\nThis assignment consists of two parts (?company research & interview? part and ?cover letter &
\nresume? part). Details of both parts are explained in this document. For the accomplishment of
\nthis assignment, prepare a SINGLE MS Word document that contains both parts and upload to
\nthe designated dropbox by due date\/time.
\nPart 1: Company Research & Interview
\nStart each section described below on a new page.
\nSection 1: Job Description (Job advertisement)
\nIdentify a job posting for a position or internship you would be interested in applying for within
\nthe next a couple years or so. You can find a current job posting almost anywhere, including
\nthrough: a professional association job bank, or by going to a site like careerbuilder.com,
\nmonster.com, or milwaukeejobs.com. The location of the job is not important. If the job ad you
\nfind happens to be in California and it?s not realistic for you to move, don?t worry. As long as the
\njob suits your training, skills, and interests, the job posting is good to use because you will NOT
\nneed to actually apply for the job. However, make sure these when you select a job ad:
\n(a) Have the name of company and position title (don?t use a job ad where the company name
\nand position title are not specified), and (b) Check whether the company is fairly large and well
\nknown because you have to do some further investigation for the company, thus a large and
\nfamous company will be a good choice. (c) Should have at least 5 to 6 requirements\/duties since
\nyou will use some of these for your cover letter. (d) Basic information about the company is
\nincluded. See the evaluation criteria on page 6 for details of required items.
\nYou can pick a job that requires a 4-year (bachelors) degree, and ?pretend? that you have
\ngraduated and are applying for your future job (this is the only ?liberty? you will take in terms of
\ninformation on your cover letter\/resume), with the rest of the information being factual.
\nReadings & additional materials for this assignment:
\nTextbook Chapters
\nA Guide to a Successful Employment Interview (pp. 37-42)
\nQuestion Asking (pp. 89-94)
\n7 Things to Research before Any Job Interview (Course D2L\/content\/career interview)
\nGuide to Research Companies, Industries, Countries (Course D2L\/content\/career interview)
\n6th APA style guideline (Course D2L\/content\/career interview)
\nWinteriM 2017 Com 105-201
\nCareer Interview Project Instruction page 2
\nPage 2 of 7
\nPage 1 of your project document should include a job ad that you selected. Job ad can be
\ncopy\/pasted or retyped from the job posting. Make sure that the fonts match up and all the
\ninformation fits on one or two pages. You don?t need to put a title for this job ad page.
\nSection 2: Company Research
\nBegin this section on a new page. Conduct research on the company associated with the job
\nposting you identified in the section 1 of this interview project, and write a two or three page
\n(double-spaced) summary of what you learned. You need to include at least three sources of
\ninformation for your research (using 6th APA style in-text citations & reference list); with at least
\ntwo of these three sources must be ?external? (not written by the company itself. For example,
\ninformation from online news sites or business & financial information sites is regarded as
\n?external?; however, information from the company?s web site will be regarded as ?internal?).
\nSources can include the company?s website, newspaper articles, or other credible sources of
\ninformation on the organization (for more possible information sources, refer to ?Guide to
\nResearch Companies, Industries, Countries?; for more information about 6th APA
\ncitation\/reference style, see 6th APA style guideline). In short, it is required to include at least
\nthree information from websites or printed sources for this section, but you have to provide
\ncitations for cited information in an appropriate manner (i.e., 6th APA style citation). If not, the
\ncited part(s) will be regarded as plagiarism.
\nRequired information in this section is: (a) basic information of the company (at least the name
\nof the company, location of headquarters), (b) mission\/goals of the company, (c) brief history of
\nthe company, (d) products or services provided, (e) Strength of the company, (f) weakness of the
\ncompany, (g) major customers, (h) size of the company (e.g., annual revenue\/profit, number of
\nemployees, etc.), and (i) major competitors. One paragraph per each topic will work.
\nEditing this section: Double-spaced, Times New Roman (12 pts), margin (1 inch L\/R\/T\/B). Put a
\ntitle as ?Company Research?.
\nSection 3: Questions and Expected Responses
\nImagine that you are having a job interview with the hiring manager of the applying company.
\nAt the end stage of an employment interview, you will be given a chance to ask questions if you
\nare unsure about something or know more about the position and\/or company. What would you
\nask? In this section, list five questions what you want to ask as a job candidate. Also, explain
\nwhy you would ask the particular questions. After each question\/explanation, suggest the range
\nand answers that you would normally expect to receive. This section examines that rationale for
\nasking various questions and the expectation for the range of answers one would receive. Again,
\nyou have to develop 5 questions in terms of an interviewee (not as an interviewer or hiring
\nmanager) and suggest 5 expected responses in terms of an interviewer after identifying why you
\nwant to ask the question. So, the sequence will look like: interviewee?s (your) first question ?
\nreasoning of the first question ? expected response from interviewer, interviewee?s second
\nquestion ? reasoning of the second question ? expected response from interviewer, and so on.
\nMake sure not to use generic interviewee?s questions that may be found from internet. All
\nquestions must be tailored for your applying position and\/or organization.
\nEditing this section: Double-spaced, Times New Roman (12 pts), margin (1 inch L\/R\/T\/B). Put a
\ntitle as ?Interviewee Questions and Expected Responses?.
\nWinteriM 2017 Com 105-201
\nCareer Interview Project Instruction page 3
\nPage 3 of 7
\nSection 4: References
\nIdentify the sources of information that are cited in section 2 using 6th APA reference style. The
\ntitle of this section must be ?References? and should include at least three references. If you cited
\n5 sources in the second section, five references should be listed on this page. Do not put
\nreference of source that was not used in the research section.
\nEditing this section: Double-spaced, Times New Roman (12 pts), margin (1 inch L\/R\/T\/B).
