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University of Maryland, College Park

Writing Winning Resumes and Cover Letters

University of Maryland, College Park via Coursera

Overview

Prepare for a new career with $100 off Coursera Plus
Gear up for jobs in high-demand fields: data analytics, digital marketing, and more.
How can you bring your resume to the top of the pile? How can you present yourself to prospective employers using the language they already speak inside their organization? This course will give you answers to those questions. You will learn how to convert a boring resume into a dynamic asset statement that conveys your talents in the language that an employer understands.

After completing this course, you will be able to:

1. Identify the real purpose of a resume.

2. Identify relevant competencies for a position.

3. Adapt your resumes to Applicant Tracking Systems (resume screening software).

4. Write powerful and convincing accomplishment statements using your accomplishments inventory to strategically assemble the most relevant evidence of competency for a specific position.

5. Use the resume skills tier method to strengthen your resume.

6. Write summary sections and objective statements aligned to a job position.

7. Take advantage of web resources to find power language for your resume.

8. Produce a strong resume in a format that is suitable both to your background and the position you're interested in.

9. Produce strong cover letters that use A.I.D.A. to help you achieve your career goals.

10. Produce effective follow-up letters that help you stand out from the competition.

Syllabus

  • Preparing to Write
    • In this module, you'll learn to how position your resume to a specific marketing purpose, how to align your resume with the specific needs of the hiring organization, and how to ensure your resume ranks high on the relevancy scales used by top-notch organizations today.
  • Writing a Winning Resume
    • In this module, you will learn how to construct powerful accomplishment statements, how to write effective summary sections and job objectives, how to select action words to present you as a doer and achiever, and how to use two web resources that can help you find powerful language for your resume.
  • Choosing a Resume Format
    • In this module, you'll learn how to select the best resume format to support your experience and career goals. You'll learn how to prepare resumes for electronic submission and for submission to OCR engines. You learn the benefits of using an internal resume in your annual review process, and you'll learn what never to put on a resume.
  • Writing a Winning Cover Letter
    • In this module, you'll how to prepare an effective cover letter and how to use marketing strategies to get you cover letter to work for you. You'll learn how to use similar strategies to write a follow-up letter after interviews.

Taught by

Charles Duquette

Reviews

4.0 rating, based on 6 Class Central reviews

4.6 rating at Coursera based on 316 ratings

Start your review of Writing Winning Resumes and Cover Letters

  • This course should be taken by anyone involved in the processs of applying for job interviews! It's both useful and pleasant to take. I work for a big company, in France, in the field of science & technology R&D, and my lab recently opened a positi…
  • Sudipta Ray
    Hi. I'm Sudipta Ray. I live in Bangladesh. I'm a student of mirzapur University collage in Bangladesh. My ssc, hsc completed. Now I'm interest Course covid-19.
  • Altaf Al-bokari
    i would like to learn more about writing and enhance my sill . i hope i be excellent in writing so i expecting so much from this course
  • Vinaya Sawant
    This course was very helpful in understand the concepts and it teaches one thoroughly in and out of writing resumes. I have learned a lot
  • Anonymous
    This app is very helpful, and it takes me into a class zone but I can't find it on app store or Google Play store
  • Jarmila Präsensova

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