Opportunity Knocks: Building a Resume and Cover Letter
This webinar was provided by the Main Line Chamber of Commerce and focused on improving your resume and cover letter to stand out and get noticed. The speakers on panel included Vibha Agrawal, who led the discussion, as well as Don Clark and Anthony Gonzalez, who were guest speakers.
Here were my big takeaways:
- Ensure the resume and cover letter are tailored to the role you are applying to. This is critical because, if you want to stand out, hiring managers often have to go through hundreds of resumes for positions. Having a tailored resume and cover letter will put you in better alignment with the position.
- When you highlight achievements on your resume, make sure you are talking about things you actual did. For instance, working at a company, highlight activities you actually did, not ones that the whole team completed. Because, if you get asked about this experience, this will help ensure you can expand upon what you’ve written.
- Under experience, you should put three bullet points. One expanding on what you did, one for the skills/tools you used, and one to state what you accomplished in this position.
- Linkedin is also important for networking, leveraging connections, and creating a deeper background. With a 1 page resume, you often have to sacrifice depth for conciseness. But Linkedin is a great place for expanding more on past experiences that employers regularly use.
The speakers also mentioned to check for grammar and proofreading. Both speakers mentioned this was a common mistake, and one that was a pet peeve.
After the initial 30 minute discussion, there was a 1 hour portion which focused more on getting to know the other people on the webinar, doing breakout rooms, and meeting the representatives from each company on the panel (Comcast, PECO, Aqua Essential Utility, Philadelphia Insurance Company, and Olympus)