I hate resumes and cover letters >.>

[MonkeyGirl18]

"Why bother? You don't need it, all the information you need is on my application."

Pssh, I hate resumes and cover letter.

My high school is a failure.

I don't know how to write them and I need a job, I need this work study.

If all of the information is on my application, then what's the use of a resume? To see the same stuff all over again?

Cover letter..... I hate them too. I don't know what to put as the beginning of the letter, idk how to make it stand out, heck, I don't know what to put on it. This is all senseless to me.

I just needed to vent.

[Dragon]

We're on the same boat... You can find a tonne of templates and examples online though, and I found that to be of great help

I've never actually done a cover letter (since where I'm from we don't really use that), but I've had to do my resume over 4 times. The worse thing is when you have to add all the new information. It sucks.

You can also make a Linkedin account if it's easier for you

[MonkeyGirl18]

I have one job I want to apply for that requires a cover letter.

Templates are good to an extent. There are just things Idk would be good to put or not.
Cover letter templates are just horrible because you want to make it yours.

I was like "this resume sucks" but then I realized it's going to be small until I get more experience.

My high school decided not to teach us how to build a resume which makes me mad because they need to.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

Don't forget you can use volunteer work as experience - especially if you did it consistently

[MonkeyGirl18]

Yeah, I know. But 99% of the info on resumes are the same as on the application.

[Diana]

I don't know what kind of job you're looking into, but usually an application and resume/cover letter don't share the same information. An application is usually like "hello, yes, I would like to work here I'm cool, please hire me". And a resume is more along the lines of "here's all this relevant stuff I did and know" and is used when you interview for the interviewer to direct the conversation. As for the cover letter, according to my technical writing class, you're supposed to pick one or two things from your resume and explain them in detail. Your cover letter is to sell yourself, your resume is a fact sheet for the interviewer to use to talk to you, and to give them an idea of your (concrete) experience.

I'll summarize my notes about it for you:
A cover letter should always start off with a salutation to the HR person (or whoever you are submitting your letter to). If you know their name, use it!
The body of it should be a brief statement of who you are and where you saw the listing for the job (mentioning which job you are applying for, of course), to give the reader context.
You then (next paragraph) bring up your most relevant experience, directly from your resume. Don't add anything new. Explain what you did at that time and how it makes you a good fit for that job. This paragraph could include what you did at your previous jobs, or learned in school, or anything like that.
Your third paragraph is similar, but should focus on some situation in your life where you had to make decisions under pressure, lead/work with a team, gain a new skill, etc. This usually makes up the longest paragraph and should go into what the situation was/what you were doing there, why you had to do the thing, and what you learned from it/how you grew. If you can relate it, you should also talk about how it would make you a great fit for the company.
At the end of your letter, you thank the person for their time, and ask for them to contact you with the provided contact information (usually it is in the header and/or footer of this letter, but you should provide it in a sentence format here, along with any restrictions (ie: "call me anytime after 3:00 at xxx-xxx-xxxx").
Then you say something like "look forward to hearing from you", write your name, and then sign at the bottom.

As for building a resume, you typically separate things into lists of 6 words or less (plus dates) of all your experience. I sectioned mine off into school, work, awards and other honors, and activities/hobbies and other things I've participated in (such as conferences). That's how it worked out for me, but you can really organize it however you want. It's more efficient to list everything newest first, and keep all the lines short. The cover letter is where you should add details and beef out the most important bits. Other than that, it's really free reign.

Hope that helps! Goodluck!

[MonkeyGirl18]

The thing is I have hardly anything to put on a resume and all the school jobs require one and I'm pretty sure they'd go with one with more experience and such than one with nothing at all to show for.

I never really had a job, I didn't do much volunteer work because I got so busy looking for a job, and just because my town is boring and volunteer work isn't going to pay me for gas.

I'm just stressing out because I need this stupid work study to help pay for school. If I can't get one, or even an off campus job, I'm not going to be able to go to school this year. Resumes shouldn't give me so much stress.

[galled]

While the info on a cover letter and resume' are important for the information, for an employer they also indicate whether the prospective employee can follow instructions and will do what is required regardless of how silly or unnecessary they may believe producing them may be. It also provides insights into the potential employee's attention to detail, "style," and to some extent work ethic.

I've found it helpful to try and see these things from the employer's point of view. What would you like to see in a new hire? What would catch your eye?

That said, with work study programs, they know you have no experience and that isn't the biggest deciding factor, so I wouldn't sweat that part. Besides, you have training as a writer, so you have better skills to wow the powers that be than applicants. In your cover letter you can say you don't have experience, but you make up for that with enthusiasm/(fill in the descriptors that fit you).