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Questions about resumes can also be posted here.

I wasn't sure where to post this, but I think here works?

Is it totally weird to send it to places that aren't advertising that they're hiring? I feel really awkward about this. People keep telling me to do it, and I have nothing to lose, but I don't really know what to say in the beginning of the cover letter, or if I really should bother at all.

Hi, I'm sorry about the long wait for a reply. It is not weird to send your resume to places that do not have advertisements for positions, because not every workplace advertises their open positions online.

If you are sending your resume to a place that is not currently advertising for an open position online, do some research to make sure you are reaching out to the right person with your resume and  cover letter. Ideally, you want to contact someone in human resources, a secretary, or perhaps the owner in the case of some small businesses. The cover letter, however, needn't be tricky. Instead of focusing on your qualifications for a specific position (because you don't know that information), focus on the value you would bring to the company as an employee and how well you would fit into the company's culture.

If you do not know how to open your cover letter in this situation, try this approach.
1) Open with 1 sentence saying who you are. "My name is Catherine Sword and I am an archaeologist with experience in historical preservation."
2) Show your knowledge and praise of the company. "I support the valuable work the San Antonio Conservation Society has accomplished by protecting and managing our city’s heritage while also educating the general public about our city’s history."
3) Share why you think you would be a valuable addition to their workforce as an employee. "The San Antonio Conservation Society will benefit from my varied background in archaeological and museum collections, knowledge of San Antonio and its history, and my knowledge of the historical preservation efforts currently underway in San Antonio."
4) Share why you think you would fit within their organization. "My work as a volunteer on your Historic Gas Station project demonstrates I understand and share the San Antonio Conservation Society's values of conservation, education, and celebration of our heritage."

I'm still available for resume assistance and review. (:

Thank you very much for taking the time to be of assistance! I have been looking into Master's graduate programs for geology (with focus on either mineralogy or metamorphic petrology) and have really been stressing out about it. Both of my parents only received their Bachelor's degrees (in topics very different from mine) so they don't really understand me when they see me struggling with this so much.

Below are my questions and concerns. I tried to group them together for easier reading.

1) Contacting potential graduate advisors
I found a few professors that I am interested in contacting. I already contacted one of them without a problem (she researches something similar to what I did for my undergraduate capstone) and have been in contact with her since last year. However, the remaining two professors study a topic that I have no professional experience with (and they are both men), so I am finding it very hard to create a segway between introducing myself and asking them for more information without sounding “stupid.”

To provide you with a bit more context, I found out about the two professors while pursuing a personal interest in a specific group of minerals that I have been reading about and collecting for fun. In fact, I read an old mineralogy magazine article (2004) written by one of the professors. I guess I could somehow tie that into my e-mail, but I am not sure how to sandwich it in between the introduction and inquiry without sounding too disconnected. (The other option is possibly calling the professors?)

2) Writing Statements of Purpose/Intent
Writing has never been my thing and quite honestly, it is what has been keeping me from moving forward with my profession. In general, I have been struggling to make use of what I have in a way that is concise while also demonstrating my passion for the subject. (I cannot even describe in words how obsessed I am with rocks and minerals.) My resume/CV and GRE scores are not very impressive. (I was slightly above average in everything, except writing. I absolutely destroyed myself on the writing portion. x__X) I do not have any internships or job experience relevant to my profession (unless teaching/lab assistant counts, but that was a 5-10/hour per week job) and was not involved in more than two extracurricular activities (each lasting one year). Instead, I do however, have very high marks in all of my subjects, a year of geology study abroad, field camp, and academic recognition (eg. Cum Laude and the GEO department nominated scholarship). I guess it's a matter of figuring out how to use that information effectively to make up for the fact that I do not have any professional experience.

3) Reapplying and Reusing information
I applied to a university last year and passed their requirements for admission, but got wait-listed. Ultimately, they had to tell me “no” because none of the preferred applicants dropped the program. I am however, reapplying to this university (and flying out to the campus in a few days to meet with some professors in person). I have two statements already written, which the faculty said I could reuse for the application, but I am thinking that I should probably tweak them a bit. Or at least tweak the main one after visiting the campus.

