🎯 Capstone Project: Produce a Professional Career Portfolio

For this project you will produce a professional, true, and accurate resume and cover letter.  You will upload the resume, cover letter and other relevant artifacts to your career portfolio.

Part 1 – Create a professional, true, and accurate resume and cover letter. Resumes and cover letters are two of the most important documents you will ever need. It is important that you learn to create a good resume and cover letter.  You will create a resume that reflects your current education, experience, and skills.  As you gain more education, experience, and skills you will need to add to this resume so it is ready to go when you have an opportunity for a job.  You will need to create a cover letter for a job that you would currently qualify for.  To do this, you will need to research and find a job that fits your qualifications and then address your cover letter to that job. 

Resume Requirements:

1. Find a template either online or using your word processing program. Don't attempt to type your own layout as it rarely looks professional. See the example below to assist you.
2. Personal information – your name should be the focal point; it should be large and using a professional font that you feel represents your personality. You don't need your full address, just your city and state. For your email, use your personal email (make sure it is appropriate for professional use). Place your phone number with separators. Ex. 404-123-4567. All this information should be located together at the top of the page.
3. Objective or professional summary – This will be the first thing after your personal information. Don't use first person, first person is never used on a resume. This is the only section where you write in paragraph format. Make it brief (no more than 3 sentences) and state what professional goal you have as it pertains to this job. Usually, you will tailor this to the specific job you are applying for. 
4. Skills – This should be bullets.  It should be skills you have learned. Usually, these are from your CTAE classes, such as programming skills, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Photoshop, Welding, etc. If you have earned any MOS certifications (or other certifications, include those). If you are somewhat proficient in any programming languages, list those. You can also list soft skills, but make sure you really possess those skills and can give examples if asked during an interview.
5. Education – Put the high school you attend and the city and state. (If you have any college courses already, do the same thing for the college and put it above the high school.) Put your expected graduation date. If you have a high GPA (over 3.0) then you can put that on there. Put relevant courses you’ve taken, especially CTAE courses as they typically teach you a lot of skills used in the workplace. If you have taken any pathways, include pathways taken and pathways completed.  If you have earned any certifications, include certifications earned (like end-of-pathway assessments).  If you have participated in any CTSOs (like FBLA, DECA, TSA, SkillsUSA, etc.) and you have had a leadership position, competed, won any competitions, or earned recognitions, include those. If you have completed AP or IB courses, include those.
6. Experience - Experience should be all work you have done in reverse chronological order. You list the workplace, city, state, and time worked there. Example: Chick-fil-a  Stockbridge, GA     May 2023-present or May 2023-December 2024.  Then you list your job title and the main responsibilities you have/had. If you earned any awards or recognitions, then you list those.  If you did anything spectacular, you list that such as: Increased sales by 20%.  List things in as few words as possible, don’t try to make it sound like an ad.  
7. Do not include references, if someone wants references, they will ask for them. (FYI - References need to be people that are not family that know you very well and know your work ethic.)
8. Your resume must not go over 1 page.
9. Proofread! There must be absolutely NO spelling, grammatical, capitalization, or typographical errors.

Resume example:

(You can download a copy of this example here) Links to an external site.

Cover Letter:

1. Find a job that matches your qualifications. Use the ad to help you write your cover letter. Turn in a screenshot of the ad.
2. Use a business letter format (your word processing program should have a template). See the attached business letter format.
3. The cover letter includes 3 paragraphs.
   1. The first paragraph is an introductory paragraph stating what job you are applying for and where you found out about it.
   2. The second paragraph is the main paragraph. In it you "sell" yourself. You tell them why they should choose you over other applicants. You should include information that isn't on the resume but shows your qualifications. For instance, you may tell them how you planned and organized a video game tournament.  This paragraph is to convince them to look at your resume and bring you in for an interview.
   3. The third paragraph is short. It thanks them for their time and asks for an interview or tells them how to contact you.
4. Your letter should not be more than 1 page.
5. You need to have your return address at the top, the date under the return address.
6. You include an inside address that lists the person you are writing to, their title, their company name, their company address, the city, state, and zip code.
7. You include a salutation, such as – Dear Mr. Jones:
8. Your paragraphs are single-spaced with a double-space between them.
9. After the last paragraph you place a signature block.
   1. Sincerely,
   2. 3 empty line spaces to allow for room to sign if you are sending a hard copy.
   3. Your name typed.
10. Everything in the letter is left-aligned.
11. Proofread!! There must be NO spelling, grammatical, capitalization, or typographical errors.

Cover Letter Example

Part 2 –

Create an Online Portfolio

Using the program of your choice, create your online career portfolio.  You will use this portfolio to house your employment documents, such as the resume and cover letter. You will also house artifacts of your work. You will choose the work that displays your skills and abilities the best. This portfolio isn't limited to just this class, you can upload artifacts from any work that you have done that you feel good about and that you think an employer would be interested in seeing. Create a section in your portfolio for your home page, your employment documents (resume and cover letter) and your exemplary work. After creating the portfolio, upload your completed resume, cover letter and at least 3 artifacts of exemplary work you have done in this course. Turn in the link to your portfolio to your teacher. Make sure the portfolio is accessible by your teacher.