Résumés and Cover Letters
When applying for opportunities, your résumé, cover letter, and application materials are your first impression.
This can help you land an interview, so it is important to detail your experience and accomplishments clearly and concisely.
Get Started
- Review our Résumé Guide and Cover Letter Guide for all majors and industries. It outlines suggestions for creating, formatting and organizing your content, and includes suggestions for word choices.
- Review your résumé and cover letter with a peer career advisor during Quick Questions.
- Refer to the Core Professional Competencies and be sure to highlight the skills you have gained during your experiences.
- Need to a Curriculum Vitae (CV) instead of a résumé? Then schedule an appointment with one of our Advisors.
How to Create Your First College Résumé (Quick Overview for Students)
Peer Career Advisor Ava Pihlstrom ‘26.5 explains how to create your first college résumé.
Hi. My name is Ava, and today I’m going to walk you through how to create your first college résumé. To start with a little bit about the Center for Careers and Internships (CCI). You have great resources here in Middlebury, which include advising appointments, quick drop ins with Peer Career Advisors, and tools like Handshake and Midd2Midd to help you get started.
So now going into the résumé first.
Why does a résumé matter? Your résumé is often your first impression with employers. It’s your chance to show who you are, highlight your experiences and demonstrate the skills you bring to the table. So what actually goes on to a résumé?
There are four main sections:
- First, contact information, this should include your name, clearly emphasized, your email and your address. Typically, you’ll use your Middlebury email and decide whether to list your home or school address, depending on the situation.
- Second, education list, Middlebury College at the top, followed by your degree and expected graduation date. Keep everything in reverse chronological order and include relevant details like awards, athletics or academic achievements.
- Third experience, this is where you highlight your most relevant roles. Focus on what you accomplished, why it mattered and what skills you developed. Use strong action verbs, keep bullet points concise and quantify your impact whenever possible.
- Finally, skills and interests include technical or language skills with your level of proficiency, along with activities or interests that show your personality, this section can also serve as a great conversation starter.
When writing bullet points, remember to focus on transferable skills like leadership, communication and problem solving. Use action verbs and think about the STAR, method, Situation, Task, Action, Result, what you did, how you did it, and the result. To wrap up, a strong résumé clearly presents your contact info, education, experience and skills while showcasing your unique strengths and experiences.
Thanks for watching and don’t hesitate to use CCI resources to refine your résumé.
How to Write a Cover Letter That Gets Interviews
Hello, everyone. In this video we will go over step by step on how to write proper cover letter for internships, jobs and other career related opportunities. But we will jump into the necessary components of writing a cover letter.
First, I want to share that the Center for Careers and Internships’ Middlebury website contains numerous resources on cover letter résumé and any career tips of interest, so please be sure to visit if you need any extra support. A cover letter that is well written will set you apart from other candidates who choose not to submit one, and informs the hiring manager of three main questions: who are you and what are you applying for, what would you bring to the organization by joining them, and what about this opportunity is interesting to you.
It is a perfect opportunity to explain why you are fit for this role and also explains why they are fit for you. A cover letter is not meant to be a replica of your résumé. In paragraph four, it is an opportunity to demonstrate to the organization that you understand what comes of that role and why you are perfect for it, while cover letters can use experiences from your résumé, be sure to craft and share a story when you’re writing a cover letter.
Other basic principles of crafting your cover letters making sure the format, content and purpose of your cover letter is individualized to yourself and whatever you’re applying to make sure that your hiring manager knows that you understand what the role is asking of you, so be sure to match the tone of the job description, even going as far to add some buzzwords they share in the description. Being able to convey that you understand the role in your target audience can help express to your future employer what you bring to the table. Another special tip is that Middlebury alumni are everywhere, so if you’re able to connect with anyone and reach out to them about the role, that can help you get a step closer to the organization and fully understand the position or company.
