Here is a scenario: You are in the midst of applying for a job, submitted your resume and then the "Add a  Cover letter" option comes up. Oh no! And now you have to write a cover letter....ugh!

Cover letter writing can seem like such a daunting task; however, it doesn't have to be. Here are some tips for writing a great cover letter from one of your Career Peers, Natalia Alfaro, who proofreads a lot of cover letters while working at the Career Center. 

While you are writing, here are 10 tips to keep in mind when writing a cover letter: 

1. Cover Letters Should Expand On Experience, Not Repeat The Resume
1. All experiences you write about in your cover letter should be listed on your resume. But be mindful not to summarize your resume in your cover letter. 
2. Keep It Short And To The Point 
1. Ideal cover letters are 3/4-page to a full page in length. A cover letter that uses purposeful and precise wording conveys strong communication skills. Click here for a formatting guide 
3. Open With Position and Source
1. Whoever reads your letter will first want to know how you found out about this position and what position you're applying for. So it is recommended to include this information in your opening sentence. Click here for sample cover letters.
4. Research
1. Make it clear that you spent time researching the organization and that you understand their work and mission. Gather information from sources such as the organization's website, LinkedIn, etc. 
5. Explain Why You Want The Position
1. Each cover letter you write should always answer the question, "Why this position?" Explain how this position fits with your career goals and why you’re interested or excited about this position, preferably in the opening paragraph.
6. Describe Your Specific Contributions
1. List one or two examples of how your skills, experiences, and qualities directly fit the company's needs and position description. Answer questions such as: "How can the company benefit from your experiences?" and "What are you bringing to the table?"
7. Be Convincing
1. This is a letter to persuade the recruiter that you are qualified and right for the position. Focus on your strengths and use positive, powerful nouns and adjectives (Page 16 of the Career Guide).
8. Avoid Overusing "I"
1. Minimize the use of "I", "me", and "my". Instead, use "you" and "your". For example, instead of "I believe your company would benefit...." try "Your company could benefit from...."
9. End With a Strong Action Statement 
1. The final paragraph should clearly state the exact manner in which you will follow up and request an interview, as well as how the recruiter can contact you.  
10. Proofread !!!
1. Re-read your letter, Schedule an appointment at the Career Center in Handshake, or attend drop-in hours to have your letter reviewed by a Career Peer.

Cover letter writing is a learned skill; the more you write the better you will get! So don't stress, and use all the resources the Career Center offers. Good luck on your cover letter writing!

Best Regards, 

Natalia Alfaro

Career Peer

Name: Pradeep Agrawal  

Internship, Co-op, or Research Site:  Campbell & Company

Position Title: Software Engineer Intern 

Major or Program: Computer Science

Current Class Level: Master's Student 

Work Term: Summer 2022 Internship and Fall 2022 Co-op (Ongoing)  

Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities. 

My position duties include working as a member of the Data and Trading Systems engineering team on project-based assignments. I work on Python Language along with MSSQL and Oracle DB to implement packages to automate the trading systems. Building data ingestion workflows using Python, Apache Airflow, and SQL

Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application? 

When I was looking for Summer 2022 Internship, I cam across the intern position at Campbell & Company in January. I applied through various platforms like LinkedIn, Career Fare, UMBCworks and Handshake. One day, I got the call from HR of the Campbell & Company to schedule the technical round in the First week of March. My technical round lasted for about 3 hours and after 3-4 days, I got a call from HR to congratulate me for my offer.

Which of the following resources did you use to find your current experience? 

UMBC Career Center, Career Fairs, UMBCworks, LinkedIn or Other Social Media

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization?  

I like the work environment here. My team members are very helpful and inspiring. We do a lot of brainstorming around problems before diving into the coding part. Which is the best part of my work. 

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

So far I am able to develop 4 packages which are being used by the live data and trading systems without any fail. For that, I got appreciate by my manager in our Quarterly meeting.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience? 

