Comm 1213 H1 / COMP 4923 X1

Assignment 1+2: Webpage, Resume and Cover Letter

Individual Assignment

Due: October 17, Presentation: Oct 19

This assignment will demonstrate your ability to communicate using the web and traditional paper documents. You will develop a personal webpage using the HTML tools and techniques covered in class and discussed in Knuckles; on it, you will provide links to a resume and a job application cover letter using the principles discussed in class and.your resume review

Begin by locating a job call or advertisement for a specific company. (Workopolis.com is a good source. You can enroll or use the id businesscom or businesscom1; password (for both) isacadia.) This ad should be for a co-op or entry level appointment or co-op. If you cannot find any co-op job descriptions, use an entry-level position as your starting point.

Look at the ad to identify the technical skills, transferable skills, and personal qualities required for the job. You may be surprised at how often transferable skills (good communication, working with clients, working with your peers) and aspects of personal character (flexibility, dedication, willingness to be challenged) come up in these ads. If the ad you found does not include much detail, find another.

Personal website: The website must reside on AXE. It can be created using whatever editing tool you wish but it must be free of spurious HTML code that is not necessary (such as the many font and paragraph tags generated by Frontpage). At a minimum the website should include the following:

  • A main index.html page
  • A link to your cover letterwritten in Word
  • Alink to you resume written in Word
  • An HTML version of your resume
  • Two additional pages the content of which would be viewed favourably by a future employer
  • At least one image of yourself
  • A mailto: link to yourself
  • Some use of CSS functionality
  • Each page should be based on tables and include a clear navigation method

The HTML version of your resume should have at least two links embedded to supporting web pages or documents such as companies you have worked for, examples of your work, etc.

The site should exhibit the following good website design and coding principles:

  • Demonstrate your knowledge of valid HTML (it should pass the W3C validator test)
  • Avoid deprecated HTML tags
  • Not use frames – no horizontal scroll bars, please!
  • Adhere consistently to the fundamentals of good design (proximity, alignment, repetition, and contrast)
  • Provide simple but effective navigation (reader knows where s/he is at all times)
  • Use good colours, including backgrounds, for display on a web browser
  • Use relative links to pages within the site (no absolute links)
  • Avoid the list of DON’TS at

Optional: If you use dynamic content (such as animation), it should be appropriate (add effectively to your message) and not adversely effect response rate.

Traditional Resume: This is your opportunity to identify your technical and transferable skills, illustrate your story of accomplishment, strengthen your language, and put yourself forward on the web.

If you don’t have a formatted resume, go into Word and pick a template from Office Online. Use the reverse chronological style (most recent accomplishments first). This is the most accepted way to organize information about your career; if you pick another type of template, a recruiter may believe you are hiding some weaknesses in your job history.

Furthermore, choose a template that puts a lot of text on the page in a reasonably easy-to-read typeface (font size 11 or 12) – you may have good eyesight but the forty-year old who reviews your resume may not. Don’t use a template with too much ornamental white space – it makes your resume look “thin” and unconvincing. Getting a job is all about making a good first impression, whether on paper or in person!

Begin with your contact information (home and campus addresses, phone, and email.) Do not include personal information about age, sex, or ethnicity – such information is actually illegal on many job applications because of the potential for discrimination. Since your resume is going up on the web, include an objective that describes your ideal job. Then, if you have room on the page, create a profile or summary of qualifications to highlight transferable skills and personal qualities. (For this assignment, you need to hand in a job ad so the profile | summary should emphasize skills from the ad.)

The remainder of the resume should document your education, experience (work and volunteer), skills (computer, language, or special abilities), and awards and honours. When you describe what you did for each job, remember to use action verbs and show yourself “acting for/with someone to accomplish some objective.” Make sure the bullets for each job fit well together. Cite measurable accomplishments where possible. For instance, perhaps you worked for a supermarket for three years:

Cashier and Trainer, Weick’s SuperStore, Yarmouth, NSJune 2005 – July 2006

  • Began as part-time cashier and bagger
  • Promoted to full-time customer service representative and trainer based on my work with customers and staff
  • Developed community promotion that ran for 3 weeks and raised $780 for local children’s charities

Remember that your resume represents you. This means it must be perfect! Check it over for misspellings, mistakes in capitalization and alignment, or inconsistencies. Better yet, get a friend or go to the WritingCenter or Wong Centre to have it reviewed.

Try and keep the whole resume to one printed page. Please create an HTML version of the resume and make at least two pieces of information on the page a link to appropriate information.

Cover Letter: The cover letter specifically links your interests to those of the company. This means that, in addition to the ad, you should do a little research to understand how your skills could be used by them. The Internet and business journals are excellent ways to uncover this kind of information.

Then, pick your most distinctive skills and character traits to sell yourself to the company. Refer to the specific job you want but remember to present yourself as a multi-dimensional person, not just a clone of the job call. Avoid using direct quotes from the advertisement by stating your qualifications in your own words.

Since the cover letter is intended to persuade the company to give you an interview, you can follow the AIDA pattern:

  • Attention: Use an attention-getting opener or a memorable story. At the very least, explain where you heard about the job and say that you are interested. Put an advance organizer (sentence that outlines the content of the rest of the letter) at the end of the first paragraph. Then follow this pattern – your success in creating and fulfilling expectations in the mind of the reader is subconsciously persuasive. (Similarly, not following the pattern creates a subconsciously negative impression.)
  • Interest: Add details to show how effective you have been in previous jobs. Previous experience is the best indication of how effective you will be in the future. You don’t need to give all the details because that information is in your resume – focus on a few important accomplishments.
  • Desire: Your accomplishments should include the outcomes you achieved so that the employer will desire the same level of success from hiring you.
  • Close strongly with a strong statement of interest in the job and a request for action (an interview). You may want to say “Thank you” as well – good manners never hurt.

Your letter should be no more than 1 page long (single-spaced).