CS Master's grad seeks NLP/AI/Technical Writing Position (Canada)
cameron shelley
on request.
----<cover letter>--------------------------------------------------
Cameron Shelley
Department of Computer Science
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
N2L 3G1
November 9, 1992
To Whom it May Concern,
I have recently completed my Master's degree in Computer Science at
the University of Waterloo, with specialization in Computational
Linguistics. I have deferred my entry into the Ph.D. program in
order to seek industry experience, but I am also willing to consider a
permanent position. With this letter, I have included a copy of my
resume, which will tell you more about my background. I am interested
in a position that will allow me to employ my current skills and
provide the opportunity to learn new ones.
I have acquired diverse research skills in Computer Science and
Artificial Intelligence through my thesis work in Speech Act Theory
and my coursework in Computational Linguistics, Intelligent Computer
Interfaces, Text Retrieval, and Network Reliability Theory. I have
developed my programming abilities by completing sentence parsers and
generators in Prolog, and a text-retrieval system in C. I have also
gained solid supporting and personal interaction skills through my
work tutoring the freshman Computer Science course and the graduate
Computational Linguistics course; and serving as a UNIX consultant for
the Math Faculty Computing Facility. In addition, I have exercised my
organizational abilities by helping both to organize and review
submissions for the 1992 and 1993 student sessions of the Association
for Computational Linguistics conference. Also, I have practised my
technical communications skills through our Computational Stylistics
research group and through preliminary research in Cognitive Science
regarding the use of diagrams in scientific and technical documents.
I have gained broad experience in research, programming, group
interaction, and technical communication that I am confident will
benefit your company. I am available for an interview at your
convenience, and prepared to start work as early as possible in 1993.
I will gladly supply references on request and I look forward to
hearing from you.
Yours truly,
Cameron Shelley
cpsh...@logos.uwaterloo.ca
----<resume>--------------------------------------------------------
RESUME
Cameron Shelley
email: cpsh...@logos.uwaterloo.ca
Work: Department of Computer Science Home: 189 Lester St.
University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3W3
N2L 3G1 (519) 886-1438 or
(519) 888-4674 (519) 366-2411
OBJECTIVE
To find a challenging R&D position in which I can exploit my
current NLP/AI and technical writing abilities, and also to acquire
new skills.
EDUCATION
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
M.Math. Computer Science, specializing in Computational
Linguistics, 1992.
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Honours B.Sc. in Computer Science, summa cum laude, 1990.
UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE
General Skills
Experienced in UNIX X-windows environment using C, sed, awk, LaTeX,
shell scripts, etc.;
Proficient in C, Prolog, Lisp, Pascal, Fortran, and Turing
programming languages;
Skilled in technical writing;
Projects Completed
Sentence parsers and generators in Prolog (using DCG and
unification-based methods);
Text-retrieval system in C;
Syntax-directed editor for first-order logic using Synthesizer
Generator system.
- 1 -
WORK EXPERIENCE
Technical Assistant, EDS Canada, Ltd. May to September, 1988 and 1989
Worked in large, VMS-based environment in General Motors Oshawa
Truck Plant;
Authored disaster recovery plan for Truck Plant computer
systems;
Created report-generating software using Ingres database and
Plant error-logging systems;
Performed user interface standardization and software
maintenance tasks.
Sales Assistant, MicroComputer Centre, McMaster University, May to
September, 1990
Provided sales and management support for McMaster computer
store;
Installed diverse hardware and software systems.
PUBLICATIONS
C. Shelley. Speech acts and pragmatics in sentence generation.
M.Math. thesis, Dept. of Computer Science, University of
Waterloo, 1992. To be published as University of Waterloo Faculty
of Mathematics technical report CS-92-49;
C. Shelley, N. Randall, and C. DiMarco. Register and speech act
theory intext generation. In D. Fass, E. Hinkelman, and J.