\nPart 2: Cover letter & Resume
\nSection 5: Cover Letter
\nYou do not need to put title for this section, instead treat it as an actual letter. Starting with the
\nexample on textbook page 29, include your address, and email\/phone on the top as if it were
\nprinted letterhead, followed by two returns, the date (formatted as month, date, and year. For
\nexample, Oct 1, 2016), and two more returns. Keep the cover to 1 page; unlike the resume, do
\nnot go over though you feel you need to. Many employers will toss out cover letters more than 1
\npage, so challenge yourself to use your editorial skills.
\nParts to include:
\n? Complete contact information (Address; only for this assignment, you may use pseudoinformation
\nif you don?t want to identify your actual information)
\n? Date
\n? Company official being addressed, including this person?s position, company name, and
\ncompany?s snail address
\n? Salutation
\n? Introductory paragraph identifying which job you are applying for and where you located the
\nadvertisement, and a brief presentation of yourself. (In academia, a paragraph is 5-7 sentences,
\nbut in this cover letter keep it much more concise, the introduction can be as few as 2-3
\nsentences).
\nRelevant readings for this assignment:
\nTextbook Chapters
\nCover letters (pp. 27-32)
\nResume writing (pp. 211-213)
\nUWM Career Service
\nResume (http:\/\/uwm.edu\/careerplan\/resumes-interviews-2\/resumes\/)
\nCover letter (http:\/\/uwm.edu\/careerplan\/resumes-interviews-2\/cover-letters\/)
\nWinteriM 2017 Com 105-201
\nCareer Interview Project Instruction page 4
\nPage 4 of 7
\n? Two paragraphs making clear links between the job requirements and your own qualifications,
\nskills, and accomplishments. Provide specific examples as proof of your skills and experience.
\nTake the perspective of the recruiter. Build a detailed and concise explanation of why you are
\nthe right person for a job, so at the end of the cover letter they know why you are a good
\ncandidate to hire based on your strengths and the job requirements. Ask yourself whether a
\npiece of information that you share will be important to the reader and why. It should take you
\na couple of drafts to write the letter and edit it to a page, getting rid of unclear and passive
\nlanguage.
\n? A small paragraph indicating why you would like to work for that particular company.
\n? A concluding paragraph indicating reference to interview, how to contact you, and thanking the
\nreader. These are very basic requirements, but please read through the examples in the text and
\non the UWM Career Development website (http:\/\/uwm.edu\/careerplan\/resumes-interviews-
\n2\/cover-letters\/) to see varieties of good cover letter examples. The cover letter while following
\nsome standard requirements should be a unique piece of writing reflecting you (again, 2-3
\nsentences is fine).
\n? Correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, word choice, and flow are vital.
\n? Recruiters have been known to cast aside a candidate?s application when spotting minor errors.
\nTherefore, your cover letter and resume can help you stand out from a pool of applicants if
\nthey are written with clarity and sincerity.
\nEditing this section: Single-spaced, Times New Roman (10-12 pts), margin (1 inch L\/R\/T\/B).
\nSection 6: Resume
\nYou do not need to label this page, just treat it as an actual resume. (See textbook p. 100 for an
\nexample). There are a variety of resume formats, so pick one that works best for you and works
\nfor the job you are applying for. Please pay attention to the appearance\/design aspects of your
\nresume (neat & tidy), and make sure that all the information fits on one page.
\nA few key points:
\n? All education, work experience, additional qualifications must be listed in reverse
\nchronological order (i.e., starting with most recent and working backwards).
\n? Your resume should list education first, and then employment information.
\n? A resume is typically a one-page document ? depending on your experience you will have
\nmore or less information in your resume. For this assignment, do not go over more than 1 page.
\n? By working with font sizes, types, bullets, bold, underline, italics, margins, spacing, columns,
\nyou can create unique, yet professional and neat resume formats that will allow you to fit even
\na large quantity of information on one page.
\n? Visual formatting is as important as content for a resume, because recruiters typically spend
\nless than a minute browsing through a resume during the first sifting stage. If your resume
\nstands out at this stage, it will receive more attention later. Therefore the key information must
\nbe noticeable. White space between items will also make the resume more appealing to the eye.
\nWinteriM 2017 Com 105-201
\nCareer Interview Project Instruction page 5
\nPage 5 of 7
\n? Please be honest in reporting your education, work and other qualifications. The only exception
\nis that you can pretend you have just graduated, and include your Bachelor?s degree on the
\nresume if the job requires one (do not be tempted to copy an example online, it?s easy for me to
\ntrace and you will have to do this for your professional career).
\n? Be sure to list the responsibilities you held at previous jobs in ways that matter to the job you
\nare applying for. What will help you do this are Action Verbs. Finally, remember to use past
\ntense when describing jobs you previously held (e.g., ?Worked as a manager of??, while
\nusing present tense for jobs you hold currently.
\n? Do not include information on references in this assignment. Avoid stating ?References
\nAvailable Upon Request? as it is assumed you will be able to do this, so you do not need to use
\nthe space to write this.
\n? Do not include your high school information on this resume, but make sure that you include
\nyour information on your college. You can also state your major and your anticipated
\ngraduation date (e.g., ?Anticipated Graduation 2017?).
\nSubmitting Assignment
\nEntire document should not exceed 10 pages. Make sure to put page numbers for all pages
\n(upper right corner of document). Put titles for each section except some sections (e.g., job ad,
\ncover letter, and resume). Upload one MS Word document (including part 1 and part 2) to the
\n?Career Interview Project? dropbox by designated due date\/time. File formats other than MS
\nWord (e.g. ?.pdf?, ?.pages?) will not be evaluated. Please review the evaluation criteria (next
\npage) before submitting for maximum possible points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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