Dear Mr. Painter:

After a successful  career in Astronomy and Astrophysics, I have
decided to expand my horizons and look
for new challenges.

Some years ago I lead a team of
accountants and programmers at the manufacturing plant of IBM in
Argentina, where I was in charge of overseeing the design and
implementation of a completely new internal accounting systems. Since
then, I have honed my leadership and management skills as mentor of
students, principal investigator in scientific collaborations, and
on-site lead operator for the BIMA telescope, a \$60 million
state-of-the-art radio telescope.

Through the web page of Orbital Sciences Corporation I learned that
yor company has many openings for program and project managers; I
believe that my scientific background and management skills are a
perfect match for these positions, and am attaching my
resume for your consideration.  I will attend the Open
House tomorrow, 2 December, and would welcome the opportunity to meet
you and discuss my application.

Best regards,

xxx

encl: Resume

Objective:

A technical management position  at a high-tech company, where I can
apply the skills I developed as a scientist and lead and motivate a team to
develop new products.

Profile:

Superb quantitative and analytical
skills with expertise in advanced mathematical and statistical methods
developed as an astrophysicist. Creative, critical, and independent
thinking. Strong leader with ability to motivate and manage as
demonstrated with students, peers, telescope technicians, accountants,
and programmers.
Broad international experience; fluent in Spanish
and Hebrew

Pedro emphasized PSR - all the bullets in your resume should be in a Problem, Solution and Result
format so that the employer can sink their teeth into your accomplishments - to do so you need
to constantly ask the question "SO WHAT?"  Also NOTE the emphasis on QUANTITATIVE
aspect of the solution and results.

Example 1:

• Published a paper.  - SO WHAT?
• First author in paper written with two collaborators on star formation. - SO WHAT?
• Led collaboration with two astronomers to develop simplified model of condensation of star from interstellar gas, which previously required costly supercomputers. This elegant and economic new approach is now being used  by researchers around the world.

Example 2:

• Thesis work on star formation. - SO WHAT?
• Ph.D. thesis first proved viability of a new physical process to regulate the early life of stars, and thus provided alternative to standard model. Work quoted over thirty times in professional literature as of 1998.

Example 3:

• Restored photographic facilities at Yerkes Observatory. - SO WHAT?
• Single-handedly initiated and completed upgrade of students' darkroom at   Yerkes Observatory,  which had been neglected for over fifteen years. New darkroom doubled photographic facilites at observatory and is in use to this day.

Example 4:

• Refereed proposals for the BIMA telescope. - SO WHAT?
• Refereed proposals submitted to NASA. - SO WHAT?
• Chosen twice as one of five astronomers selected among dozens from University of California at Berkeley, University of Illinois, and University of Maryland to referee proposals from around the world to use the BIMA radio-telescope, a leading-edge, $60 million  microwave interferometer. Recommendations adopted.

Example 5:

• System analyst for IBM Argentina. Maintained internal accounting system.- SO WHAT?
• Documented, maintained, and debugged existing internal accounting system. Previously, books would not close because of differences that oftentimes amounted to over $100K per month.

Example 6:

• Wrote and taught course on word-processing software. - SO WHAT?
• Designed and taught first course for new employees on word-processing software, shortening by more than 300% the time required by new users to come up to speed.

The all-important 48 hours THANK YOU letter!  Must always send one as soon as you have completed a formal or informal interview or a meeting of any sort!

Dear Mr. Cavallo:

Thank you for your time and for bringing my resume to the attention of
Mr. Thomas Painter during the open house on 2 December.

The open house was an excellent  opportunity for me to learn more about Orbital
Sciences Corporation and meet people who work there. I believe that I
have much to contribute to the company, and hope that a position where
I can put my skills and energy to work will be available soon.

I thank you once more for your consideration,

Sincerely,

xxx

Sample Resume (postscript file).