Job Application Document

Most people obtain jobs through a multi-stage process. First you research the types of jobs you are qualified for and the types of employers you would like to work for. Then you try to convince specific employers to consider you for a job. These days, most employers have too many applicants per job to interview each personally. These employers sort through job application packages (resumes and application letters) to decide which applicants to consider further. Therefore, your first communication with your future employer is likely to be in writing and must persuade them to continue the conversation. In short, it must function rhetorically.
Details
For this assignment, you will write:
Two job-application letters addressed to different prospective employers and that apply for two different types of jobs. The letters should highlight different aspects of your experience relevant to the different jobs.
Two resumes that may well differ significantly in content or in layout or both. The choices of content and layout should emphasize appropriate experience for each job.
A cover memo addressed to me that overviews the two jobs, reviews what you know about these particular employers, and describes the strategies you have used to adapt your letter and resume to each situation. I expect you to make good use of the information in this memo in the arguments you present in your application letters to the employers.
The Job-Application Letters
While a resume is addressed to any employer with a certain type of job opening, the application letter is most effective when tailored to a particular employer. The purpose of the application letter is to persuade that specific employer to grant you an interview. Just as you appreciate being treated as an individual rather than as a statistic, so does an employer. Are you applying hit-or-miss to every company in the country? Or have you invested some effort into finding a company that you are well suited for?
Content and Organization. The opening of your letter should establish why you are writing to your reader. Be explicit about the fact that you are looking for a particular kind of job and explain why you would like to work at that particular company. Preview the body of the letter by stating your major qualifications for the job. The body of the letter develops each qualification with specific evidence. The goal is to show the reader both that you know what that specific company needs and that you have what it takes. You may organize this section in various ways: around your training and experience, around what the job or the company requires, or some other way. The letter should close by inviting a response.
Style. Job-application letters are difficult to write because they aim at somewhat conflicting goals. On the one hand, you want to make a good first impression. So you want to sound polite and fairly formal. On the other hand, you want to stand out from the crowd—otherwise, why should the employer hire you rather than any of the other applicants? The best policy is probably to talk to your reader as directly and naturally as possible. Avoid hype.
Format. Use a conventional business letter format. If possible, stick to one page, single-spaced.
The Resumes
The purpose of the resume is to describe your qualifications for a type of job. Since this assignment requires you to apply for two somewhat different jobs, you should create two somewhat different resumes.
Content. Each resume should include contact information and relevant details of your educational training, professional training, special accomplishments, and skills. However, a resume is not a life history. The goal is to argue that you are qualified for a particular type of job and that you would be a capable, responsible, and personable employee who communicates effectively.
Format. Your format may be traditional or innovative as long as it is appropriate, its information highly accessible, and it is organized in a way that highlights the most important items—from the employer’s perspective.
Style. Your style should be fairly formal. You need not use complete sentences, but you should use a concise, active style and show consistency in expression from section to section.
The Cover Memo
Write a brief memo (no more than two pages, single-spaced) addressed to me that will help me read, understand, evaluate, and “coach” your resumes and application letters. For each of the two jobs, the memo must contain a separate job description and audience analysis, as well as a commentary highlighting how you adapted your resumes and application letters to the different jobs. Since the memo will be of use to you in designing the rest of your job application package, you probably should think about it early—even begin drafting it early. It’s not due until the end, and you may not finish drafting it until after you’ve written the other parts of the assignment. Either way, you should look over it carefully at the end of the project to make sure that it tells me “how to read” your resumes and application letters.
Job Description. You may base your job description on job listings that you find in a professional or trade journal, on the Internet, or in other resources on campus at Career Services. The jobs should be different enough that you will have to emphasize different parts of your experience to qualify for the positions. You may also (with my permission) write for a summer job, an internship, or for a scholarship or other award.
Note: you must hand in copies of the job ads you use.