Instead of focusing on language specifics, just dive into the programming logics to develop sense of problem solving. It is more important that you understand which data structure to use to solve a specific problem. Also, you should be able to break down any big problem to smaller problems.

Please provide a short reflection or quote about what you liked most about your position / earning internship credit / working with the Career Center.

Focus on learning new things and understanding work culture.

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Name: Niyati Rami

Internship, Co-op, or Research Site: T.Rowe Price

Position Title: Global Technology Intern

Major or Program: Information Systems   

Current Class Level: Senior 

Work Term:  Summer 2022

Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities. 

This summer, I worked with T.Rowe Price's Disaster Recovery team, which is responsible for establishing disaster recovery plan, developing the plan's processes and procedures, and implementing the plan in the case of a crisis to ensure data recovery is attainable. My daily responsibilities included assisting with the planning and preparation of this year's Disaster Recovery Exercise. Along with that, I worked on developing a dashboard for our team to visualize buildout times of all of the application being tested as well as recovery time goals (RTO) of those applications. I also worked on the development of "how-to" manuals for my team.

Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application? 

This past spring I was looking for internships for the summer and I saw an email from Christine Routzan stating that T.Rowe Price was looking to fill some intern positions and I submitted my resume. Few weeks later I received a call from the recruiter for screening purposes and then scheduled an interview with the manager. 

Which of the following resources did you use to find your current experience? 

Networking Events (UMBC Connects, Info Sessions, Arts with A Purpose, etc.)

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization?

Intern events! T.Rowe Price hosts wonderful events throughout the summer to keep all the interns feel connected and network. 

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

I feel my work has had an impact since the projects I worked on this summer will be utilized as future training manuals for the incoming interns next year, as I was one of the team's first interns. In addition, my aid in creating a dashboard let the audience see the data, making it simpler compared to simply gazing at a spreadsheet.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience? 

Believe in yourself and your abilities or else no one else will. Keep applying and be consistent. 

Please provide a short reflection or quote about what you liked most about your position / earning internship credit / working with the Career Center.

I believe sky's the limit! 

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Want to be the next Intern of the Week? Make sure to fill out this form and stay tuned. New interns are announced every Monday!

Name: Ruthann Dolinka

Internship, Co-op, or Research Site: Collins Aerospace

Position Title: Embedded Software Engineer Intern

Major or Program: Computer Science  /

Current Class Level: Senior

Work Term: Summer 2022

Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities.

During my internship I was responsible for setting up a Jenkins Server. I installed the Jenkins software on a desktop computer, connected the desktop to three NI-test stations, and then configured Jenkins to test project code. 

Jenkins is software that performs continuous Integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD). This means that Jenkins is able to autonomously test code and send out a notification of the results of those tests. This is useful because it allows code to be tested much more quickly and can catch errors that may not be caught for a long time with manual tests. Projects being worked on by multiple people often benefit from the use of Jenkins, as it is easy for a change to one person’s code to conflict with another person’s code. Jenkins solves this problem by continuously integrating and testing code when a change is made so that errors can be caught early.

My daily responsibilities consisted of working on setting up the Jenkins server, talking with my team or other onsite employees to discuss solutions, and attending meetings. I would often work on researching a problem or writing scripts at my desk. I would also work in the lab on the desktop and test station hardware. I would have a meeting every other week with my team to discuss my project progress as well as listen to the status of my teams other projects.

By the end of my internship I had completed all the goals set for my project. The Jenkins software would clone the SVN repository for the project, copy to the code to the test station, execute the test, copy the test results to the Jenkins server, and then email out a notification with the status of the test as well as the test results and build log attached as artifacts.

I really enjoyed my experience during this internship and I learned a lot about both the professional development process and code development. I improved my python, batch, and scripting skills and got the chance to work on my networking skills and meet many new people. I hope to be able to secure a full time position with Collins Aerospace in the future. 

Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application? 

