Resume and Cover Letter Don'ts

The UCABJ board is in Detroit this week participating in the Spirit of Diversity job fair, which got me to thinking about cover letters and resumes. Every semester, I get dozens of applications from eager journalism, communications, and English students who want to intern for my publication. Some of them are good. Others? Not so much. Here are a few application don’ts:

**Addressing a cover letter “Dear Human Resources” or “Dear Sir or Madam.” If you don’t take the initiative to call the publication at which you would like to work and find out who handles internships so that you can properly address your cover letter, how can an employer trust that you’ll take the initiative to do the job you’re seeking thoroughly?

**Putting irrelevant information on your resume. I don’t need to know that you landed the lead role in your high school’s production of Guys and Dolls. This has nothing to do with journalism.

**Spelling things incorrectly. Iesha, Aisha, Aeisha, Alesha—these are all of the ways in which internship candidates have spelled my name in cover letters. Unfortunately, none of them are correct.

**Sending a resume that’s too long. There’s some debate among hiring managers and internship coordinators about whether resumes should be longer than a page, but there’s no disagreement on this: if you’re in college, you don’t have enough work experience to have a resume that’s three or four pages long.

**Sending poetry as a sample of your writing. Other than JUST DON’T DO IT, there really isn’t anything else I can add on this.

**Putting photos on your resume. See above.

And the pièce de résistance?

**Sending a cover letter that makes no sense whatsoever. Your cover letter is supposed to tell me that you want the job I’m offering and why I should give it to you. That’s it. Don't be cute. Don't be coy. Don't use big words just to use them. “Language shapes reality, reflecting society’s episodic nature. Writing manifests in recreating scenes, juxtaposing slices or life into a reel of unity. Cincinnati Magazine presents a chance to echo these intricacies employing a perfectionist’s streak to aid the publication as an intern.” This person’s goal was to show me that she was a good writer. She was unsuccessful.

It takes a while to really get a handle on this process, but help from your journalism professors will aid you in determining what NOT to do. If you haven't already shown them your resumes and cover letters, please do it before you send them out to potential employers. Remember: You only get one chance to make a first impression.

Cheers,

Aiesha D. Little
NABJ Adviser
University of Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists
http://ucabj.blogspot.com

Associate Editor
Cincinnati Magazine
www.cincinnatimagazine.com