Audience Analysis. Investigate the particular companies you are applying to. You may obtain information on companies from the library, on the Internet, from Career Services, or other places. You may also contact the personnel office of the company directly. Then write one or two paragraphs that specify any special qualities or experience that this company may be looking for in its employees. For example, suppose you are applying for a job as a chemical engineer. A small company may be looking for an engineer who can work on a variety of projects, while another may be looking specifically for someone who has experience with polymers. This section is also the place to describe anything you know about the particular person you are writing to. I expect you to make extensive use of this information in your application letter. It might also have a big impact on the organization and choice of details in your resume.
Commentary. Describe how you adapted each resume and application letter for its particular type of job, company, and reader and why you made those changes. Normally, your reasons will be closely related to the information in the job description and audience analysis.
Standards for Correctness
Employers impose strict standards of correctness on application materials: An error is the equivalent of a bad spot on your shirt. Accordingly, I will mark this assignment on a somewhat stricter scale than usual. If any letter or resume contains more than two typographical or grammatical errors, your entire package may be reduced by one letter grade, possibly even more if there are a significant number of typographical or grammatical errors.
Evaluation Criteria
Your project will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
Adaptation and Organization. The application letters and resumes demonstrate proficient application of genre conventions in response to different rhetorical situations. Organizational strategies are clear, effective and appropriate. The writer understands organizational strategies and is able to adapt them to specific job application situations.
Content. The writer makes information choices dependent on resume and application letter conventions and audience needs. Content focuses on skills, results, and qualifications, quantified where appropriate.
Style, Tone and Design. The documents are correct and concise. Tone is appropriate to the rhetorical situation but is in all ways professional, conversational and tailored to the specific audience. Design works to make the documents attractive and accessible.
Correctness: Employers impose strict standards of correctness on application materials. Accordingly, I will mark this project on a somewhat stricter scale than usual.
The JP_Sample Pre-Med is just a reference document for you to see how to set up the assignment. The resume is a starting base structure for you. Like the directions says there needs to be two different resumes for each postions. I will post my two job titles that you will need to discuss — that will be down below.
Option 1: AWS Cloud Practitioner
Job description. Based on the description itself, what qualifications do you think you need for this job? What kinds of personal qualities? In other words, what kind of person are they looking for? Be specific and push beyond a superficial response (everyone is looking for a “hard worker,” but knowing that is of limited value to you).
Qualifications that are needed for this position are at least 6 months of exposer to AWS Cloud, Basic IT understanding what what those basic concepts do in the AWS Cloud Platform, and knowledge of core AWS services such as use cases, billing and pricing models, security concepts, and how cloud impacts your business. Besides the basic personal qualities that every job possess like good communication skills, able to work individually and in teams, and an upbeat attitude some more advanced ones for this position consist of curiosity and a learning mindset, strong time management skills, the ability to fluently communicate with nontechnical coworkers and cloud experts, and the ability to make clear decisions.
Audience analysis. To find recent news and information about the company, look around the company’s website and then do a search on ProQuest (available from the Penn State libraries website). What clues can you infer about the corporate culture, the size of the company, and so on? From these clues, who do you think would be reading your job application? Human resources? Project managers? Executives? Are there any recent developments (new contracts, clients, expansions, etc.) that you could use to demonstrate your knowledge of the company? Can you identify company values that signal the type of employee they might be looking for?
Amazon is one of the largest companies in the world, they are extremely diverse, and are a equal opportunity company. I believe that someone who works as a AWS Cloud recruiter would be the one reading the job application or someone who works their IT field that is an expert. They offer certifications for their Cloud services that you can obtain and gain an advantage against a competitor who also applied for the position. Many times you pass their certifications they offer you a job on the spot if they believe you fit their curriculum and their company, but getting those certifications is a big addition to not only a resume, but showing that you took the time to learn their system on your own time and shows you are willing to learn and participate in what their company represents. The type of employee they are looking for is someone who is obsessed with their customer first and foremost. They want to bring the best experience to them possible. Ownership, always thinking longterm and not short term, and lastly invent and simplify, they want to always find the easiest, but most effective way to accomplish a goal.
