Author: Genevieve Bolduc, Engl 301 Student
Peer reviewer: Siddhartha Gupta
Date:14th Of August, 2020
Subject: Peer Review of Application Package
Dear Genevieve,
I hope this mail finds you well in these tough times and progressing well towards the end of the summer session. The strength of this report is that it is focused heavily on your technological experience. However, I believe that you could look deeper into how your experience might help with the objective and aims of the company. Especially, with respect to their competitors.
Here is the template:
301 Siddhartha Gupta Application Package Peer Review Template
First Impressions:
- For the application package; the advertisement is followed by the cover letter followed by the Resume followed by the requests.
- The address is the header but neither an email and a phone, it might be hard to reach you impromptu for an interview.
- The letters have a signature placeholder but not at the actual signature. The citation should include more details.
- It seems that this job offer has expired.
Organization
Advertisement:
- The job advertisement is formatted well.
- However, the citation could include more details but it includes a date and a publisher which I believe are the two most important fields.
Cover Letter
- The header should’ve been in the center.
- The name, phone, and email could’ve been included in the header.
- The subject could’ve included; recruiter’s name and position of the recruiter within the company.
- You could’ve signed off with a signature and not a placeholder for a signature.
Resumes
- In your header, you have enclosed, both, email and phone number.
Reference Letters
- The header includes the employee’s’; Address but not Name, Phone, and email.
- The subject includes the receiver’s; date and company but neither position nor name.
- Once again, I believe it would’ve been better to include your signature rather than the signature placeholder.
Content
Advertisement:
- The article title was “Localization Developer.” whereas it should be “Localization Developer.”
Cover Letter
- The letter starts with an appropriate greeting.
- You could’ve listed some skills which you have gained or differentiate you from others.
- Employers are more likely to read the cover letter and the subsequent aspects if they know what skills you have and that they match with their expectations and demands.
- In subsequent paragraphs, you could also suggest how your skills might be useful for the company at hand.
- For instance, you could explain, Gamification is being used by some company, in order to, improve their sales, make their apps addictive, and appeal to the young consumer base and how your experience may play into that.
- Your concluding paragraph has the following contact details; phone number and email.
- Could personalize it more to the company by explaining how the ambitions of the company might match your career ambitions and also the skills that you have.
Resume
- According to the Textbook ‘Technical Communications’, one must include, objectives.
- It would be helpful for the employer to see your career objective and how you aim to contribute to the company in order to realize that you are a highly motivated individual.
- You should also add testing frameworks, within your skills, such as JUnit and Chai which will help the employer know that you are competent at Test-Driven Development.
- Given the COVID-19 economy, employers are most likely going to get rid of QA, if they can, and instead make use of Software Engineers for testing applications.
- This shows that you actually care about the deployment and the functioning of your programs and applications, which is an excellent business skill to have.
- You could also add Agile Processes that you used such as Scrum and Test Driven Development; for CS310.
- You seemed to pair-program a lot, this is called “Extreme Programming”, and it is actually a very valuable and efficient skill. Show this off on your resume.
- You could also add your graduation date to entice the employers to hire you.
- You could also advertise your leadership skills for hosting and growing Technical Interview Preparation Club.
Reference Letter Request(3)
- The greetings for all the letters are appropriate and start with a king request for reference.
- Luckily, you know that the people whom you are asking a reference from very well, so you don’t have to add too much information to help them jog their memories of you.
- You have described the position that you are applying for, for the first letter, but not the latter two.
- It would be good to include a deadline so that the recipient can get themselves organized.
Tone
- Overall, the tone is formal, professional, and incredibly respectful.
Grammar
Cover letter
- Adding articles for clarity
- “for localization to” for “the localization” (Paragraph 1 Line 1)
- “familiarity in implementation” to “familiarity in the implementation” (Paragraph 3 Line 5)
- The removal of preposition which is unnecessary
- “company with that promotes” to “company that promote”
Resume
- Adding articles for clarity
- “Developed training manual” to “Developed a training manual” (Work Experience; Point 1; Sub-point 4)
- More Concise Writing (preposition for looks unnecessary)
- “For the staff and for the public” to “for the staff and public” (Work Experience; Point 3; Sub-point 4)
- “With the passing of time” to “with time” or “over time” Technical Projects; Point 4y; Sub-point 1)
- Minor Spelling Errors
- “retrieves real time” to “retrieves real-time” (Technical Projects; Point 3; Sub-point 1)
- “East side” to “Eastside” (Technical Projects; Point 4; Sub-point 1)
- “shelter class” to “sheltered class” (Technical Projects; Point 4; Sub-point 1)
Concluding Comments:
The application package was a well organized and highly readable application package. Resumes and Reference letter requests were concise and to the point. Showing a great level of respect for the other person’s time. Please refer to the above sections for recommendations.
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