Deliverables include the following:
Market Analysis
Cover Letter
Resume
Mock Interview
Self-Reflection
Original Submission: You will create and submit three documents:
Market Analysis: Using your favorite job posting site (i.e. Dice, Indeed, etc.) or sites, identify 10 jobs related to information systems security (HINT: Consider including ‘CompTIA Security+” in your searches). Make sure that you include filters to limit the results to the geographic area in which you are interested (i.e. DFW, Austin, etc.) along with any other relevant filters.
Cover Letter: Identify the job that interests you the most out of the 10 you have identified and develop a cover letter.
How to Write a Cover Letter (HBR)Links to an external site.
Refer to the Book of Resumes for guidelines regarding what should be included in a high quality cover letter. If this is a position in which you are particularly interested, I would recommend reaching out to Career Services for assistance in crafting a targeted cover letter with high impact.
Resume: Develop your resume targeted to the job you identified and developed a cover letter for. Since many resumes are screened based on key words, make sure your resume includes key words consistent with the original job posting.
Refer to the Book of ResumesLinks to an external site. for guidelines regarding what should be included in a high quality resume. If this is a position in which you are particularly interested, I would recommend reaching out to Career ServicesLinks to an external site. for assistance in crafting a targeted resume with high impact.
While resumes are great, you have a couple of tools at your disposal to help stretch your reach. The first one is the ability to turn your resume into a hyper-document and leverage platforms such as LinkedIn to help provide prospective employers with even more information about your skills. To that end, include a clearly marked link on your resume to your LinkedIn portfolio that demonstrates some of the projects in which you have worked on in your various classes. The idea is that you are to develop a portfolio to help show off your skills and accomplishments:
With your resume complete, utilize Career Services tool, Quinncia to evaluate and improve the quality of your resume. Take a screen shot of the results of your analysis which should be similar to the screen shot below and paste on at the bottom of your resume.
Mock Interview: With your resume perfected, now it is time to prepare for your interview. Log back into Quinncia and complete at least one Mock Interview. Take a screen shot of the Mock Interview feedback provided by Quinncia and paste that below the resume feedback on your resume.
NOTE: See Canvas video for assistance submitting multiple files as part of a single submissionLinks to an external site.
(Links to an external site.)
Self-Reflection: Research suggests that self-reflection leads to improved learning (Lew and Schmidt, 2011). In the Comments section of the assignment in Canvas, please respond to each prompt below by copying the questions below and supplying your answers underneath:
After conducting the market analysis for CompTIA Security+ positions within your chosen geographic location, what did you learn about the demand for this certification and the types of roles available? How has this analysis influenced your perception of the job market and your own career planning?
Considering the feedback received from Career Services on your resume and cover letter, along with the insights gained from the Quinncia analysis, what key strengths and areas for improvement have you identified in your application materials? How do these findings impact your readiness for applying to jobs?
Reflect on your performance during the mock interview process. What competencies do you feel you demonstrated effectively, and what areas do you think require further improvement? How will you address these areas to enhance your interview skills for actual job opportunities?
Approximately how long did you spend on this project in hours and minutes?
Spelling & Grammar Check: Take advantage of the tools you have at your disposal to further refine your Market Analysis, Cover Letter, and/or Resume. Utilize the Spelling & Grammar tool within Word and append each document with the results to help ensure that you are turning in documents worthy of well-educated individuals.
Word includes useful tools for helping you develop and improve your writing. Utilizing the instructions linked to below, make sure this feature is enabled:
Spelling and Grammar Feature within Word (Links to an external site.)
As you enable this feature, make sure that you select “Settings” under the When correcting spelling and grammar in Word” section and select ALL options
Run the Review>Spelling & Grammar tool in Word for each document making sure that you correct the issues identified (i.e., use of first person, spelling errors, sentence structure, etc.).
Once complete, you will be presented with Readability Statistics that includes the Flesch Reading East and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level results for your document. Review those findings and reflect on the quality of each submission (i.e., Market Analysis, Cover Letter, and Resume). If you think you can improve, by all means, take the time to improve your work and resubmit before the deadline. Once satisfied, take a screen shot of your Readability Statistics and insert that image on the last page of each respective document.
