Career Plans in the Course

Career Plans

In the course of your review of letters of application for your program, I am sure you read many letters which have somewhat similar goals and career objectives. I have to admit I first felt a little strange about writing about my own personal qualities, career goals and objectives. One wants to be humble, but then again, one wants to be sure that the letter is the one that stands out above the others, and that conveys to the reviewers, in 1000 words or less, one's sincere desire to attend the program. I could ask a friend or co-worker to write you a letter and tell you all about me, but it seems to me that I know the best why I have chosen your program, and why I sincerely hope that you will chose me.

My name is John Zimmer, and I am seeking entrance into the Graduate School of Education and would like to be accepted to the Educational Psychology program where my concentration would be on assessment, evaluation and testing. There are many things about me that would make me an excellent candidate for your program. People often describe me as enthusiastic, level-headed and open minded. For myself, I can say that I am honest, extremely patient and have no difficulty with cooperation with others. I am frequently called upon to work in a team environment, and enjoy doing so. In fact, I enjoy working with people in any situation. My interest in my current job often drives me to perform extra duties. I usually feel very secure in what I am doing. I feel that I am a dependable person and that people generally know what to expect from me. I am trustworthy, and hold a security clearance for my position. I am very adaptable and welcome hearing from others on different ways to complete projects. I am very patient and extremely punctual.

My personality makes me an excellent candidate for your program. I have done my homework on the field, since a child's education is nothing to be taken lightly, and I feel I have a good understanding of what an applicant to your program would need to succeed. I am outcomes based, but I also understand that one must be attuned to personality attributes to make the most from an educational experience. In education I feel these is no once size fits all, and I believe this understanding will help me as I work to develop instructional processes and assessments for the classroom that will also consider the individual. I am particularly interested in the students who have challenges, either educationally or behaviorally. I feel that by working to develop new assessment tools it will be possible to further evaluate the skills and abilities for these students which may previously have been unavailable to us. I look forward to working with teachers, parents and students in order to formulate tools which will help students get the most out school.

Educational psychology is an excellent career move for me. I have experience working with children who have autism, high school students, and my personality seemed to be a good fit in what can be a challenging and rewarding environment. I think my current education and work experience melds nicely into my hopes to work in a research capacity, designing evaluations, analyzing and interpreting data and presenting coherent results. While I do not consider myself a linear thinking, I believe that my logical thought processes would work well for me in this field.

A currently hold a B.A in Criminal Justice and have significant experience in statistics and research theory. This will fit directly into my work in education since I have experience with a broad range of people as well as research methods. I worked with High School students in a special education setting for four years, as an instructional assistant teaching basic reading, writing and math to children who were Autistic. My work at Northrop Grumman was directly related to educational development as research and analysis. I was tasked with identifying solutions to tough problems related to missions. I collected, analyzed and fused data, and I have a great deal of experience in data and source validation and tailored methodology.