters and hiring managers.
• To obtain an interview and create talking points. Listing your accomplishments and quantifying them can create talking points for future interviews. For example, perhaps you bullet point the following: Responsible for intake and outtake of approximately 1,000 books daily, resulting in 80% fewer lost books this year. During an interview, with this example in mind, you can easily talk about using technology to improve processes. You can discuss the team environment of the library staff and how you worked toward decreasing the number of lost books.
• To show your command of the written word. You do not have to be an English major to make sure that your résumé is well-written. Your professors, teachers, peers, and family members may be willing to help by answering questions based on their expertise, or even reviewing a résumé draft.

Overall, highlighting specific results in each résumé category will increase your chances of getting your résumé noticed. Unlike financial investments, past performance is an indicator of future success: include details about your past performance and quantify your accomplishments whenever possible, and future employers will be inclined to believe you can do the same for them. What exactly do you do, or what have you done in the past? Your résumé should answer this question very quickly. The more you quantify your accomplishments using specific details, the more your abilities will be understood.

For example, stating that you “worked in sales” on your résumé does not provide specific proof of your skills, and therefore is not likely to be as impressive as a statement that quantifies your experiences and provides unique details. Stronger examples of résumé statements might include: “completed an average of 65 customer transactions per hour, setting a company record for the 2019 fiscal year” or “managed national and international supplier accounts with purchase ranges from $1,000 to $10,000,000 USD.”

Types of Résumés

Just as work histories come in a variety of forms, so also do résumés. Although career experts debate which style is the best, you must decide which fits your current situation. There are many reasons to choose one format over another.

The chronological résumé is the most common format. The focal point is the Employment Experience, so this format is best for candidates with a long/uninterrupted work history, in fields where the company worked for is of paramount importance. It is also well suited for those applicants who want to highlight their education, as many jobs will ask for a degree (e.g. BA, JD, MBA, MA, MD, PhD, etc.) in a certain field as a minimum requirement. This format lists information in reverse chronological order (starting with the most recent positions/schools and working backward), and achievements and skills are detailed underneath each position.

In contrast, the skills-based résumé serves candidates who are transitioning between fields, who are shifting from a military to a civilian career, or who have gained skills in a variety of different settings (workplace, academic, volunteer). The focal point is a well-developed Skills & Achievements section, in which skills are organized into categories. The functional résumé still includes an Employment Experience section and likely an Education section, but these sections are streamlined to include only the basic information about each position held or each school attended. The functional résumé describes responsibilities, accomplishments, and quantifiable achievements under categories in the skills section. It typically opens with a brief summary/profile detailing strengths (one to three sentences).

It is worth noting that, especially in the case of advanced positions, many recruiters expect to see a chronological résumé with traditional sections like Employment and Education. In most cases, it is best to give recruiters the résumé they expect. However, both the college student and the more experienced candidate may choose a functional résumé for these reasons:

• To highlight skills and achievements rather than past employment/companies.
• To minimize a less-than-extensive work experience history.
• To emphasize other achievements, honors, and abilities.
• To de-emphasize gaps in employment or career mobility.
• To include categories like communication, teamwork, and leadership skills, as well as volunteer experience or athletic achievements.
  

Following, you will find a brief student example of each style.

Sample Chronological Résumé

In this first example (Figure 5.2), an anonymous student creates a chronological résumé for a job posting. Notice especially the reverse chronological order in the Experience section.

Click here to download a copy of the example resume in Figure 5.2 

Sample Skills Résumé

In the second sample résumé (Figure 5.3), student Nicole Frank creates a résumé for a position in the healthcare industry, as she describes in her Objective statement. Notice how the document focuses on three specific skills the student wants to highlight, then creates a list of evidence showing those skills in action.

Résumé Drafting and Design

Based on your qualifications, goals, and information from the job ad, use the information from the previous section to choose from the two major résumé types. Below, you will find information on basic conventions for résumé design, in addition to a brief description of the content your résumé should include.

You might consider using a template as a helpful starting point. However, if you do use a common template to help with layout and section format, be sure to modify it in some way so it does not look identical to another candidate’s résumé.

Design Conventions

The design conventions below should help you to create a résumé, regardless of your target career field. Check with your instructor for more advice on how you should write and design contents for your document.