Resume. Describe how you will focus your resume for this job, company, and reader. Which aspects of your education and experience will you highlight? What information will be less important for that job?
The focus of my resume for this job is to talk about is all the relevant courses I have taken here at Penn State. As much as I would like to use past experiences all my internships in the field were cancelled sadly due to covid so I will rely on what I have learned in the courses I have taken here at Penn State and what I have learned on my own through Amazon learning. Information that will be less import is courses and project experience that has nothing to do with the Cloud. IT is such a big field and there are so many things that work together and don’t I will try to shift those out of focus and put the attention on what I have learned and am currently studying about the cloud.
Job-application Letter. Describe how you will focus your application letter for this job, company, and reader. Which aspects of your education and experience will you highlight? What information will be less important for that job? What kind of tone will you take in the letter?
The focus of my application letter will be my current progress on studying for the AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification. I think them seeing that I am going the extra mile to learn their system and gain one of their prestigious certifications will be a good highlight to my letter. I will highlight experiences and project’s I have worked on with Cloud, I will focus on my education here at Penn State and Westmoreland County Community College because that’s where I started studying IT. I think information from high school and the colleges I attended before WCCC and Penn State will be irrelevant. I will take a learning approach to the letter, I think them seeing me being open to learning new things and coming into the certification as someone who is learning and whats to learn the most will be a beneficial tone for me.
Option 2: Amazon Cloud Software Engineer
Job description. Based on the description itself, what qualifications do you think you need for this job? What kinds of personal qualities? In other words, what kind of person are they looking for? Be specific and push beyond a superficial response (everyone is looking for a “hard worker,” but knowing that is of limited value to you).
The description of this position of being a software engineer is researching, designing, and writing new software programs and computer operating systems. You also evaluate software systems that make computers and hardware work. Lastly develop existing programs by analysing and identifying areas of modification. This is my dream job something you cannot obtain unless you have put in the time working with the cloud for 6 plus years. You have to be hands-on, knowledgeable, code savvy, good with mathematics, information systems, and physics.
Audience analysis. To find recent news and information about the company, look around the company’s website and then do a search on ProQuest (available from the Penn State libraries website). What clues can you infer about the corporate culture, the size of the company, and so on? From these clues, who do you think would be reading your job application? Human resources? Project managers? Executives? Are there any recent developments (new contracts, clients, expansions, etc.) that you could use to demonstrate your knowledge of the company? Can you identify company values that signal the type of employee they might be looking for?
This is a bigger job than option #1 this is who builds, interprets, and continually learns and stays up to date with cloud software. The company is looking for experience for this role. I can’t come out of college and graduate with this position. They are diverse and look for anyone who knows what they are doing when it pertains to their software and how to run and control it. I think a Engineer or Project manager would be the one who would read this job application. Company values are the same as the above position these are the same company, but just different roles in terms of working in the same field fo study, but achieving and completing much higher tasks.
Resume. Describe how you will focus your resume for this job, company, and reader. Which aspects of your education and experience will you highlight? What information will be less important for that job?
My resume for this will be different from option 1. I will focus on more of my coding and integrations skills along with my project management assets that I bring to the table. For a role like this my resume has to be more specific listing classes that have nothing to do with anything involving a Cloud Engineer will not be valuable information to the resume, I will need to fine tune it to meet the needs of this job requirement. I will focus on the skills I already possess and the projects I had involving Cloud Engineering.
Job-application Letter. Describe how you will focus your application letter for this job, company, and reader. Which aspects of your education and experience will you highlight? What information will be less important for that job? What kind of tone will you take in the letter?
I will take more of a persuasive approach. Like I said I currently do not qualify for this job so I will need to persuade whoever is reading this that I am ready to take on the tasks at hand. I will use an informative tone I feel that will be the best way to get my point across to the reader. I will focus on only my work here at Penn State I didn’t really learn anything for this position at any other place of education

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