Enrique Said:

Resume look okay? Please help? Life or Death!?

We Answered:

I think your resume is mostly okay, but I wonder what you did after 2005. I would also stress customer service skills, maybe in your Big Boy, Inc. job. As for the cover letter, here are a few things I noticed:

*You are missing a period at the end of your first paragraph.
* I would rather read you last sentence in the first paragraph as "My leadership experience in a (enter buzz word here like customer-oriented) work environment combined with my education makes me well-suited to carry out the requirements of the Store Manager position."
* You need a topic sentence for your second paragraph.Something that summarizes why you think this education is important.
*If you the gap in your resume is because of education, I would specifically state it in the second paragraph. Even just mention when you graduated and with what GPA.
* The colon before your list of class is unnecessary. I would just substitute it for "in" and lower case the name of the classes
*The third paragraph would be the section to mention that you were a Shift Leader.
*The first sentence in the third paragraph is missing a comma. It should read "My experience, both in education and within the work environment, have allowed me to develop excellent written and oral communication skills"
*The second sentence should be your topic sentence for the third paragraph. Example: "Through my work experiences at Big Boy, Inc and Ruby Tuesday, I have acquired a strong sense of responsibility, effective interpersonal skills, and the ability work as a resourceful team player."
*I would get rid of the word "peers". It makes it confusing whether they were your peers or your subordinates.
*Unless the computer skills are specifically listed for this job I would get rid of that sentence. It sounds awkward and is too short to be separate paragraph in your cover letter. Also, you have it on your resume.
* You don't need to the colon before you list your hands-on experience section.
* I would include a sentence about why you want to work at CVS. Example, "I am excited about the opportunity to work for an organization that (pick something from their website, like "is committed to providing excellent customer service to its patrons"). You need to make the cover letter about your alignment with the company's goals.


I hope this is helpful. I know it may be difficult to look at the full list of suggestions, but I am only trying to help. Personally, I think you have a great start, but you need to refine it a little bit more. Good luck.