I was excited to participate in the The Secret Behind the Cover Letter seminar by GRF Shivem on Thursday night. I have had some good experience writing resumes for finance jobs but kinds wrote my cover letters in very amateur way. We started off the seminar by discussing some crucial components of a effective resume: grades, courses, activities, professional experiences, clubs, skills, languages, software skills, etc. (there are general structure that would apply to most jobs but each industry requires specific features to it) For my finance resume, I think the most important parts are grades, courses, internship experience and leadership roles. Something important is to try to tailor everything on your resume to the specific job you are applying. For example, my general resume has a line of Software Training with items such as Microsoft Suite. But when I submit it to a bank, I changed the name to Financial Training, because software such as Excel is very crucial in many finance jobs and it is a popular skill to put on.

I was also happy to meet some other fellow Rose Scholars with various career interest. The people I sat close to are mostly interested in medical school and biology research. So it was interesting to listen to the different path they are taking to get the dream research. For me, to stand out in many candidates that seek a banking internship, I need to have high grades, relevant courses, good internships, and club leadership experiences. But it seems that medical schools are looking more at grants, fellowship, and past research experience, which are very interesting to me because these are things that I have never done before. I am in the processing of deciding whether or not to write a thesis for my economics degree, so right now I am very curious of everything about research and writing papers (let me know if you have any suggestions / advice:).

It is a snowing today and I felt fulfilled to come to this relaxing yet very educational seminar.  Good luck to everything in the process of applying!