JOB APPLICATION ASSIGNMENT

Due: July 14, 2009

Value: 200 points (20%)
Deliverables: Résumé, Cover Letter, Interview Follow-up Letter, Practice Interview
Questions
Save as: jobapplication_lastname.doc

SCOPE
One of the most important things you will have to do when graduating from Clemson is apply for a
job. Because this can be a stressful and somewhat complicated (and even political and rhetorical)
process, it is important that you practice and have a good grasp on what potential employers expect.

OVERVIEW
To begin, you will search for a job, internship, or graduate program that you are both interested in
and feel that you will qualify for by the time you graduate. DO NOT choose a job that you will not
qualify for by graduation (such as a CEO of a corporation or a physician’s assistant). After selecting
the job, you will write a résumé, cover letter, an interview follow-up letter, and answer several
practice interview questions. Each of these assignments are designed to help you prepare for the job
application process in different but important ways.

**Use information from Chapters 12 and 13, and handouts to assist you in creating these
documents. The handouts provide a lot of great information the book does not.**

ASSIGNMENT
1. Search for a potential job, internship, or graduate school program that you are qualified to
apply for.
2. Once you have found one or all three of these, you need to decide which one you would like
to “apply” to. (Please note: you are not actually applying for the job).
3. After choosing the job or graduate program, research the organization or school and find out
as much as you can about the position or program as you can. Learn as much as you can
before beginning to draft your documents. This is a VERY important part of creating
successful application documents.
4. Create a résumé, cover letter, and interview follow-up letter tailored towards this specific job,
internship, or graduate program.
5. When you turn in this assignment, you need to turn in the job, internship or graduate program
description and any research you found out about the company or school to which you
applied. Do this by copying the description for each of the three into a Microsoft Word
document. As far as turning in the research, copy the links that you found about the
company/graduate school.
6. On page 345 of your textbook, there are 12 practice interview questions. You need to answer
each with careful thought as though you were actually being interviewed.
7. To turn these assignments in, remember that all of the documents need to be contained in one
file or Word document saved as “jobapplication_lastname.doc.” (To put all documents in one,
use page breaks between each document.) The résumé, cover letter, and follow-up letter
should be no longer than one page each. The interview questions may go on to two or three
pages, depending on how you answer each question.
Important Considerations

Résumé
• Do not use a Microsoft Work résumé template. If you do, you will not do well on this
assignment. Create your own format that is attractive and easy to follow. Design of a résumé
can make a huge difference when being considered for a position.
• Make sure your résumé uses the full page. If it does not, it looks as though you have little
experience, are underqualified, or don’t care enough about the position to complete your
résumé.
• Be sure that you have NO errors on your résumé. Even the slightest spelling, formatting, or
grammatical error can be enough to turn some employers away. While there are some
employers who are less annoyed by such errors, you just never know. Remember, complete
professionalism is key.
• Avoid any personal information. Employers do not need to know anything about your age,
sex, marital status, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. While some of this an
employer will be able to determine in an interview, don’t give them a reason to “prejudge”
you before even getting the interview.
• When listing your duties on your résumé, try to quantify some of them. (For example, if you
worked a part time job during school, let the employer know how many hours you worked. “Worked an
average of 30 hours per week” gives a much clearer description. If you managed a team, let them know how
many people. (Managed a team of 6 people)
• Use action verbs to describe what you did in your various experiences. (For example, use
words such as managed, oversaw, delegated, reviewed, trained, assisted, etc.)
• Also if you have jobs that are not related to the job you are applying for then you can put
what you learned while doing the job instead of the actual duties. (For example: if you waited
tables, you could put that you learned teamwork and time management skills.)
• Be sure to include as many forms of contact information as you feel comfortable with (email,
home address, and phone number are usually good). If, for the purposes of this assignment,
you don’t wish to reveal this information to me, feel free to just make it up.

Cover Letter
• Be sure to look at many examples of these. The one in your textbook (on page 332) is good,
but not great. Get a good feel for what makes a good letter before writing your own.
• In your introduction, be sure to let the employer know what position you are applying for and
briefly why you are a good candidate. Elaborate, then, in the body of the letter with specific
experiences.
• Be sure to refer to your résumé in the letter. (For example, “as you can see on my résumé, I
have worked for multiple engineering companies…”)
• For your body paragraphs in your cover letter, make sure to make a strong connection
between your skills and this job. Tell them how/why that skill will help them in this job. Be
very specific. The more specific experiences you can refer to, the more prepared and qualified
you will sound.
• Show the employer that you know about the organization or school. Let them know you have
done your research by making specific references to the organization itself and you and your
skills fit into their organizational goals.
• In your conclusion, request an interview and let the employer know you are available.
Consider including contact information in that paragraph.
• Use business letter format and be sure to sign your letter. Make sure there are no typos or
other errors.
Practice Interview Questions
• When answering your interview questions, you want to make sure that you provide specific
examples to support your answers. You can use examples from school, your extracurricular
activities, or your work experience.
• Also, when answering your interview questions you want to seem flexible. So when it asks if
you would prefer to work by yourself or with a team, you need to appear as though you can
adapt to both situations. It is okay to say what you prefer, but then you need to go on and
explain that you can be effective in either situation.
• You must walk a fine line here between confident/capable and arrogant/self-aggrandizing.
Employers want to know that you can do the job and do it well, but few will want someone
who acts like they already know more than the boss. Thus, be careful with your tone and
choice of words. On the flip side, be careful not to come across as a pushover. Humility is
often a good trait, but don’t let it get in the way of you sounding confident enough to get the
job.
• Be sure to relate the questions back to the job for which you are applying. It can be easy to
get on a tangent and forget your ultimate purpose—to make the employer want to hire you!

Interview Follow-up Letter

• Remember the purpose of this letter is to show cordial professionalism. Your tone is very
important in this letter and may make or break the employer’s decision between you and
other candidates.
• Use the example in your textbook (page 350) as a guide, but be sure to make specific
references to the actual interview and company you are applying fore. Don’t make it sound
like a form letter. Because you won’t actually have an interview with someone, feel free to
“make up” a bit of your response, as if you were actually thanking a real person for a real
interview.
• Again, use business letter format and be sure that there are no errors on the page.
GRADING

Résumé : 75 points Design, Organization and Format: (20 points)

Fit of your resume to the job description
and ability to sell yourself: (35 points)
Grammar, spelling, mechanics: (20 points)

Cover Letter: 75 points Format: (15 points)

Persuasiveness: (30 points)
Content: (15 points)
Grammar, spelling, mechanics: (15 points)

Interview Follow-Up Letter: Format: (5 points)

20 points
Content/Tone: (10 points)
Grammar, spelling, mechanics: (5 points)

Interview Questions: 20 points Well-supported (10 points)

Tone/Content (10)

Grad. School, Internship, or Job Format: (5 points)

Description: 5 points
Research: 5 points Format: (5 points)

Total 200 points

CHECKLIST

 Find a graduate school program, internship and job

 Copy and paste the description for each into one MicroSoft Word page
 Resume
 Cover letter
 Interview Follow-up letter
 Research
 Interview Questions, see following page in syllabus