Resume & Cover Letters

Write a Resume & Cover Letter

Crafting an organized, actionable, and focused resume and cover letter is crucial for getting a job or internship. These are two components to your search process and how you can tell your story.

How We Can Help

• Download our Resume Guide & Tips and our Cover Letter Guide & Tips. These guides can be found in the Resources Library in your Handshake account.
• Meet with a Career Ambassador to review your resume, cover letter, or application for a part-time job, internship, or campus leadership position.
• Schedule an appointment with a Career Coach in Handshake.
• Attend our resume and cover letter workshops to learn how to create a professional resume and how to customize your resume and cover letters for each job application.

Resume

The average employer only spends less than 10 seconds reviewing each resume, so you need to ensure that yours is targeted, error-free, and easy to skim.

Get started and hone in

• General and Policy Resume Guide
• Business Resume Guide
• STEM and Health Resume Guide
• Federal Resumes and USAJobs Applications
• Resumes vs CVs

VMock–Virtual Resume Review

VMock is a 24-7 online resume review tool that leverages technologies to provide instant, personalized feedback on your resume. The feedback is based on criteria gathered from employers and global best practices. VMock is designed to work with resumes from many different fields across various industries.

VMock will:

• Provide you with resume guidelines based on your industry template to ensure that you do not miss the fine details and establish a great first impression.
• Give you an aggregated resume score to assess the strength of your resume benchmarked against your GW peers.
• Tell you how well you have marketed your communication skills and leadership experience; and how impactful your bullet points are.
• Give you line-by-line suggestions to improve your resume content.

Access VMock

Make sure you are using your [email protected] to register. If you use your [email protected], the system will not allow you to register. For FAQs and more information on getting started with VMock, check out this article in Handshake.

Cover Letter

A cover letter is a primary way to provide an introduction to a potential contact or employer. Your cover letter should:

• Communicate your accomplishments, skills, and experience. Convey your writing style and thought processes.
• Access the Cover Letter guide in Handshake for a template on structure and examples. 
• Capture the attention of your reader and compel them to continue reading.