Some tips on how to tell your tailor your résumé is to make sure you fully read the job description carefully so you can highlight any keywords and skills and as stated earlier, sometimes it’s easier to use buzzwords they ask you or they share in the job description.
Make sure that whatever experiences you contribute to your cover letter is directly correlated to whatever the organization is looking for. For example, if they are looking for somebody with communication skills, it could be helpful to pull from a customer service job you had, and when you’re highlighting your experiences, make sure the company values or projects directly relate to things you are interested in or have potentially done that are similar.
Finally, the opening and closing section of your résumé should be customized to you. We will go over more of this soon.
As for the anatomy of a cover letter:
First of all, a cover letter should only be one page similar to a résumé. The opening lines should be the street address, city, state, zip code, followed by the date, and finally, a section for the section, a contact name for the organization you’re applying to. And if you cannot find a name using a generic salutation, such as, “Dear Hiring Manager” works for the opening paragraph.
The first sentence of your cover letter should grab the reader’s attention. You should avoid using phrases such as, my name is or it is with great enthusiasm that I submit my application for instead, use a creative approach. For example, if I were applying to be an editor for the Middlebury campus. I will talk about my recent publication for a project that I did, talk about the reason for your letter, and be sure to state that the specific position, to state the specific position that you’re applying to in your first paragraph, answer why you would want to work for the employer, what excites you about the role, and end with a sort of thesis statement of what you planned on discussing further in your cover letter for your first body paragraph. This should be your qualifications, your first or your second body paragraph can be together. They can be separate, just that’s your own choice. You should highlight one to two concise experiences that demonstrate your fit. You should be sure to share that any skills explained here will contribute to advancing specific goals of your employer. Anything you read in the job description can help you figure out what to highlight. Your experiences should connect to your background, to the goals or challenges of the company. Use this paragraph to tell your story with depth and detail beyond the bullet points on your résumé.
The easiest way to write sentences to describe your experiences in your cover letter is using the STARR method, Situation, Task, Action, Result and Relate. Situation is a description of what the job is. Task is what you were assigned to complete, Action is an outline of what steps you took, Result is how the situation ended up, and Relate is how this example demonstrates the skills relevant for the job. All of these can help you craft a concise cover letter that is targeted to whatever organization that you are applying to, and your closing paragraph should reiterate your interest in the position, state that you look forward to discussing candidates with them. Offer the best way to contact you. This could be full phone or email and thank the employer for their consideration, and sign off with sincerely your name. What recruiters are looking for is someone that has and clearly states an interest in their organization, if you have the proper evidence and have done the research and write with a professional tone, confidence and attention to detail, you can have your application stand out for a recap of things that we just went over, a strong resume cover letter, answers, why this role, why this company and why you it tailors every letter to the job description and organization. It uses specific examples to show skills and impact. It focuses on how you add value to the employer.
You match the tone of the company’s style. Make sure to keep it concise, clear and professional, and if you have any extra questions or would want somebody to look over your cover letter, if you want to go to go/QQs (go.middlebury.edu/QQS/) for quick questions to talk more to a peer career advisor.
Thank you so much.
Sample Résumés
Please note, to edit these résumé templates you need to first go into the Google Drive word doc version (noted with a *), download it, and then edit it.
Step-by-Step Conversion of Résumé Templates:
PDF to Google Document
- Upload to Google Drive: Go to drive.google.com and click + New, then File upload, and select your PDF.
- Open with Docs: Find the uploaded PDF in your Drive, right-click it, hover over Open with, and choose Google Docs.
- Edit: Google Docs will open the PDF as a new, editable document, allowing you to make changes.
PDF to Microsoft Word
- Open Word: Launch Microsoft Word on your computer.
- Open PDF: Go to File > Open, find your PDF, and click Open.
- Confirm Conversion: Word will ask to convert the PDF; click OK.
- Save as DOCX: After editing, go to File > Save As and choose Word Document (.docx).
**NOTE: With either of these conversions, you will be required to format your resume as the conversion process losses some of the formatting.