This document provides an agenda for Tutorial 4 of Comm 202 on resumes, cover letters, and personal branding. It includes a quick check-in, today's agenda covering personal branding, resumes, hooks and action items. The course timeline is also outlined. Key topics discussed are Can-Want-Fit statements for cover letters, formatting resumes properly, writing accomplishment statements, and integrating personal branding into resumes and cover letters. Students are asked to bring draft resumes and cover letters to the next class for peer review.

1. Comm 202 – Tutorial 4
T22 & T29

2. Quick Check-in
• Tutorial 4 Prep - Issues? Email
comm202@sauder.ubc.ca + check course blog
again
• Building Skills Matrix Stories: look at all TA
examples on the blog, not just mine!
• For T29 on Wednesday February 15th at 10am,
our class will be held in HA 243 (NOT HA 296)

3. Today’s Agenda
1 Personal Branding
2 Resumes & Hooks
3 Action Items

4. Course Timeline
Week 6 Week 7 Week 8
• Tutorial: Resume & Cover
Letter
• Due: Skills Matrix Final
Submission
(6 Successes,
2 Failures)
• Tutorial: Resume & Cover
Letter Peer Review
• Due: 2 Copies of Resume
Draft, Cover Letter Draft and
Job Posting
That’s less than one story a day!
• Reading Week!
• You Should: Update Docs
With Peer Review Feedback

5. What is your brand?

6. Describe These Brands

7. Now, Describe Yourself
If you had 30 seconds to describe yourself - personality,
interests, skills - what would you say?
Write down 4-5 words that describe yourself best.

8. You Shape Your Own Brand
Permeate your brand throughout all your documents.
Your personal brand can change!

9. What’s the Difference?
Resumes
are about
YOU
Cover letters
are about the
EMPLOYER
Can
Want
Fit

10. Can-Want-Fit
Can
Can you do the job? Do you have the relevant skills and
experience they’re looking for?
Want
Do you want the job? Are you passionate about this job, the
company, the industry?
Fit
Would you get along with the people at this company? Does
their culture align with your values and personality?

11. Profile / Key Competencies
Resume Guideline
Education
Work / Volunteer Experience
Personal
Formatting
Branding

12. Formatting
Be Consistent
Font size, font style,
spacing, bullet points,
alignment, punctuation,
date & abbreviation
format, hyphens vs
dashes.
First Impression
Pick a colour scheme
(if you don’t want black-
and-white, which is also
fine) and use white
space wisely. Be concise
with your resume page
count.
Third Person
Always speak in third
person and maintain a
professional tone. No slang
or personal pronouns (he,
she, we, I).
Proofread
No grammar mistakes,
typos, spelling errors -
proofread then
proofread again.

13. Formatting
Header Requirements
❏ Name (preferred name
with given name in
brackets)
❏ Email
❏ Phone
❏ Address
❏ LinkedIn URL
❏ Social media handles
(optional)

14. Profile / Key Competencies
What It Is
❖ Summary of what to expect in
your resume in max 4 lines
What to Include
❖ Your strengths
❖ Past experiences
❖ Interests
❖ Languages
❖ Technical skills
* Required for the course but not all industries
need a profile.
Key Questions
❖ Does it match the job posting
(multiple references)?
❖ Does it provide a clear,
convincing link to the rest of
the resume aka is there proof?

15. Profile / Key Competencies

16. Education
What It Is
❖ Summary of your schooling
journey
What to Include
❖ Degree (write it out fully) and specialization
❖ GPA if necessary, indicate school scale
❖ Relevant courses (not a laundry list)
❖ Awards, scholarships (eg. Honour Roll)
❖ Exchange semester
❖ Expected date of completion
❖ Don’t include high school stuff unless
you’re still in first year!
Key Questions
❖ Does it match the job
description?
❖ Is there any ambiguity with the
info provided?

