A résumé and cover letter are often a prospective employer’s first pieces of information about a job applicant, so it’s vital they make an outstanding and professional first impression.

Ferguson’s Career Guidance Center‘s Job-Hunting and Workplace Skills section provides a wealth of informative articles and videos about cover letters and résumés, along with a gallery of sample documents that illustrate the different types and formats and how best to use them. Résumé types include chronological, combination, functional, newsletter, and curriculum vitae; cover letter types include cold call, direct mail, referral, and response to advertising.

In an exciting update to Ferguson’s Career Guidance Center, many of the sample résumés and cover letters are now downloadable in Word format for subscribers to use and adapt for their job search or career exploration. Users may save these documents created by professional résumé writers and career consultants and customize them as needed! Simply click on a particular résumé or cover letter and choose “Download Word Doc” from the Page Tools box just above. The samples can also be downloaded as PDFs, saved, or emailed.

The award-winning Ferguson’s Career Guidance Center is a comprehensive resource for career exploration and planning. This database includes 94 industry profiles; more than 3,000 profession profiles; a graduate, undergraduate, nursing, and vocational school finder and database; an internship and apprenticeship database; a financial aid database; step-by-step education and career-planning timelines; an extensive, 180-question career assessment; exclusive career profile video interviews; a sample résumé and cover letter database; and an industry associations and resources directory.