In class on Tuesday, we briefly discussed different tips for keeping a resume up to date. Keeping an ongoing document of all experiences you have had is a great way to keep updated on what you are doing/have already done that may be significant in job applications. Additionally, we took a 60 question survey on “Interest Inventory”.
Results: Realistic=10, Investigative= 28, Artistic= 24, Social= 20, Enterprising=25, Conventional=4.
Some of the jobs that were recommended for me was: Industrial-Organization Psychologist, Political Scientist, Dietitian/Nutritionist, Postsecondary teachers for subjects including: Atmospheric, Marine, Earth, Environmental Science, Immunologist/Allergist, Geneticist, Optometrist, Neurologist.
We then researched about the job and about majors, mine would be Biology. For optometry, there are some different specialties listed that I may do some research on: [I also included some of my opinions on these specialties prior to researching them]
- Family practice
- Pediatric optometry
- Geriatric optometry
- Vision therapy
- Contact lenses
- Hospital-based optometry [no thank you, can cross this one off the list]
- Primary care optometry
- Ocular disease
- Public health
- Research [also no thank you, research gets so boring and isn’t nearly as directly helping people as being a doctor does, maybe if I was really interested in something and was doing my own research then I would possibly enjoy it.]
10 minute FREE WRITE: My job of interest and reason I am at Muhlenberg is to pursue Optometry [Optometrist]. I did get that career in my interest value survey. It wasn’t the top career recommended to me, however it was on the list which makes me excited. I knew that as I was answering these question that I was picking a majority of the more science-based jobs, I have been pretty aware for a few years now of my main interest being science. I know that I want to pursue a higher education after Muhlenberg as well, so I picked level 5 on the survey for the level of education pursued. This combination is what resulted in the jobs that I got at the end, including Optometry. Therefore, I will be doing my cover letter applying to be an optometrist I guess? I’m not entirely sure how cover letters work. I also would like to research the different types of specialties for optometrists, because I only ever considered being a general eye doctor and haven’t truly looked into the other options during Optometry schooling after Muhlenberg. I’m really glad that we are doing this in this class so that I can see what a good cover letter looks like for the future, although between the 3 more years I have at Muhlenberg and 4 years at SUNY College of Optometry I’ve got plenty of time to figure things out.
Additionally, we read and annotated an article about the importance of a Cover letter as well as how to write a good one. It seems like cover letters are a great opporunity to go a bit deeper into the experiences that are listed on your resume, as well as your personality and how that could contribute to the job you are applying to. It seems that cover letters can sometimes be a make or break in the hiring process. It is also really important to make cover letters custom. This is because it shows more interest and care. This reminds me of writing college essays and college supplements. Some of the supplement questions were quite similar, in some cases exactly the same, but wanted to know things that you liked about THAT college specifically. Saying something like “I liked the beautiful campus and the classes offered at this school” is way too broad and generalized, that it is obvious the applicant is just copying and pasting the response for multiple schools. The same can apply to applying to jobs. Specific and custom answers get you a lot further. Next, it is super important to have a good hook/ opening paragraph. Something memorable & friendly is best, and something that will lead into you discussing what you can bring to the job/why you should be hired. This should go beyond what information your resume can offer.
