Resume and Cover Letter Workshop

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Resume and Cover Letter Workshop

• Professional Communications Club
• Graduate Marketing Association

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Unwritten Resume Rules
Goal of a Resume Get the recruiter to call you
for an interview

• Provide a selective history
• List achievements most relevant to the job you
  are applying to, not the one you came from
• What can you do for me?
• Tie your resume to specific job description
• No two resumes should be the same
• Recruiters spend an average of 10 seconds per
  resume
• Use short, powerful, action oriented statements
• Highlight achievements and promotions

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Resume Types
Chronological
Functional
Hybrid

• Traditional time based resume
• Use when your life looks good on paper
• Upwardly mobile job history
• No unemployment gaps
• Your former jobs companies are impressive

• Focuses on skills attained instead of job titles
• Effective for career switchers, employment gaps,
  recent positions lack oomph, reentry to the
  workforce
• Useful to highlight skills attained through a
  variety of jobs that may not have an upward path

• Showcases a combination of skills and jobs over
  time
• Takes discipline to make this kind of resume work
• Examples are key!

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Summary The 10 Second Skim

• Highlight key skills for the job
• Specialized experience tailored to marketing and
  the industry
• Example
• Extensive experience in extracting consumer
  insights from research data
• Synthesis of information in analyzing a business
  situation
• Experience in getting a product to market

• Back up everything you claim in summary

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Sample Marketing Summary

• Marketing / management professional with strong
  blend of sales marketing expertise in
  traditional and new channels (ecommerce,
  Internet, global business). Effective manager and
  project leader, skilled in developing
  collaborative working relationships with internal
  and external teams. Record of leadership in sales
  force and marketing automation, sales, strategic
  business planning, resulting in significant
  contributions to volume share increases,
  expense reductions, customer satisfaction, and
  operational efficiency.
• Innovative and intuitive marketing / sales talent
  with proven leadership skills. Eager for new
  challenges in a dynamic business environment.

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Show Results!

• Not a list of responsibilities
• Quantify impact
• Example Grew revenue by 35
• Percent better comparative benchmark
• Detail how you got these results
• Grew sales by 35 through proactive prospecting
• Use Action Verbs
• Led, grew, developed, implemented
• Show initiative

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Traits Crucial to Marketing

• QUANTIFIABLE SKILLS
• Results oriented a must for all jobs
• Analytical Marketing is more and more reliant
  on analysis
• Quantitative and qualitative
• Marketing experience a plus
• Attention to detail
• Deadline driven, adapting to change

• SOFTER SKILLS
• Teamwork
• Managing up and across
• Vendors, research, agencies, finance, sales,
  legal
• Project mgmt
• Communication
• Verbal
• Presentation
• Written
• Interpersonal skills
• Ability to influence / negotiate
• Creativity

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General resume tips

• Clearly state your purpose and career goals
• Maintain good balance of content and white space
• Keep it clean and organized
• Keep resume to one page
• Tailor resume to various marketing jobs of
  interest to you
• Brand Management vs. Market Research vs.
  Marketing Analytics
• Grammatically sound, punctuation in place, no
  typos
• Make sure you can walk through your resume

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Cover Letters
Goal of a Cover Letter Get the recruiter to read
the resume

• Further tailor your personal message
• Pull out specific skills relevant to the job
• Support these claims with examples
• First step know your audiences needs. Do
  research!
• Should not duplicate your resume
• 3-4 paragraphs, never more than a page

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Three Cs of a Cover Letter

• The Carrot An introduction that is fresh,
  interesting, and relevant.
• Consider presenting your carrot in the form of
  intrigue, an inspirational quotation, an
  interesting fact, or a strong appeal. The goal is
  not to be outlandish but to coax the recipient to
  read on
• The Corroboration Content that shows an
  intelligent understanding of the employers needs
  and confirms your ability to fill those needs.
• Corroborate 1) to strengthen or support 2) to
  attest to the accuracy of 3) to confirm
• The Close A confident finish that may suggest a
  meeting or invite the reader to take further
  action. The close strikes a balance between being
  assertively confident and considerately
  respectful.