Martin, editors, Proceedings, the International Joint Conference on
Artificial Intelligence Workshop on Computational Approaches to
Non-literal Language, Sydney, Australia, August, 1991. Also
published in University of Colorado Dept. of Computer Science
technical report CU-CS-550-91, Boulder, CO.
CURRENT INTERESTS
Cognitive science, computational linguistics, and philosophy of mind;
Fencing, tennis, and hiking;
Creative writing, language studies, mythology, and history.
AFFILIATIONS
Member of the Association for Computational Linguistics;
Member of the Association for Computing Machinery.
- 2 -
----<resume>--------------------------------------------------------
</dev/cam
--
Cameron Shelley |"In the beginning, there was nothing. Then
cpsh...@logos.uwaterloo.ca | God said `Let there be light', and there
Davis Centre Rm 3147 | was still nothing, but youse could see it."
Phone (519) 885-1211 x3499 | --Dave Thomas, SCTV:_Sunrise Semester_
John Austin
....
|> I have recently .... I have deferred my entry into the Ph.D. program in
|> order to seek industry experience, but I am also willing to consider ...
I started to browse your cover letter because I'm aways looking for good ideas
to put in cover letters (job hunting is a skill that needs to be excercised like
other skills). I stopped when I got to the part that implied I'M REALLY
MUCH TOO CLEVER TO WASTE MY TIME WORKING FOR A LIVING BUT I NEED THE MONEY SO
I'LL LET YOU HIRE ME IF YOU OFFER ME ENOUGH ...
Do you think a personnel director will waste his time reading any further ? If you
want to be a writer you should demonstrate a little better planning in ordering your
ideas. Give them a reason to hire you up front, not a reason to discard you.
You should say something like I'M TIRED OF BEING WARM AND DRY AND I WANT TO CARRY
A RIFLE FOR YOU AND GET WET AND DIRTY AND COLD BUT I'LL BE GRATEFUL FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO CAPTURE A LITTLE BIT OF GROUND FOR YOUR CORPORATE ARMY!
Don't lie on your resume and don't tell em everything you are thinking about. Just
tell em why they will be glad they hired you.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't speak for BNR. I just march along with the rest of my Legion.
Stuart MacMartin
is he willing to risk not getting a job in order to get one that matches his
career interests? There may indeed be companies that don't mind hiring someone
for the short term. They won't invest as much money into training him, and he
won't feel guilty when he leaves. The company will get assistance on a short-term
project, and he'll get some industry experience. What's wrong with looking for an
ideal match?
Though I agree he's cutting his options rather short by implying he'll accept a
permanent position only if the offer is good enough.
The way I read it, he is a serious worker who wants a stepping stone job.
If there is a company with a stepping stone position, there's a good match.
If there is a full-time position that is a good match, all the better.
People often leave after 2 years anyway.
Of course, I'm not in any personel or human resources department, so what do I know?
Stuart
--
: Stuart MacMartin email: s...@bnr.ca :
: Bell-Northern Research phone: (613) 763-5625 :
: PO Box 3511, Stn C, Ottawa, K1Y-4H7, CANADA Standard disclaimers apply. :
cameron shelley
> In article <BxGxJ...@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca>, cpsh...@logos.uwaterloo.ca (cameron shelley) writes:
> ....
>
> |> I have recently .... I have deferred my entry into the Ph.D. program in
> |> order to seek industry experience, but I am also willing to consider ...
>
> I started to browse your cover letter because I'm aways looking for
> good ideas to put in cover letters (job hunting is a skill that needs
> to be excercised like other skills). I stopped when I got to the part
> that implied I'M REALLY MUCH TOO CLEVER TO WASTE MY TIME WORKING FOR A
> LIVING BUT I NEED THE MONEY SO I'LL LET YOU HIRE ME IF YOU OFFER ME
> ENOUGH ...
I have been accepted in the Ph.D. program at a fairly well-to-do
university (Waterloo), so I don't see how it follows that I'm cold and
starving. And if I think I'm too clever to work for a living, as you
put it, why am I looking for a job when I apparently don't have to?
