dank's blog

We've finished up our white paper and submitted it. The collaborative effort seemed to work fairly well, as our paper is through and well-written. The paper was divided up into different sections we all wrote seperately, then we passed the the paper around after our peer group reviewed the paper. I still think it was difficult to contribute as much as other group members due to being at work all day every day, but I do think I still made contributions to the project.

We seem to be making progress after this week. Our team has come up with a detailed plan on what the white paper will look like as well as delegated sections to each of the team members. All sections have been assigned with the exception of the executive summary, which we will write together once the main part of the paper is completed. E-mail has been the best way to get a hold of each other, although I feel that my group may be frustrated with my lack of connectivity, which is inconsistent.

White papers are documents used primarily to educate and inform the reader about an intended subject. They inform a reader without persuading or adding biases, and traditionally, white papers are not marketing tools used to persuade the reader, although white papers are constantly punctuated with biases and opinions of the writers.

So far, we've read through the project handout, and gotten our groups. It's clear I'm going to be the one that is the hardest to contact, so getting an early start on things and staying on top of my portions of the project will be very important. More coming as we figure out more. I definitely need to spend more time with Google Docs, as I really have no idea what the project is really about.

Attached are rough drafts of my cover letter and resume that will be sent to Shedd Aquarium for the Development Assistant job. Enjoy, and edit away. I'd love to actually get this job, so definitely be harsh, and give me any and all comments.

Dan

I found two “targeted” cover letters to take as cover letter examples. They were both similar to T-letters in the way the listed specific job requirements, and then below listed the qualifications. I was completely unimpressed with this type of cover letter. One of the things that I would like to be able to convey in a cover letter is some of my personality, which is much more relaxed and playful than a resume allows, so this almost mechanical format had no real appeal to me.

As some of you may have read, I'm applying for a Development Assistant position at Shedd Aquarium. I've attached the T-Letter for Step 1 of Project 2. For any of you that are curious the job description can be found at the following website (http://www.sheddaquarium.org/developmentdevelopmentassistant.html).

I am applying for a development (fundraising) position at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. The position calls for a fundraiser with a degree and 1-3 years of development experience. I satisfy both requirements, but I have no desire in looking like a standard development person applying for a new job. I’ve always loved aquariums, have been scuba diving since I was 12 years old, and my childhood dream job was to be a marine biologist.

The usability test for the boat driving instructions went fairly well, but it is clear there is room for improvement in my instructions. It was difficult to find someone I work or live with that had taken a boaters course, but didn’t know or forgot how to drive a boat, so my usability test volunteer was a 23 year-old lifeguard who had experience being on boats and general waterfront safety principles, but was not familiar with driving a boat. This was as close as I could come to my target audience, and seemed to work fairly well.

I managed to scrounge up a set of instructions for a coffee maker and attempted to make coffee according to the directions. For someone who's used to boiling grounds in a small coffee pot on the stove, and making it stronger than most conventional coffee makers, I figured this would be a good place to start for the usability testing. The instructions were surprisingly clear and were user-friendly enough for me to make a pot of coffee (albeit, a bit milder than I was used to).