The process I went through to obtain this position was different then the majority of the internship positions I applied to. Most positions I applied to through a company website, usually hearing about the position through UMBCworks or LinkedIn.

I heard about this position when I attended the online 2021 SWE conference. The UMBC Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) organization made it possible for me to attend this conference. They sponsored me and several other CWIT students to attend the conference. I submitted my resume when registering for the conference, and I was later contacted by a Collins Aerospace recruiter who expressed interest in setting up an interview after the conference.

After the conference I got the chance to do two interviews with two different recruiters from Collins. After the interview they informed me that they would meet with other Collins recruiters to discuss the candidates they interviewed and try to determine which where the best fit for the positions they were trying to fill. Sometime after the interviews I was presented with an offer. I later did another interview with the manager I would be working under during my internship.

Which of the following resources did you use to find your current experience?

Career Fairs, Student Organizations/Scholar Groups, SWE Conference, CWIT 

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization?  

What I enjoyed most about working for Collins has been the working environment, my team, the work, and the resources and events available to me. The working environment at Collins was very supportive and I felt welcome and that I had everything I needed to do my job. For example, towards the end of my internship I started to feel a lot of pain in my wrist from using the mouse. I visited the nurse on site and she did a physical assessment and supplied me with two ergonomic mice to try and an ice pack. I always felt that I could reach out to anyone on the site or in my team for assistance, whether it was the IT department, my manager, or the nurse.

My team was very supportive and we had biweekly meetings to check the progress of the projects we were working on. I was assigned a mentor and I felt I could reach out to her at any time.

The work was challenging but also enjoyable. I felt like I was learning and improving my skills while working on my project, but still had fun working on it. The project felt relevant to my major and like I was working on something meaningful that would be used after I left.

Collins had many resources and events available to me. I often attended workshops and met with other interns and full time staff for activities. There were also paid opportunities to have fun such as wellness day.

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

I believe my work made an impact at the company. My work was used on an actual project for a client and was able to catch an error in the code. My project is also being used now even after the end of my internship. The documentation I wrote will be used in the future by whoever takes over my project.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience? 

My internship with Collins Aerospace was a great experience and I learned a lot from it. I had a great time and met some great people while improving my coding and networking skills. I got the chance to see what it is like working in the industry and work on a project that would have an impact.

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Have you ever been terrified of the unexpected questions a potential employer may ask you in an interview? Me too! The unknown of the interviewing process scares many people, not just you. If you struggle with preparation for interviews, I am here to help! If you don't know me already, my name is Molly Walker, and I am a Career Peer at the Career Center. Like you, I am a UMBC student with access to a wide range of resources available at the Career Center. 

If you haven't had much experience with interviewing yet,,anticipating the kind of questions that you may be asked may be a daunting prospect. That's why we give UMBC students free access to the Big Interview. 

You may ask, what exactly is the Big Interview? It is a website that provides instructional modules on how to answer interview questions and offers simulated interviews for you to master. Some important features include:

• Video learning modules: In the Learn tab on the site, a compilation of modules on multiple interview topics. Within the interview modules, you can choose to watch the video modules that fit you best.

• Interview Question Library: This resource provides you with insider advice to prepare for questions across multiple categories, such as: Industry, Competency, College Admissions, Government Positions, and Veteran Experiences! 

• Practice Interviews: Normally, the best way to practice for an interview is to prepare in the mirror or with a friend. Yet, Big Interview took that approach and elevated it! My favorite feature of Big Interview is the mock interview simulation. Using the knowledge from the modules and your pick of questions, you are prompted by a pre-recorded interviewer to respond appropriately. There are also different difficulty levels for the pre-recorded interviewers spending on the moderator. In a real interview, it can be difficult to analyze the quality of your answers due to the anxiety and stress of the moment. It can feel as though your brain is cloudy as you concentrate on answering the questions. By answering the questions beforehand on Big Interview, you can assess your responses without the stress and anxiety of a real interview. 