[...]
> You should say something like I'M TIRED OF BEING WARM AND DRY AND I
> WANT TO CARRY A RIFLE FOR YOU AND GET WET AND DIRTY AND COLD BUT I'LL
> BE GRATEFUL FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO CAPTURE A LITTLE BIT OF GROUND FOR
> YOUR CORPORATE ARMY!
I'm attempting to give an accurate account of myself in a professional
tone. I suspect a company recruiter would rather interview someone
who displays professional candour rather than the mannerisms of an
obsequious banshee. What I meant with that line was that if someone
offers me a permanent position, then that is exactly the basis on
which I'd accept it. So far as I can tell, that's exactly what I
said.
You certainly have some interesting ideas about university grads.
John Austin
Let me spell it out for you. It is going to cost a company between twenty
and one hundred thousand dollars to make you into a productive member of their
organisation. (Companies who won't invest in you are not worth your consideration).
Except for a small number of employers (BNR among them) they
aren't interested in yourdoctoralplans. No personnel director wants to
hire someone who sees the job as a temporary commitment to be cast offin a
few years. They want to hire the person who will pay the greatest return on
this investment for the longest period.
They don't give a tinkers'damn about your sense of candour. They measure
the world in terms of dollars on the bottom line. Your job is selling
yourself and you should not put anything in a letter of application that
detracts from your desirability (unless it detracts materially from your
ability to execute your part of an employment contract). In a similar
vein you should not divulge too much detail about your other options.
You have to realize that personnel directors are innundated with resumes for
every advertised position. They have to score each resume like a test paper
with points deducted for negative attributes like (I know COBOL!) and points
on for useful stuff like (I know C++ and OSF/Motif). The biggest mistake
people make is saying too much (I had a paper route at age seven; or I am
waiting to get into the French Foreign Legion). Brevity is often rewarded
with better marks (gee whiz, just like skule)than might be otherwise
forthcoming.
I did have an ulterior motive in my post by the way, I needed to elicit a
response to verify that my posts will get out of the gateway and that set the
abrasive atribute in my output method.
If you think my ideas about students are funny you should hear me on politics!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BNR don't have opinions unless someone wants to fund them. So far mine aren't
being funded. If they were you would have to pay big bucks for them and they would
be delivered on 9-track tape along with license agreements and such.
cameron shelley
[...]
> Though I agree he's cutting his options rather short by implying he'll
> accept a permanent position only if the offer is good enough.
But this is a rather vacuous statement: isn't this true of all job
seekers depending on what they consider "good enough"? To say I'm
cutting my options rather short with my statement seems to assume that
I have a very lordly opinion of myself. Why do you make that
assumption?
> The way I read it, he is a serious worker who wants a stepping stone job.
> If there is a company with a stepping stone position, there's a good match.
> If there is a full-time position that is a good match, all the
> better.
That's essentially what I intended to communicate.
</dev/cam
--
Cameron Shelley | "Epitaph, n. An inscription on a tomb,
cpsh...@neumann.uwaterloo.ca| showing that virtues acquired by death
Davis Centre Rm 3147 | have a retroactive effect."
Phone (519) 885-1211 x3499 | Ambrose Bierce
Mark Christopher
(cameron shelley) writes:
|>s...@bcrki65.bnr.ca (Stuart MacMartin) writes:
|>[...]
|>> Though I agree he's cutting his options rather short by implying he'll
|>> accept a permanent position only if the offer is good enough.
|>
|>But this is a rather vacuous statement: isn't this true of all job
|>seekers depending on what they consider "good enough"? To say I'm
Read the article again. I understood sjm's comment to be that you are
explicitly eliminating most of the full-time jobs, which does cut your
options short.
>> In article <BxGxJ...@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca>,
cpsh...@logos.uwaterloo.ca (cameron shelley) writes:
...
