8/6/2019 Professional Memo to Teacher

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MemoTo: Josh Smith - ProfessorFrom: Samuel J. Goldstein Accelerated Pre-Medical / Medical StudentSubject: Evaluation and Analysis of Resumes and Cover LettersDate: July 21 st, 2011

The purpose of this memo is to explore specific choices made in job applications that will be sentto PSUKnowHow and Kaiser Permanente. Design and content decisions were made based on theaudience being written to and the rhetorical situation surrounding each company.

PSUKnowHow Private and Group Tutor

Company Background and Job DescriptionPSUKnowHow is a small business in the State College, Pennsylvania area that provides tutoringservices to students for many of Penn States classes and also for various standardized tests suchas the SAT and MCAT. The company requires tutors to have a minimum of a 3.8 GPA, and an

extensive working knowledge of all subjects that he or she wishes to teach. Familiarityspecifically with the Penn State curriculum makes providing help to students excessivelybeneficial. It is important that all tutors are very professional, courteous, and friendly becausestudents stay with tutors that can calmly teach tough subjects with clarity and eloquence.

Audience Analysis I know Jeremy Robinson, the owner of PSUKnowHow, on a certain level because I am in factone of his students. This gives me the luxury of knowing his personality and the overall feel of how PSUKnowHow is run. Mr. Robinson is an easy-going guy, but is very qualified and focusedon his work. Providing the highest level of tutoring services is his goal and he supplies nothingbut the best. PSUKnowHow is looking for employees that can tutor in either a single subject ormultiple subjects depending on their knowledge. They interview each candidate and put themthrough a thorough screening process to make sure that they are fit for the job. As a tutor, it isvery important that you know all information on a given subject quickly because students pay bythe hour. If time is wasted, the students will not return to PSUKnowHow.

Rhetorical Decisions The overall outline of my cover letter is simple and professional. This shows that I have theability to provide clear work, and can present information in an easy to use fashion. In my coverletter, I chose to primarily touch on my Penn State education and my experience as a non-profittutor. PSUKnowHow expresses a need for tutors who know Penn State classes specificallybecause they have a better knowledge of exactly what each student needs to know.

The style I chose for my resume was slightly different than my cover letter. The resume usescolor to break up sections because creativity is necessary in providing education for a broadrange of people. Some students learn visually, and this usage shows my creative side. Theresume begins by highlighting my education, the most relevant information for PSUKnowHow.Following this are my grades in specific coursework. The resume is arranged by most importantinformation to least. The interview is where PSUKnowHow decides whether or not to hire, sothe purpose of the resume and cover letter is to get noticed.

8/6/2019 Professional Memo to Teacher

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Kaiser Permanente Research Assistant

Company Background and Job DescriptionKaiser Permanente is a large, non-profit healthcare group that was founded in 1945 and is now

based in Oakland, California. Kaiser currently employs upwards of 164,000 people and has ayearly operating revenue of approximately 42 billion dollars. Kaiser values patient wellbeing andthe health of the community extraordinarily. As a research assistant, Kaiser is looking forsomeone who can provide all basic secretary tasks such as answering phones and following upon patients, but also desires an assistant who has strong computer skills and who can arrangedata in graphs and spreadsheets for the overall benefit of the community.

Audience AnalysisConsidering Kaiser Permanente is as large a company as it is, the interviewing process is a muchless personal ordeal than that of PSUKnowHow. Contrary to PSUKnowHows emphasis on theinterviewing process, Kaiser has to sort through thousands of job applications and places large

emphasis on each applicants resume. As stated above, Kaiser is simply looking for an assistantwho can facilitate any tasks of the researchers. Kaiser does not have the manpower to care abouteach applicant individually, so the cover letter and resume have to explain why they need youand what you can do for them that other applicants cannot.

Rhetorical DecisionsConsidering that Kaiser Permanente is a huge organization and is able find any mediocreassistant rather easily, in my cover letter I decided to quickly state how I am qualified for the job,and then go into how I am overqualified. I then explained how my over-qualifications can benefitKaiser. I used this strategy to set my application apart from the rest of the applications theywould receive. Having a deep understanding of the topics being researched could aid in theresearch process and make researching more expedient than if an uninformed assistant was beingused.

My resume begins with my education stating some of my relevant coursework and my majorprogram. The fact that I am taking almost all science related classes and that I am in the PennState / Jefferson PMM program sets me apart from most other applicants. I also decided toinclude my writing history in coursework because assistants do a lot of technical writing.Following this section, I continued to talk about my personal skills. I chose to do this because mywork and leadership experiences are not as important to Kaiser as my skills and education.Giving information about my computer skills and persona are much more important than talkingabout my experience as a Caddy. Although this information may be relevant, it is subordinate toother materials in my resume.

Closing The order of each document and the content presented were chosen carefully keeping in mindaudience and personal needs. The goal of a job application is to have a company hire you. Withthis in mind, each decision was made in creating the job applications with the final goal of looking the best to each company.