If it wouldn't be too much trouble would you be able to proofread my statements and offer your wisdom? The people who I would normally ask to proofread something are also the people who will be writing my letters of recommendation, so I do not think they are allowed to see what I have written. I tried asking my dad for advice last time, but he kept trying to insert a bunch of flowery nonsense (and would get mad at me whenever I disagreed with his suggestions).

Again thank you very much for taking the time to read this!

-Andi

De nada! I am glad to be of assistance. I am going to provide my thoughts on your questions. If you would like for me to read over your statements of purpose (or your CV), then you are welcome to put them up here. If you would like something a little more private, feel free to email me at cat.archery@yahoo.com

1) Contacting potential graduate advisors
It is great that you are taking this step! I would also recommend contacting a few of the graduate students in the program(s), too. If you can contact some of the graduate students who are studying under the professors you are interested in, even better. The graduate students can provide you great insight into what it is like being in that program and what it is like working with that professor. Just because the professor studies what you want to study, doesn't mean they will be enjoyable to work with. Ask the graduate students if they like working with that professor, too, or if they are second-guessing their choice. Usually there is a listing of graduate students somewhere on the department website.

Absolutely, read the articles written by the professors (read some of the articles listed on their CVs) and bring up anything you liked, found interesting, have questions about in the email you write to them. This will show that not only you have interest in their research, but you took the extra time to go beyond what the department website said about them. You can also use that as a gateway to ask what they are working on now, because you may become involved with their research if you go to that university.

Don't worry about it sounding disconnected, because it is totally your segue. Talk about an article (questions, compliments, comments, etc.), ask what current research they and their graduate students are doing, segue into your interest in working underneath them (if you have any ideas about what you want to pursue, feel free to bring it up around here, especially if it connects to what they are doing/have done in the past).

2) Writing Statements of Purpose/Intent
Don't worry too much about your GRE scores. There are a lot of universities that do not give them much weight, because the GRE isn't the best reflection of what you can do as a graduate student. Focus on what experience you do have that will help you become a good graduate student. I'm going to list some items that do this, which you've already mentioned: the undergraduate capstone, teaching/laboratory assistant, the year of study abroad focusing on geology, field camp, and academic recognition. All of that are great signs that you'll be a good graduate student.

Most students are not going to come into graduate school with professional experience, because a lot of graduate students enter their programs right after undergraduate school. This is not a negative against you.

Your undergraduate capstone will show that you are able to semi-independently manage and direct your own research or project (that's a major quality a graduate student needs). A lot of graduate schools offer teaching and laboratory assistantships to graduate students as a source of funding, so the fact that you have prior experience is a plus. Also, it's another plus if you plan to go into teaching. The year of study abroad in geology demonstrates you can learn how to communicate across cultures, be independent, handle out-of-the-ordinary situations, (depending on where you went) and learn a new language. The field camp (field school?), if I can assume it is similar to what I know, allowed you the opportunity to get hands-on experience with the activities a geologist performs regularly.

(Field camp = a place you went to do geologist activities and research every day for a period of time?)

You have a great statement of purpose in there! You've done a lot already.

Also, if you haven't already, give some thought to what you might want to study. You don't have to come up with a research design for your master's thesis right now, lol, but you should have a broad understanding of where you want to focus your time and efforts within the discipline.

3) Reapplying and Reusing Information
Yes, you can totally reuse what you wrote last year, but I would encourage you to consider doing more than minor tweaks. There is a possibility that the same set of people who read it last year will read it again this year. You want to show them your interest and what level of commitment you want to make with your studies. You don't have to rewrite it, but you do want to make enough changes that the professor doesn't sit there wondering if you just submitted the same thing again without bothering to improve on it.

If you are going to the campus soon, then don't be afraid to ask the professor(s) or a graduate advisor (the department probably has some assigned as the graduate advisor of record or could point you in the direction of the graduate school/admissions office) what common mistakes they see in statements of purpose. Or, better yet, if you feel comfortable asking this, what qualities catch their eye when they read a great statement of purpose.

Thank you very much for taking the time to write this post! It was very helpful! I definitely plan to ask lots of questions while visiting the campus, especially since the professor invited me to her research group's meeting and a few of the student presentations. I'm so excited!

On a side note, I was able to obtain a few more articles, so hopefully at least one of them will be inspiring enough to bring up in an e-mail. lol

P.S. I will definitely hit you up with an e-mail!

Update! I will also help you with your staff applications.