• Choose a clear, readable, professional, ten-to-twelve-point font.
• Use the same font in your résumé and your cover letter to create coherence.
• Place your name and contact information at the top of the résumé to make it obvious to readers who the candidate is.
• When describing work experience (and possibly education), include bullet points. Use the formula VERB + DETAILS + RESULT: Start your bullet with an action verb describing a skill or achievement. Follow it with the details of that skill or achievement, and then describe the positive impact of your achievement.
  • Developed (VERB) new paper flow procedure (DETAILS), resulting in reduced staff errors and customer wait times (RESULT).
  • Provided (VERB) friendly customer-focused service (DETAILS) leading to a 15% improvement in customer satisfaction and loyalty (RESULT).
• Choose design graphics and design features carefully so your résumé does not distract the reader’s eye.
• Be strategic and consistent in your use of capitalization, bold, italics, punctuation, and underlining.
• Place more space between sections than within a section to create visual groupings of information. This way your reader will be able to easily distinguish between the key sections of your résumé, and between the items in each section.
• Learn about field-specific conventions. Length, formality, design, delivery method, and key terms are just some of the factors that may vary across disciplines.
• Quantify your skills and achievements. This means including references to technologies and equipment you have used; types of documents you have produced; procedures you have followed; languages you speak; technical languages you know; types of clients you have worked with (demographic information that might be relevant in your new workplace); and so on.
• Avoid filler words, or fluff that does not show meaningful skills. Filler words include: team player, results-oriented, fast-paced, and self-motivated. If you MUST use these phrases, find concrete examples to back them up. For example, instead of using team player, include a time you “collaborated with peers to save the company over $500/month on delivery methods” or “co-managed a team of six to interview/hire vendors for annual company picnic.”
• Use key terms gathered from the job description and research into your field. If your potential employer is using a résumé-scanning program, these key terms may make the difference between getting an interview or a rejection.
• Proofread your résumé several times, use spell check, and ask an exceptional proofreader to review it.

What to Include

Despite variations in résumé type, formatting, and design, there are understood rules of thumb on what to include and exclude. As their foundation, most résumés integrate three sections or types of information: the résumé header with contact information, education section, and work experience. This section will also discuss optional sections you may choose to add, if the rhetorical situation calls for such information.

Résumé Headers

Your résumé header should include your: full name, address, email address, phone number, and possibly your professional website or LinkedIn page. If your first name is difficult to pronounce, you could include your nickname in quotation marks or parentheses (e.g., Xioang “Angie” Kim or Massimo “Mass” Rapini). Names are typically bolded and centered on the page, but aligning your name to the right or left is also appropriate, depending on the template or style you have chosen. You may include your school address or your permanent home address, or both. Most recruiters prefer both because, at times, they may need to send information to both addresses at different times of the year. In Figure 5.4 below, you can see an example of a header with one address and with two.

It is important to choose a professional e-mail address because employers frown upon addresses such as greeneyes2@gmail.com or runningguy44@verizon.net. Instead, consider using your first name and your last name in a simple format. If you continue your job search after graduation, you might not be permitted to use your school email address, nor should you once you have graduated.

Include only one phone number on your résumé and record a professional voicemail in case the employer calls. Do not play music on your voicemail. If in a loud area, do not answer your cell phone, especially when you do not recognize the number. Allow the call to go to voicemail, listen to it in a quiet place, and return the call as soon as possible. A professional voicemail might sound like the following: “You’ve reached John Smith at 555.555.5555. Please leave a message and I will call you back as soon as possible.” Be sure to check your voicemail on a regular basis.

Education Section

The Education section will likely appear before your Experience section. Once you are a working professional, you may choose to flip these two sections, in order to emphasize the information that is more important to a particular employer, or to follow the conventions in your field. Within the education section, it is standard to include your GPA (especially if it is 3.0 or better), along with your expected graduation date, major(s), and minor(s). You may include your overall GPA, or you may decide to list the GPA of your major. Certain industries are more concerned with GPA than others, including consulting, investment banking, and trading, which can require a 3.6 or 3.7 and above.

Be sure to research each industry to familiarize yourself with such requirements. If you attended only one college, only that college should be listed in this section. If you transferred from another college, you should list both schools in this section. The first school you list is the current school you attend, followed by the previous school. If you attend graduate school, law school, and so forth, your postgraduate institution would be listed first. You also have the option of including relevant courses that prepared you for the job you are seeking and any special accomplishments related to school—like projects, offices held, service, and awards or scholarships. If you have many of the latter, you might alternatively consider placing them in their own section marked Honors. Below, you can see sample Education sections for a student who has transferred from one school to another (Figure 5.5) and a student who has only attended one school (Figure 5.6).