>I have been accepted in the Ph.D. program at a fairly well-to-do
>university (Waterloo)
Yeah, so what? Does a "well-to-do" university mean that it is a good
university? Even so, does that mean anything?
I have come to the conclusion that the completion of a graduate degree
means nothing, other than the holder had enough time and finances to wait
out the long process of getting a degree. (In case you're interested, I
hold one of these extra degrees I now think of with some disdain...)
--
Mark Christopher Bell-Northern Research chr...@bnr.ca
John Austin
|> It's obvious to me that people at BNR seem to have too much time on
|> their hands.
That really isn't pertinent to anything.
|> Please keep your obnoxious opinions off the net,
|> especially as they don't belong in all the above *.jobs groups you
|> irresponsibly crossposted to.
To leave room for yours I take it? Did you have anything of value to add to
the discussion ? Note that my news software just picked up the list from
Mr. Shelley's original posting. (You used the same list fella).
I decided to let the issue die until you dragged it up so I'll summarize
my obnoxious opinion. I really hate to see some young person miss out on
employment opportunities because they did a poor job on a cover letter.
To be fairI went back and read the whole thing and quite frankly the
guy makes himself sound like a Vulcan ( mythical creature from popular TV
science fiction series).
I wanted to point out some flaws in the resume to stimulate a rework. I don't
think I made a personal attack.I didn't tell him to study Cobol or IDMS/R.
All I suggested was that he rework the tone to achieve the effect he desires
(which is a job interview). I apologize for my footsoldier metaphor which seems
to have gone over his head but this also serves to prove that people don't
always read what you thinkyou wrote.
(Kind of makes me wonder why I bother to contribute to the old alma mater when
they call me up.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------BNR don't care what I say as long as I don't say it to a customer. They do
however, match my financial contributions to UniWat alumni fundraising.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Former Math person (74210803)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E Alan Idler
>In article <Bxy5H...@watserv2.uwaterloo.ca>, k...@watnow.uwaterloo.ca (T. Kim Nguyen) writes:
>|> Please keep your obnoxious opinions off the net,
>|> especially as they don't belong in all the above *.jobs groups you
>|> irresponsibly crossposted to.
>I wanted to point out some flaws in the resume to stimulate a rework. I don't
>think I made a personal attack.I didn't tell him to study Cobol or IDMS/R.
>All I suggested was that he rework the tone to achieve the effect he desires
>(which is a job interview). I apologize for my footsoldier metaphor which seems
>to have gone over his head but this also serves to prove that people don't
>always read what you thinkyou wrote.
I know this isn't a discussion oriented group ...,
but I'm plunging ahead into the discussion anyhow.
I believe the grad seeking employment might
profit from John Austin's comments, especially
if his initial applications don't yield many
interviews.
However, John could probably learn how to
phrase his suggestions so that they are likely
to be considered in a more positive light.
I hope he doesn't conduct code reviews ...
A IDLER
Mark Brader
Agreed.
> To leave room for yours I take it? Did you have anything of value to add to
> the discussion ? Note that my news software just picked up the list from
> [the] original posting. (You used the same list fella).
Agreed.
> I really hate to see some young person miss out on
> employment opportunities because they did a poor job on a cover letter.
There is blame enough for all. First, whether in an original posting
or a followup, it is a bad idea to cross-post without directing
followups to a single group, or (as I have done on this posting) to
email. Second, it is a worse idea to post to the network anything
that is really directed to a single person. Third, it is a still
worse idea to use, in a posting, language that may be read as harsh or
intemperate, because other people *will* react intemperately to it,
as we see above, and the result benefits nobody.
"Praise in public, criticize in private".
(And please do as I say, not as I am doing now! But evidently *someone*
needed to say this.)
--
Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, m...@sq.com
"The conversation never became heated, which would have been difficult
in any argument where there is a built-in cooling-down period between
any remark and its answer." -- Hal Clement, STAR LIGHT
This article is in the public domain.