Dear sir or madam,

You kept your job description to three paragraphs; I will try to extend the same courtesy. 

To answer your corporate slogan, I do not know where I want to go today.  I have a lot of options before me – but I am not sure which one is right for me.  I am an earnest, eager, hard-working person and I have truly enjoyed all of my previous work placements.  And yet, I am uncertain where I would fit in best.  At age 20, this seems like an appropriate stage of my life.  Can you help?   I am told that Microsoft is one of the few, the precious: a company that “gets it” when it comes to high-tech environments.

I want to work for Microsoft because it has the reputation of being a great experience:  a place where you can contribute, be recognized and learn a lot – and not just technical things, either.  This is what I want most.  This will make me excel.  Are we a good fit?  I cannot tell you – but I would love to learn more in person, and hope you will, too.

Respectfully,

Colin Dellow

COLIN LESLIE DELLOW

or, University of Waterloo Student #20124248

or, 3A Software Engineering Student #23

or, cldellow

LOCATION

1512B 300 Regina St N, Waterloo, ON  N2J 4H2  

phone: (519) 489-1020  email:  cldellow@gmail.com  web: http://cldellow.com/

EDUCATION

Candidate for Bachelor of Software Engineering (Honours)

University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON              Sept 2003 – present

• Relevant courses: Software Abstraction and Specification, Concurrent and Parallel Programming, Human-Computer Interaction
• 98% - More-than-doubled the CS 241 class average on final project of a compiler for a toy language using Java/JLex/JCup
• 104% - Top mark on CS 133 final project of a pseudo-3D Java garden simulation

APPLICABLE BUZZWORDS (Inquire for more details.)

C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET, SQL Server, Access, IIS, ODBC, Sockets, PHP, Perl, Java, Cocoon, XML, XSLT, HTML, Linux, C, JavaScript, AJAX, PostgreSQL,  MySQL, XSL:FO, CVS, Subversion, N-tiered Systems

WORK EXPERIENCE

Co-Founder

OARBS Software Corporation, Waterloo, ON July 2005 – present

• Migrated legacy application from VB/ASP/Access to .NET with PostgreSQL DB
• Worked with customers to enhance product
• Devised bootstrap-based marketing strategies
• Webmaster of corporate site at http://oarbs.com/
• Pursued and successfully completed freelance projects from analysis to deployment worth over $7,000

Senior Enterprise Java Developer

Arius Software Corporation, Waterloo, ON                  May – Aug 2004, Jan – Apr 2005

• Worked with VP of Product Development in architecture design discussions
• Led team of six developers in day-to-day development, testing and debugging
• Migrated company’s largest customer’s data to new version of product
• Developed Extract, Transform, Load tool for stress testing and importing data
• Maintained and extended a codebase of over 400,000 lines of code
• Extended company’s compiler, layout engines, and integrated development environment (IDE)
• Retrofitted AJAX capabilities to legacy Java codebase

LIFE HIGHLIGHTS SO FAR

• Number of multi-threaded C sockets applications written by age 14: 1
• Number of same which received acclamation in its field: 1
• Number of shirts ripped off my back by unsatisfied clients: 1
• Highest Scrabble score in a two-player game: 391
• Most Kraft Dinner consumed in one sitting: 1.4 L
• Number of MBAs I have interviewed for a job position by age 20: 1
• Best comment from TA on my work: “Virtually devoid of course content.”