In this activity you will be creating a resume and cover letter of your own. You may be thinking, “But, I’m in Middle School! Do I really have to do this now?” The short answer is “yes”—but we will walk through all the steps here!

First, a little inspiration to get us going. Imagine yourself about ten years from now, and try to picture where you will be. Maybe you have graduated from high school and have moved on to a type of vocational training or are searching for a job. Or, you might have recently graduated from college or be graduating soon and are looking for a career.

In that situation, the first thing you would want to do is find a job you’d like to apply for. So, you are going to do that now. Take a screenshot of the job and the job description (if applicable) to submit with the rest of your assignment.

Next, it’s time to work on your resume. Your resume can include whatever ‘made-up’ details that you come up with - let your dreams for how you see your future run wild!

To create your resume, you may use this template or create your own. It might be helpful to look up resumes online and get an idea of what different types of resumes for various lines of work include.

Your resume must include a few things:

Your skills and abilities: what makes you special, what are your strengths?
Your experience: include any previous work or internships you’ve done—this may include work or volunteer jobs in high school or college that could be beneficial to your resume.
Your education: list only high school and any post-secondary school or training that you imagine you will have completed by this time.
Your leadership and extracurriculars: clubs, organizations, hobbies, and anything else that you do along these lines.
Certifications: use this space to indicate any certifications you hope to have and may need for the job.
After your resume, write a cover letter that introduces you and explains why you are a great fit for your chosen job. Including key words from the job description, and explaining how you meet those key words, is a good way to go; it shows that you read the job description carefully.

Your cover letter should:

Include several keywords you found in the job description
Connect the dots between your work/volunteer experience without simply rehashing your resume
Be personalized for the company to which you are applying, and (if applicable) the hiring manager at that company
Remember to save this first draft of your resume and cover letter as separate documents—you’ll need to turn in these first drafts along with the final drafts so do not simply “edit” the first drafts—keep them separate.

Finally, share the job, job description, and your resume and cover letter with a peer, parent or teacher, and ask them for feedback regarding how you might be better able to tailor your resume and cover letter to the job for which you’re applying. After receiving their feedback, create a second set of documents that will house your final resume and cover letter, then make any necessary edits to your documents.

After you have written the final draft of your documents, reflect on the process by answering the following questions:

How well do you think your completed resume encapsulates who you are as a person and what you have to offer an employer?
Is there anything important and pertinent that doesn’t really “fit” in the standard resume/cover letter format that you wish you could communicate to a prospective employer?
Choose one paragraph from your cover letter. How does this particular paragraph fit into the overall structure of a text? How does it make sense in the overall story you are telling about yourself?
With that same paragraph (or another if you’d like), analyze in detail the structure of the paragraph, including the role of particular sentences in developing and refining the key concept of that paragraph. How do the sentences in the body of the paragraph support your claim in the topic sentence?
Part 2
For this part of the activity, you will be exploring some modern “techy” ways to help your application materials stand out from the crowd.

First, consider the job you are hypothetically applying for in this activity. Depending on what field the job is in, there are likely different elements you could add to your resume that would help you stick out in the pile of applications. For example, if you are applying for a photography intern role, you may want to actually add a photograph to your resume. If you are applying for a video editing role then maybe you want to actually create a video resume, where you present your background and skills on film!

Once you have brainstormed, do some quick research about some tools that could help you add these elements to your resume. (Remember, Canva is a good place to start and can spice up a resume in any field!)