Employment Section

The Employment section should highlight most the most relevant jobs you have held. This section is arguably the most important of your résumé because recruiters often look for past work experience as a predictor of future work experience. The conventional method of listing your work experience is in reverse chronological order (as with your Education section). List your most recent job experience first and include the following information:

• Name of the company.
• City, state, and country.
• Years of employment. (If you have had several jobs at one company, include the overall years of experience; for separate jobs, note specific years of experience.)
• Three to seven bullet points describing your responsibilities and the results of your work, depending on years of experience.

You should use bullet points as a means of clearly and succinctly listing your responsibilities and achievements.

Optional Sections

In addition to contact information, education, and work experience, you may be wondering what other sections to include while developing your résumé. Your options are many, but here are a few additional ideas.

• Objective Statement: Some sources will recommend that you include an objective statement, while others will warn strongly against it. Proponents will tell you that recruiters appreciate clarity, and an objective can help a recruiter understand exactly what you offer. Naysayers argue that the résumé is meant to be scanned in a matter of minutes and the objective statement only slows this process down with details that will likely be explored in the cover letter. If included, objective statements should be very targeted and mention a specific position. Show what you can do for the company in no more than two sentences. See the example below (Figure 5.7), created for an entry-level healthcare position.

• Skills and Additional Information: This section of your résumé includes, but is not limited to, the following information.
  • Computer Skills: Most employers expect Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but include additional software knowledge (e.g., Dreamweaver).
  • Language Skills: Include your honest level of fluency (e.g., Spanish, fluent, French, beginner).
  • Study Abroad: Include the name of the university, the city and country, and the coursework.
  • Community Service: Include volunteer work such as park cleanups, walk-a-thons, or fundraising events. Be specific about your responsibilities and your results, including dollars raised, hours spent, leadership position, and end-user experience (e.g. fund-raising efforts reached over $20K, providing for five developmentally disabled students and their parents to travel to Florida to swim with the dolphins).
  • Licenses and Certifications: Individuals can achieve literally hundreds of professional licenses in the areas of health care, finance, real estate, insurance, and so forth. Examples include Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Level I or Licensed Real Estate Agent.

In constructing this section, be sure to keep your options in mind. If you want to highlight certain information, or if you need to add a lot of detail, you might consider making a separate section for an item, or you might decide to combine similar items within the same section. See the example in Figure 5.8 for a skills section that highlights computer and language skills, certifications, and community service experience.

• References: One of the famous last lines of a résumé is “References furnished upon request.” This is not necessary because employers can simply ask for references when they want them. In fact, if you simply include a references page with your résumé, it may save an interested employer the trouble of having to ask in the first place; a proactive, impressive strategy would be to create a single-page document that includes the following information.
  • Header (that matches the résumé header) to include your name, address, and contact information
  • Reference’s name
  • Reference’s company and title
  • Reference’s relationship to you (e.g., manager, peer, vendor, and so forth)
  • Reference’s contact information, including e-mail address and phone number

Be sure to notify those who have agreed to serve as references that they may be receiving a call or email from a potential employer.

See the example below (Figure 5.9) for section listing three references (a fairly typical requirement for most jobs).

Writing Cover Letters

In the era of social media, the idea of writing a cover letter to introduce your résumé may seem outdated. However, the cover letter still serves several crucial functions. If the résumé is characterized by breadth (giving a broad overview of your qualifications), the cover letter is characterized by depth (choosing some of your most significant information to cover in detail). Written in paragraphs rather than bullet points, this letter is the first writing sample your employer will see from you. It offers an opportunity to market your unique qualifications and to show how you will fit with the culture of the company. An effective cover letter will create a picture of you as a potential employee and inspire a potential employer to learn more about you. Keep the following tips in mind as you write your cover letter:

• Your letter is essentially an argument for why you should be granted an interview. Make sure to support the claim that you are qualified for the position – use evidence from your experiences.
• Demonstrate your authority by speaking in detail about your qualifications.
• Show the reader that you have skills and abilities necessary to do the job at hand. The more detail you offer and the more precise your language is, the more the reader will be able to picture you doing the job.
• Conduct additional research to help you connect with the company and to choose the appropriate tone, level of formality, and level of technicality.

At some point you may find yourself asking, “Is it worth writing a cover letter knowing it might never be read?” The short answer is yes. Some recruiters go straight to the résumé and make an initial decision, while other recruiters carefully weigh the information in the letter. There is no way of knowing which will be the case, so you are better off putting your best foot forward every time. A well-written cover letter is an opportunity to present yourself well and influence a recruiter, so always take full advantage of that opportunity. It can also be viewed as your first conversation with a future employer, so its quality should be exceptional.

