Nov 13, 2006 18:20
If there is no cover letter, you lose points. I rate apps on a 1-5 scale; if you did not bother to do a cover letter, you will need a damn perfect resume to score a 3. You will not get an interview.
I skim the cover letter, and if it seems any good, I turn to the resume and look at the GPA and the titles of job experiences. If I see things I like, I go back and read the cover letter. If it sounds intelligent, I read the resume. If there is a grammar mistake anywhere in the application, you refer to my company as a bank, or you mention the fact that you were 15 when you got that 1600, or you have no work experience at all, you will not get an interview. If your only work experience is babysitting, you will not get an interview. If you have worked in finance before, you will probably get an interview regardless of your GPA (but not if you have grammar mistakes or refer to my company as a bank).
If your GPA is not listed on your resume, I will assume that it's bad. If I see a transcript and you have A's in econ and a C in biology, that's fine. If you have a B average and stellar internship experience, that's fine. I don't care if you dropped a class two years ago, but if it happens every semester, you will not get an interview. If you have C's in your essay-oriented courses and an excellent cover letter, I'm going to wonder who wrote it. If you include a transcript and the GPA on your resume differs from the one on your transcript, I will put a huge ZERO on your application.
If you put an inspirational quote on the top of your cover letter, I will laugh at you.
I don't care how smart you are, if you have a BS, MS, and are a candidate for a PhD in a hard science and have no work experience outside research and TA'ing, you will not get an interview.
If you are not able to format your resume, cover letter, and/or transcript in a professional manner, you will not get an interview. I'm not shallow, I just need to know that you have put time into your application and are able to present information properly. If you have sent me a cover letter which has "sincerely, Joe Smith" on a separate page, or if your undergraduate transcript takes up 6 pages because it's in size 16 font, you will not get an interview.
If you copy and pasted materials from our website, I will laugh at you. If say anything blatantly false about my company (including, but not limited to, commenting on how well established we are, what an in-depth associate training program we have, saying that you've read about us in a major newspaper), I will pass your resume around the office and all my colleagues will laugh at you. If you claim to know someone at the firm, you damn better be ready to give me their name. If you make one up, your interviewer will call you on it. If you say "oh, they must be in a different department/office," you will be the laughing stock of the world for not knowing that we have no more than 7 full time employees.
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