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Part 1 Carrot

• Opportunity to get readers attention
• Remember 10 second scan!

• Indicate
• What you are applying for and how you got the
  lead
• Why you are interested and how this fits into
  your long term plan
• Why should they hire you or at least keep reading
  the letter and resume

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Part 2 Corroboration

• Introduction of the body A sentence that
  introduces the specific characteristics stated
  below
• Example As my resume indicates, I have
  consistently applied and developed my skills in
  order to grow customer base, profitability and
  revenue
• Body
• Highlight 3 or 4 attributes appropriate for the
  job
• Use specific examples under each attribute
• Remember to always state the numerical impact of
  your action
• Keep paragraphs short 4-5 lines maximum
• Keep bullet points to 34, especially if they are
  lengthy
• Can include additional information on fit for the
  job traits for success

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Recommended Format for Corroboration

• Analytical Skills
• My extensive quantitative experience in inventory
  management at Company X will translate into
  performing efficient, detailed and actionable
  analysis at Company Y
• In my role as a X at Company Y, I grew sales and
  increased customer satisfaction through
  qualitative analysis of customer needs and
  development of appropriate solutions
• Leadership Ability
• Example 1
• Example 2
• Example 3
• Interpersonal / Communication Skills
• Example 1
• Example 2

Note Use boldface, underlines and bullets for
ease of navigation
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Part 3 Closing

• State the next steps and how you will follow up.
  Put the ball in your court
• Examples
• I will call you within a week to discuss the next
  steps.
• I will be in the area on November 15th, and I
  will contact you by close of business Friday to
  set up a convenient time for our meeting.

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Submitting Your Application

• So now you have a compelling packetWhat do you
  do now?
• Email rules dont copy/paste your cover letter
  in the email to send out! Email content should be
  different
• Email rules Subject line and document names
  should be specific (Your name appears in both!)
• Print rules Cover letter resume should be on
  the same type of paper
• Remember to follow up

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Tips for Career Switchers

• Dont speak your last jobs jargon
• DO Speak the jargon of your target industry
• Example Media and ratings vs. CPG and share,
  volume
• Concentrate on transferable skills
• Provide rationale behind your career switch
• How can you apply your learnings to your new
  employer?
• Know where marketing fits into the organization
  (control, hub, at the table)

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Speak the Industry Lingo
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Tips for Career Switchers
Sell it by common skills
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Tips for Career Switchers (Cont)
Know the key job functions by industry
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Looking to The Future

• Keep a running inventory of your jobs, positions,
  activities, results
• Keep updating your resume for different jobs
  career fairs
• 1st Years Use Peer coaches Second Years for
  individual assistance (bounce ideas, proofread)
• 2nd Years Use Stanton Chase International for
  individual assistance

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Useful Resources

• http//www.wetfeet.com/cb/schools/umd/toc.asp
• Username rhsgcmc
• Password rhsgcmc
• http//www.vault.com/cb/careerlib/careerlib_main.j
  sp?parrefer428
• Password mdrhsmith

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GMA Resume Book Submission

• First Year MBAs
• Submit revised marketing resume to
  marketing_at_rhsmith.umd.edu by Sept. 21
• Feedback given by Sept. 26
• Final resume with changes submitted by Sept. 30
• Choose 3 preferred constellations by which
  employers can search (areas of focus within sales
  / marketing) by Sept. 30

• Second Year MBAs
• Submit revised marketing resume to
  marketing_at_rhsmith.umd.edu by Sept. 21
• Feedback given by Sept. 26
• Final resume with changes submitted by Sept. 30
• Submit a short bio that employers can scan for
  your background area of focus before your
  resume by Sept. 30

You will be grouped by constellation for easy
searches Resumes will follow the constellations
in alphabetical order (last name) Resume books
CDs provided to employers OCM
Your bio and picture will be listed in
alphabetical order Resumes will follow all bios
in the same order Resume books CDs provided to
employers OCM
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Questions?