Cover Letters = On Their Way Out

When (not if) I am in charge of a company or business, I will never ask for cover letters. Resumes, ok, maybe. Just so I can justify hires to other, less creative folk. However. Some other item submission will be substituted. Options thus far include:

• papier mache
• haikus
• wire sculpture
• colorful acrostic poems
• collages (please let all glue dry before sending in)
• videos
• short story
• cartoon
• song
• dance
• mural
• torn-out notebook page with impressive doodles.

Cover letters are all hot air. I'd rather submit a Post-it Note flipbook cartoon. I'd hire me.

Going Professional

I'm trying to revamp my resume. Boost my job image. Get myself hired. Not be homeless and jobless effective May 1st.

Like every Northeastern student ever, I have a resume that sums up my basic experiences at jobs and internships and touts my decent GPA. There's an application deadline at the end of the week for a non-profit consultancy job (one-year duration, some business classes provided, menial (but at least existent) salary, and health insurance provided). A connection at the company warned me that HR is potentially looking for people with work experience, even though the program is geared towards new young professionals.

My goal is to highlight the work experience I have managed to obtain during 5 years at Northeastern. Even though I'll be a new grad, my resume doesn't resemble it. However, my current resume doesn't pop. I've looked at it so many times that it's more likely grey words than anything engaging or active. There are a few tactics I'm trying though:

• Stronger, more active verbs at the beginning of all my bullets. I want words more representative of the activity they are referencing: create = not specific. Participate = lame. Good verbs are hard to come by, however.
  
• More quantifiable terms. Created something? What number of something? For how many people? In what span of time? Did I come in way under the deadline?
• Specific skills I want to highlight: supervising interns, copyediting and proofreading a publication, managing several projects at once reliably,
• Social Media: my knowledge of and interest in blogs, Twitter, and other forms of marketing and communication
• My range of experience: while it may seem slightly less focused than the resume of a business major or engineer, I think my strength at any job will lie in my familiarity with multiple fields and skills.
  

Suggestions? Willing to read and comment on my resume? Any skills I might not be thinking of that you would either want to see as an employer or know I have as an acquaintance?