• Interview Recording: You can record yourself answering the questions in the mock interview and immediately view for self-reflection. You can also send your recorded videos to receive feedback from Career Center staff, including me! The Career Center has strong interviewing expertise and can provide advice and feedback you may have never considered. Specifically, once you have completed a mock interview on Big Interview, complete these steps to send the videos to the Career Center: 

1. Go to the tab on the top of the screen "My Videos"

2. Check the mark next to the video you want to share

3. The blue "Share" button on the top right-hand side of the page

4. Click "E-mail the following people" and enterinterviews@umbc.edu

5. Click add email after you have entered the above email address

6. Click "Share Now," and your video will be sent.

7. You will receive feedback through the Big Interview platform within 48 hours of your request during the weekdays.

Big Interview is incredibly unique, and in my opinion, an under-utilized resource that the Career Center provides. No matter your situation, Big Interview is ready to help you prepare! Though Big Interview is a tremendous resource, you may find you would like some extra assistance. Some additional resources available at the Career Center are:

• Accessing the Big Interview Demo on our website if you want to learn more about how to get started. 

• Setting up an Interview Prep appointment with a Career Advisor using Handshake.

• If you find yourself with some extra time on your hands during winter break, it is the perfect time to visit us! Check out our Career Center Winter Hours and get a jump on preparing for and landing those Spring and Summer jobs or internships.

Remember, no one is born perfect at interviews! Rest assured that, like anything else, you can easily conquer your interviews with some support and practice. We are happy to help you through that process. Happy Practicing!

Name: Rawdah Ahmed

Internship, Co-op, or Research Site: Textron Systems

Position Title: Financial Analyst 

Major or Program: Political Science  

Current Class Level: Senior

Work Term: Spring 2022, Summer 2022, Fall 2022

Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities. 

As a financial analyst co-op, I work with other analysts on the "manned & unmanned systems" financial teams at Textron Systems in Hunt Valley, MD. Some of my daily responsibilities include administering weekly financial reports based on labor and material "actuals" data, amend budget forecasts to properly represent how the company was fairing financially, analyze trends within the production and sale of products, and presenting all of this corroborated information to executives & managers to ultimately aid them in making decisions to promote growth and mitigate risk to the company's future financial health.

Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application? 

I applied to this position on-line, using UMBCworks after I saw it pop up on me "recommended" home page. I completed a phone interview with a recruiter and then interviewed with the directors of finance at the company before being offered the position & ultimately accepting.

Which of the following resources did you use to find your current experience? 

UMBCworks, LinkedIn or Other Social Media

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization?  

I have enjoyed all the experience I have gained working in the office with the finance team and the ability Textron gave me to continue pursuing my Bachelor's and also develop skills that would help me advance. Working side-by-side with people who are veterans at the company has allowed me to quickly develop the technical skills needed for many financial roles, as well as the personal confidence in my analysis to be able to interpret trends and make suggestions to the team and my managers regarding financial matters in the company. It has also allowed me to drastically expand my networking and interpersonal skills as the company is part of a large, cross-country organization and allows lots of opportunity for the interaction of different branches.

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

I believe I have opened the door for more co-ops and interns to join the team in the future, and primed the current team to working with someone who is in college/still in the stages of developing their career. While I was being trained on the various reports that need weekly/monthly administration, I created clear and easy-to-follow process guides (for myself to reference) that will hopefully help any other new analysts joining the company to easily move through their training process.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience? 

Reach out to recruiters at the company to which you've applied using social media liked LinkedIn (if their contact information/email is not readily available using a google search/ on the job database).

Please provide a short reflection or quote about what you liked most about your position / earning internship credit / working with the Career Center.

It felt really great to not only be compensated for my position through monetary means, but also be able to receive credit for the work that I have done; it is always a challenge to balance working everyday and attending classes throughout the year while putting your best foot forward in both ventures. To have the opportunity to submit my co-op for class credit has allowed me to satisfy my graduation requirements & set me up to graduate early for my class, this fall 2022.

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