When writing a cover letter, remember that the immediate objective of your cover letter and accompanying résumé is to attract the reader’s attention. The ultimate goal is to obtain an interview. As you write your application letter, strive to complete three tasks: 1) catch the reader’s attention favorably, 2) convince the reader that you are a qualified candidate for the job, and 3) leave a lasting impression. Below, you’ll learn skills to complete this task: how to read job descriptions and use the information in your materials, and how to make sure you have a cover letter with all the required content.

Deciphering the Job Description

Most job descriptions can be copied from the employer’s website. Once you have identified a position that interests you, copy the job description into a text document. (If you only have a hard copy of the ad, it might be worthwhile to type it into a new Word document, so that you can copy pertinent phrases from the job description into your letter.)  You can complete two prewriting steps before writing to decipher the job description: 1) List each skill and qualification on a separate line and 2) Group like with like. If communication skills are listed as important, in addition to giving presentations, list one after the other. An example of a job description and the deciphering process is given below.

Sample Job Description

Entry-Level Sales

The CML Company, a leading provider of recruiting and staffing services, is currently seeking motivated, career-oriented individuals to join our recruiting team. Our recruiters work with our clients and inside sales team identifying, screening, interviewing, and presenting qualified candidates for contract and permanent positions. CML promotes from within. Entry-level sales staff start as recruiters. Once they master that role and have a desire to become a member of our sales team, they can be considered for promotion. Qualified candidates for the recruiter position will:

• Develop recruiting strategies designed to identify qualified candidates through various recruiting tools.
• Evaluate candidates’ strengths compared with clients’ requirements by evaluating, screening, and interviewing the candidate.
• Negotiate wage rates and other terms and conditions of employment with candidates and gain commitment from candidates for current and future job requirements.
• Complete necessary pre-employment processes, including reference and background checks and drug tests.
• Work with account executives to identify top accounts, client skill sets, and key market segments, and to assess clients’ staffing requirements.
• Interact effectively with others to create a productive team environment.
• Communicate with peers by sharing recruiting best practices and providing accurate, thorough documentation on contract employees in our applicant-tracking system.
• Maintain relationships with industry contacts to provide customer service, gain industry knowledge, and get referrals and sales leads.

Qualified candidates for the recruiter position must also:

• Have a bachelor’s degree or related sales or recruiting experience.
• Be available to work before and after typical office hours as work may demand.
• Possess strong written and oral English communication skills.
• Be familiar with Microsoft Word and MS Outlook (or similar e-mail applications).
• Have work experience in a service-oriented business.
• Reflect a desire to learn and advance in a fast-paced sales environment, and be capable of regularly using good judgment and discretion to accomplish goals.
• Be currently authorized to work in the United States for any employer.

Sample Deciphering Process

As you consider the preceding sample, study each component of the job description and how it relates to your skills so that you can apply for and gain an interview for the position. Also simplify the job ad description as you list and group. Your streamlined list of requirements might look something like this:

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree
• Able to work flexible, long hours
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Computer literate
• Desire to learn in a fast-paced sales environment
• Good judgment
• Discretion
• Authorized to work in the U.S.

As you compare your abilities and credentials to your list, ask yourself how closely your qualifications match the items that are listed. Do your skills match all of these requirements, or the vast majority of them? Highlight the skills that do match and consider where you might reference them directly in your job letter. Then, identify and write down any requirements that are NOT stated directly. For example, the job ad seems to imply: 1) individuals must be motivated, 2) they must have the ability to master the work, and 3) they must have a desire to be a part of the sales team in order to be promoted.

Do not rule yourself out if every requirement does not match; instead, think about how your skills and knowledge relate to that requirement. For example, if you have never worked in a fast-paced sales environment, focus on your desire to learn. Highlight the fact that you have observed fast-paced sales environments, and those situations appeal to you. At the very least, you could use the fact that you have always been very proactive in completing tasks as efficiently as possible. Or maybe you have taken a course or two in economics or marketing that might have provided tangentially relevant knowledge. In contrast, if you are a strong match for most of the requirements, generate specific, results-oriented examples to demonstrate these skills.

