See calendar.
To help you get started with the CS professional activities involved in job hunting and interviewing.
3 pages + Cover Sheet (for grading)
Résumé, cover letter, and career plans statement
Potential employer
On-line sample résumé and sample cover letter
The Virginia Tech honor code is in effect for all work. This means that this writing assignment is to be done alone, without help from someone else. Exceptions: Getting help in your writing from the Writing center is an important exception, and is always encouraged. Further, this application of the honor code is not intended to interfere with the free exchange of ideas and peer assistance that support learning, including general discussions about the assignment and the type of writing involved with other students, the instructor, and/or the GTA.
NOTE about plagiarism: We will be especially zealous in prosecuting Honor Court cases involving plagiarism, especially those where material is taken from other students or from the Web or Internet. Plagiarism of any work from a current or former student in this course is considered to be an honor code violation. Through the use of peer evaluations and collaborative development, and the use of the WWW, there is a strong possibility that you will be exposed to concepts and ideas that you can use in your own work. Getting permission to use those ideas and concepts from the originator (except when it is already in the public domain) and/or giving appropriate acknowledgment in your own work circumvents a charge of plagiarism.
You are to create a one-page résumé and a sample cover letter as an application for employment. You are also to write a career plans statement.
You will write the first draft of this assignment (résumé, cover letter, and career plan statement) before we discuss the topic in class. Use the on-line sample résumé and sample cover letter as examples to follow. Select a company from a Web site, personal experience, or a Career Service employment bulletin as the target recipient for your cover letter. If you do not have the name of a company contact person, invent a name. You are building a template for future cover letters. This assignment will be heavily graded on mechanics, style, and tone.
It is important that you understand that the term "first draft" here does NOT mean "rough draft". In fact, it is the opposite, the first draft is expected to be the very best writing you can do. The iterative writing process is designed to make your final draft even better. In a one-semester course like this, we have to compress the process from what it would be in the real world, where it is not uncommon for a journal article, for example, to undergo 20 iterations over a period of six months! At least this will follow the spirit of that kind of iterative writing.
The résumé must be prepared in HTML format so that you may post it on your own personal web site, if you have one (and you should!). Print the HTML file on paper and bring to class on the due date. Make sure that your URL is clearly printed as a header or footer on the printed page. If you do not have a web site for posting your résumé, bring it to class as an html file on a floppy disk (no viruses, PLEASE) in addition to the printed version.
Then write a half-page statement of what your career plans are. In what position do you plan to start, and how do you plan to progress from there? What do you anticipate will be your job description in ten (10) years time?
There are really three drafts for this assignment.
The first one you hand in the first day we discuss the topic in class, mainly in case we need an example as part of that class discussion. This first draft will not be graded, but you will get a small penalty for not handing it in. We won't grade this version or hand it back, so you don't need to include it (as a previous draft) when you hand in the next draft.
Following any discussion in class, you are to revise the résumé, cover letter, and/or career plan statement (the one you handed in in class at the beginning of discussion for this topic) based on anything you learn in the class discussion and hand it in as Writing Assignment #1a, on the due date (see calendar) for that assignment. It is important that you understand that the term "first draft" here does NOT mean "rough draft". In fact, it is the opposite, the first draft is expected to be the very best writing you can do. The iterative writing process is designed to make your final draft even better.
Based on feedback from the GTA and instructor, revise your assignment as needed and hand a "final" version in as Assignment #1b on the due date. Proofreader signatures not required for the final draft.
For all assignments with multiple drafts (including this one), always hand in all previous drafts (the marked up copy with the cover sheet, not a newly printed one). Put the latest version on top, with successively older versions behind. We need this to grade you on how you improved with the iteration.
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Last updated 99/08/07
© S. Birch, 1998, 1999.
Modified by J.A.N. Lee, 2001.
Modified by Rex Hartson, 2002