After reading the passage below, answer the questions that follow. Be sure to "submit" your response for each question. You will initially receive full credit for each question, but your grade may change once your instructor reviews your responses. Be sure to check the grade book for your final grade.
Job Application Language
You have just graduated and are on the hunt for an entry-level position in marketing. You know that your résumé is strong in terms of your degree, relevant coursework, and good grades, but you are worried that you may not have enough real-world experience. Since you had to work full time to pay college expenses, you could not afford to take the kinds of unpaid internships that look so impressive to employers; you waited tables all through college instead and graduated in five years instead of four.
You discuss these concerns with a friend who suggests making some changes in the language of your cover letter, which she says employers read more carefully anyway. She thinks that you should present your restaurant experience as a type of marketing internship in which you developed “people skills” and “sales skills” that helped you “analyze and synthesize” consumers and products. A positive spin could be put on your five years, too, she claims, by recasting it as a time to thoroughly delve into areas related to marketing that will be “invaluable” to your perspective at their particular agency. Finally, she advises you to describe yourself as “a hard worker” with “proven creativity.”
You are worried that some aspects of your résumé might not be impressive enough but you are not entirely sure that recasting your cover letter with vague language is the way to go. What will you do?