Oftentimes, you will not have a clear indication as to which skills are more important than others in the job ad, so use your best judgment call. Treat each skill as if it is the most important. For instance, when considering communication skills have a specific, results-oriented example of your verbal skills and your written skills. At some point, however, you will want to select the three skills you think are most important, match them to your strongest skills, and then write your cover letter. These three skills, if positioned properly, will make the case for why you should be hired.

Cover Letter Structure and Contents

Cover letter formatting should be neat and professional. It is recommended that you use left alignment for all text. Common business letter formats include the block letter, the semi-block letter, the alternative letter, and the simplified letter. Block format, among the most widely used business letter formats, is recommended for cover letters. The cover letter includes five main sections: 1) heading and salutation, 2) introductory paragraph, 3) middle paragraphs, 4) closing paragraph, and 5) complimentary close. At the end of this section, you will find two sample cover letters for job openings.

Heading and Salutation

The beginning of your cover letter orients readers to the rhetorical situation by telling them who is writing the letter, and to whom. These elements, usually placed at the top left of the letter’s first page, are highly conventional – that is, a reader will know they’re looking at a letter if they see the heading and salutation at the top of the document.

Heading

The heading of a letter contains the following elements, in order:

1. Writer’s Address: one line each for the writer’s name, street address, and country/postal code information.
2. Leave one line blank.
3. Date: date is needed in headings on letterhead stationery.
4. Leave one line blank.
5. Inside Address: one line each for the recipient’s name (using the appropriate professional title), the name of the company (exactly as that company writes it), street address, and country/postal code information.

Salutation

The greeting or salutation directly addresses the recipient of the letter and is followed by a colon. You should use the recipient’s professional title (like Mr. Pough or Dr. Agbozo). If you do not know the recipient’s gender, you may use their full name. In some cases, you may address the salutation to a department name, committee name, or position name: Dear Personnel Department, Dear Recruitment Committee or Dear Hiring Committee.

Introductory Paragraph

In the introductory paragraph, introduce yourself to the hiring manager or recruiter. The paragraph should include the following general information, intended to familiarize the reader with you as a candidate in very quick fashion:

• Why you are contacting them (to apply for X position—give its specific name).
• How you heard about the position (for example, give the name of the website where you found the ad).
• The date of the ad if applicable.
• What the minimum requirements for the job are and how you meet them (for example, if the job requires a degree and three years of experience, you will want to mention right away that you meet these requirements).
• Optional: Something specific about the company or the job itself that has made you interested in the position (for example, does the company have a good environmental track record? Do they mention on their website that they like to promote from within? Have they won awards? Are they working on any projects that pique your interests?).

Middle Paragraphs

The middle paragraphs of the cover letter should make the case for why you would be an exceptional hire. Select two to four strengths necessary to excel and assign each strength to a bulleted section (Figure 5.10) or brief paragraph (Figure 5.11). Boldly indicate your strengths and include your best examples of how you excel at each strength. For a one-page cover letter, some candidates have two paragraphs, while others have three. Oftentimes, one of these paragraphs will focus on education and the ways it has prepared the candidate for the position, while another discusses work experience and applies skills learned to the position. Anything listed as a strength in the résumé needs to include visible proof of that strength. For example, if you mention having strong interpersonal skills, be sure to give a concrete example, like writing about a course that required group work to finish a large project. Show exactly how the example built or showcased the skill you reference.

Closing Paragraph

The closing paragraph should reiterate any major points or takeaways that you want readers to remember. It will likely do the following:

• Re-state your interest in the position and/or organization.
• Highlight how your strengths mesh well with the required skills.
• If applicable, inform them when you will contact them (within a certain number of weeks, usually).
• Invite them to contact you (and include contact information, typically your professional email address).
• Refer them to your enclosed résumé.
• Thank them for their time and consideration.

Complimentary Close

The end of a business letter is called the complimentary close. Other common closing phrases are Sincerely yours, Respectfully, or Thank you, or All the best. Notice that only the first letter is capitalized, and it is always followed by a comma. Usually, you type your name four lines below the complimentary close and—if the letter is a physical copy—sign your full name in between.

Sample Cover Letters

Below, you will find two sample student documents that use the genre conventions above to create cover letters applying for a specific position. In the first letter (Figure 5.10), the student is applying for an internship position and uses a bulleted list to highlight skills he believes have prepared him for the job. In the second letter (Figure 5.11), a student is applying to an entry-level accounting job; she uses her letter to explain how she found out about the position, then divides her strengths into three separate paragraphs, which she fleshes out with specific examples to support her case.

