As a new graduate, I have been applying for fellowships and academic positions. These positions go through what can be a long review process with the institutions’ hiring committees. An interview can come at any time, whether sooner or later, so I strive to be prepared. I have organized my application materials in a similar manner to how I organized the content for my ePortfolio that I created as a SLIS student at SJSU and would like to share that method with you.
I have a folder on my computer’s desktop titled “Jobs”. Within this folder, I have included folders named for the universities where I am considering applying. Those folders include my applications that have not been completed and submitted yet to the universities. Once I have applied for the positions, I add those folders to another folder within my “Jobs” folder titled “Applied”. If I have been rejected for a position, I have another folder within the “Applied” folder titled “Didn’t Get”.
Within each company folder, I have my cover letter and resume that I tailored to each position, the job description information copied from the website, a list of references who can speak best on my experiences that relate to the particular needs of the position, and a Notepad document titled “Interview”. The “Interview” document contains information I have gathered about the position and the organization along with content I would want an interviewer to know about myself that would complement the specific position.
I used to have copies of resumes saved in My Documents folder on my computer, but I found that I wanted to be sure that I had the copy of the tailored resume that matched the resume I sent to the company at hand and printed out for my interviewers to review. It was easier, I found, to have the files organized by company name, so I could retrieve them on the fly. Saving all of the application materials in this manner, I feel, will help me be more prepared for future interviews. I hope that sharing my organization method will help someone else in their job search as well.
As a new graduate, I have been applying for fellowships and academic positions. These positions go through what can be a long review process with the institutions’ hiring committees. An interview can come at any time, whether sooner or later, so I strive to be prepared. I have organized my application materials in a similar manner to how I organized the content for my ePortfolio that I created as a SLIS student at SJSU and would like to share that method with you.