17. Education

18. Work / Volunteer Experience
What It Is
❖ Collection of relevant
experiences - the real meat
What to Include
❖ Accomplishment statements as bullet
points
❖ Brief descriptions of organization if
necessary
❖ Reverse chronological order by end
date
❖ Limit to one sentence (ideal length:
two lines) and get rid of filler words
Key Questions
❖ Are they achievement based?
❖ Do numbers quantify achievements
when appropriate?
❖ Does language indicate familiarity
with industry or company? Does it
match the job description?

19. Accomplishment Statements
SITUATION
TASK
ACTION
RESULT
LINK
SITUATION
TASK
ACTION
RESULT
Flip the STARL stories for the
RATS statement!

20. Results
Increased
Attained
Exceeded
Surpassed
Decreased
Saved
Minimized
Reduced
Generated
Enhanced
Optimized
Established
Words to Consider:
Quantitative vs Qualitative Results:
Quant: How much?
How many? Numbers
and percentages
Qual: Be descriptive - positive
feedback, recognition, awards,
promotion

21. Action
Are you using relevant skills?
Do your actions clearly demonstrate those relevant
skills?
Do your results match up with your actions?

22. Task + Situation
Paint the context (who, where, how long).
Describe the challenge.
Be clear and concise with the level of detail.

23. Accomplishment Statements
Duty-Based Statement Accomplishment Statementvs
• Responsible for
contacting corporate
clients and organizing a
tournament.
• Achieved 85% client
retention rate by
establishing
relationships with key
corporate clients and
providing a well
organized, personally
tailored tournament
experience

24. Accomplishment Statements
Achieved 85% client retention rate by establishing relationships
with key corporate clients and providing a well organized,
personally tailored tournament experience.
SITUATION
TASK
ACTION
RESULT

25. Accomplishment Statements
Achieved 85% client retention rate by establishing relationships
with key corporate clients and providing a well organized,
personally tailored tournament experience.
SITUATION
TASK
ACTION
RESULT

26. Accomplishment Statements
Achieved 85% client retention rate by establishing relationships
with key corporate clients and providing a well organized,
personally tailored tournament experience.
SITUATION
TASK
ACTION
RESULT

27. Interests
What It Is
❖ A chance to showcase your
personality & stand out
What to Include
❖ Side interests & hobbies
❖ Cool personal experiences
❖ Be fun, specific and stay appropriateKey Questions
❖ How do you want to be
remembered?
❖ Are you catering to your audience?
❖ Can you talk about each interest at
length?

28. Interests

29. Branding
Does this reflect your
personal brand?
If the employer were to describe you based on
your resume or cover letter, would they
perceive you the way you want to be
perceived?
Does this align with your employer’s
brand?
Investment banks will look for different personal
brands from advertising agencies. Are you
tailoring the best and most applicable parts of
yourself to the company?

30. COVER LETTER HOOKS

31. The Breakdown
Opening
Skills Matching
Closing
Formatting
Branding
Integration

32. Opening
A Bad Opening
❖ Can be applied to any job,
company or industry
❖ “Dear ____, I am applying
for ____.”
A Killer Opening
❖ Includes a “hook”
❖ Genuine, personal, memorable
❖ Tailored to the employer
❖ Name drop where applicable
❖ Clear expression of the relevant
skills/experiences
This is where you get to demonstrate WANT & FIT!

33. Opening

34. Opening

35. Resume and Cover Letter Examples!
NOTE: This Cover
Letter example is
NOT in Comm 202
format, but I
wanted to include
an example of a
recent Cover
Letter of mine.
***Please refer to
course blog for
Resume and
Cover Letter
criteria and rubric
to make sure you
meet Comm 202
requirements***

36. Action Items (T22 AND T29)
• Bring 2 copies of resume draft, cover letter draft & job
posting to next tutorial for peer review (review BLOG for criteria and
rubric (“Resume & CL Draft” and “Resume and Cover Letter” under “Assignments” tab))
• Hand in Skills Matrix on Turnitin by February 10th at
11:59 pm (review BLOG for criteria, rubric and examples (“Skills Matrix” under
“Assignments” tab))
• Check out office hours for Skills Matrix this week, and
Resume and Cover Letters the week after