Interviewing

Interviewing for a job position comes with its own set of challenges. However, having made it to this moment in the hiring process means that you have already faced and beaten many obstacles. Be encouraged! Even if you do not receive (or accept) a job offer after interviewing, the interview itself provides valuable preparation for career advancement. Some universities offer mock interviews to help students prepare, so you may want to check with your adviser, department, and career services to be aware of these opportunities.

There are ways of preparing for possible interview scenarios—for example, drafting a set of potential questions that you may be asked and writing out or speaking possible responses in advance. Keep your support system involved. Just as you may have asked family or friends to look over job materials, so also might you ask a friend or family member to help you practice responding to interview questions. The following information is not meant to be a comprehensive guide to interviewing; however, it will provide you with information on the types of interviews you may encounter.

On-Campus Recruiting

If you are participating in on-campus recruiting (when a company comes onto your campus to recruit potential hires), three interview scenarios are possible: open, closed, or mixed schedule. The school dictates the type of schedule, and it is important to know in which type you are participating.

• An open schedule allows any student to go to the career services office to submit their résumé for the specific position in which they are interested. An open schedule is open to any candidate who wishes to be considered for an interview. The company recruiter will then review all of the résumés and select the top ten or twelve candidates they will interview on campus. (For example, thirty-minute interview schedules would allow for twelve students to be interviewed, while forty-five-minute interview schedules would allow for nine students to be interviewed.) The company will select the length of interviews when they initially book the schedule with career services.
• A closed schedule happens when the recruiter selects all of the ten or twelve individuals they will interview from the résumé book, from interactions they have had on campus, or from a colleague’s recommendation. Perhaps they met a student who impressed them at a marketing event. The recruiter could choose to include that student in a closed schedule.
• A half open/half closed schedule is a hybrid of the two preceding schedules. Half the students will be selected from students who have submitted their résumés, and the recruiter will select the other half from the résumé book, a recommendation, or a direct interaction with students while they were on campus.

Whether you submit your résumé for an open schedule or you are selected to participate in a closed schedule, the recruiting cycle is fast-paced and job materials can be missed or overlooked due to no fault of the writer. Sometimes recruiters review hundreds of documents to find the ten or twelve they will pursue, and sometimes materials can be missed because of something as simple as pages sticking to one another. Should you not be selected, you can write to the recruiter, using your cover letter to make a strong case for why you should be considered. In some cases, this may work to get you an interview. The recruiting process is not perfect, so it is recommended that you apply for as many positions as possible. Never rely solely on the submission of one résumé. Instead, when on-campus recruiting takes place, apply for all positions that fit your strengths and interests.

Off-Campus Recruiting

Do not limit your search to only on-campus opportunities because off-campus opportunities can also be fruitful. Conducting both an on-campus and off-campus job search increases the number of opportunities you can consider. You may pursue off-campus opportunities for three reasons:

1. Your school does not have a robust career services department that attracts a variety of employers.
2. You are interested in a company that does not recruit on campus.
3. You want to hedge your bets to have as many opportunities as possible, representing a mix of on-campus and off-campus possibilities.

The main difference between on-campus and off-campus recruiting is that in off-campus recruiting, you manage the entire process. You are responsible for getting your résumé into the hands of the company recruiters or hiring managers, along with scheduling the interview and following up on your own. An off-campus job search demands that you are organized and proactive enough to keep things moving. After completing a job interview, send a follow-up thank you note or email to the interviewer – usually within about a week is best.

Conclusion

Job application materials are some of the first professional writing you will do – in many ways, these documents are part of  your entry into the professional world, since they are often the avenue through which you obtain and interview, and thereafter, a job. It’s helpful to practice such common technical writing documents because they can help introduce us to thinking like a technical communicator. In the next chapter, you’ll learn how to extend your skills, using your rhetorical knowledge to tailor your materials for the people who are most likely to read them.

References

Gross, Allison, Annemarie Hamlin, Billy Merck, Chris Rubio, Jodi Naas, Megan Savage, and Michele DeSilva. (2017). Technical Writing. Open Oregon Educational Resources. Licensed CC-BY-NC-SA. Retrieved 19 July 2025, from https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/technicalwriting/.

Kinonen, Amber. (2017). ENGL 145: Technical and Report Writing. Bay College Online Learning Department, licensed CC-BY. Retrieved 19 July 2025, from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Zmt-NPk-0IEHNde_gJrzjk8ao2K4W1ksL1HBpDpaP9s/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.iwajine52l1x.