Category Archives: Employers

Hypothesis: Students find making resumes difficult and stressful

We had the opportunity to interview a staff member in a Co-op office, they had a lot of knowledge about both the student and employer hypotheses.

Here is how the interview stacked up to our hypotheses:

Cover Letter-

Hypotheses 4- HALF yes- Not that they don’t know what elements it is how to write those elements correctly.

Hypotheses 5-NO- It depends on the instance- varys

Hypotheses 6- YES- Students may change their tone a little but nothing close to what they need to be doing.

Below are the key points that were identified:

• Personality and company FIT need to be expressed in the job application.

  • demonstrating why they want to work through – personality, NOT by reiterating the company

• TAILORING is very important- to the job- very specific

  • Process – ID what they are looking for and customize it specifically to your experiences

• When Lynn coaches students she asks them to bring in the job posting – then read it over and decide where to go

  • Using phrases like: Have a conversation- tell me what you did here- Think about what you did at XX in a XX lens (translate)

• Cover letters:

  • write like you are talking to someone else- lots of students write in the wrong way- write like you talk

    • What can i contribute and can i learn

    • Students don’t have enough content- knowing your background, reflective process, SKILLS MATRIX

  • Lots of students over complicate the issue- simple and easy, say too much. Being direct.  Capture a couple of Targetted things that show you who you are.

  • students struggle with the transition between paragraphs flow in a quick and nice way

• LinkedIn:

  • Great way to get info about companies

  • Students don’t realize what it is for- not a static page but an active engagement to network

• Biggest thing from employers- They notice students have a template and the personality doesn’t go through