A1: Resume and AI-Assisted Cover Letter
Technical Writing by Tiffani Tijerina is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International
Technical Writing by Tiffani Tijerina is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International
Identify a job or internship you wish to apply for. If you do not have a specific position in mind, select a field or industry that aligns with your career interests. Your resume should cater to the expectations of hiring managers or recruiters in that field.
Conduct research to understand the industry standards for resumes in your chosen field. Investigate the preferred format, keywords, and types of accomplishments that are valued.
Your resume should include the following. It should begin with contact and the optional summary/objective, but the other sections should be organized such that your "best stuff" comes first and in reverse chronological order.
Contact Information: Name, phone number, professional email, LinkedIn profile, and/or portfolio link (if applicable)
Summary or Objective (optional): A brief 2-3 sentence statement summarizing your professional profile or career goals
Education: Include your degree(s), institution(s), graduation date(s), and relevant coursework, honors, or projects
Experience: Highlight relevant work experience, internships, or volunteer roles. Use action-oriented bullet points to describe your accomplishments and responsibilities
Skills: List technical, soft, and language skills relevant to the job
Projects (optional): Showcase academic or independent projects that demonstrate your abilities
Use a clean, professional design with clear headings and consistent formatting. Limit your resume to one page (two pages are acceptable for extensive experience). Use a readable font with a size between 10 and 12 points.
Write concisely using active voice and action verbs. Tailor your language to the job description, incorporating relevant keywords.
In the first part of this assignment, you created a resume for yourself. For the second part, you will work in conversation with Google Gemini or Microsoft Copilot to draft a professional and personalized cover letter for a specific job or internship. The AI will be used as a tool for brainstorming, structuring, and refining your letter.
First, choose a job. Select a real job posted on a job board such as LinkedIn or Indeed. Ideally, select a job or internship that aligns with your career goals. Create a brief description of the position, including the main responsibilities and the qualities the employer is seeking. With the help of that summary, use the AI to brainstorm a list of key experiences, skills, and achievements that you believe would make you a strong candidate for this position. Reflect on your past work, education, projects, and relevant extracurriculars to make detailed notes of how your background and skills align with the job requirements, including specific examples.
Using your brainstormed ideas, ask the AI to help you structure a cover letter. You may request assistance in drafting each section individually:
Introduction: Explain your interest in the role and how you found out about it.
Body: Describe how your background and skills align with the job requirements. Use specific examples to demonstrate relevant experience.
Conclusion: Reaffirm your enthusiasm for the role and briefly outline next steps, such as expressing your availability for an interview.
Once you have a draft going, refine your cover letter. Review it critically. Use the AI to help with:
Language and tone adjustments to make the letter sound professional and tailored.
Polishing grammar, spelling, and phrasing.
Adding or modifying sections to better highlight your suitability for the job.
Submit the final version of your resume and cover letter along with a brief paragraph reflecting on how the AI helped (or didn't help) you in the process. The paragraph can be uploaded separate from the cover letter and resume and it should describe ways AI contributed to your brainstorming, drafting, or editing stages, as well as any challenges you encountered while using it.
Optional extension: If you'd like to practice further, ask the AI to help you adapt this cover letter for a different job or industry, tailoring it to a different set of requirements. Reflect briefly on the differences in your approach for this new version.