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InStage Guide for Resume & Cover Letter Assignments

This guide will walk you through how to create, manage, and review Resume & Cover Letter assignments using InStage.

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Written by Imran Mouna
Updated over a week ago

A. Overview

InStage allows students to submit their resumes and cover letters online. These assignments:

  • Provide coordinators with a central hub for managing submissions

  • Allow students to upload either a resume, a cover letter, or both

  • Send automated reminders to reduce missed deadlines

  • Generate summary reports for quick evaluation and record-keeping

i. Quick Facts

  • Submission Types: Resume, Cover Letter, or both

  • Assessment: Completion-based or graded externally

  • Setup Time: ~5 minutes per assignment

  • Notifications: Automatic emails at availability, 24-hour reminder, and due date

B. Creating a Resume & Cover Letter Assignment

i. Getting Started

Once you log into your InStage dashboard, click Assignments → Create Assignment, or select Resume & Cover Letter from the homepage.

Fig 1: Dashboard homepage showing “Assignments” in sidebar and “Resume & Cover Letter” option

ii. Choose Dates & Availability

  • Select a Due Date (when submissions must be in).

  • Set an Availability Window (when students can begin submitting).

  • Choose whether to create:

    • Resume only

    • Cover Letter only

    • Both (with separate submission areas)

  • Optionally enable Shared Dates to keep resume and cover letter due at the same time.

Fig 2: Assignment setup page showing due date and availability window

iii. Add Assignment Details

Enter key details:

  • Assignment Name (e.g., Resume Assignment)

  • Description (e.g., Resume assignment for [Course Name])

  • Course/Project Name

Fig 3: Assignment details page showing fields for name, description, and course

iv. Add Students

You can:

  • Paste student emails manually

  • Upload a CSV file

  • Share a unique enrolment link (also available after assignment has been deployed)

Students will automatically receive notifications based on your chosen settings.

Fig 4: Student enrolment page with manual entry, CSV upload, and shareable link options

v. Privacy & Notification Settings

You control:

  • Which reminders go out: availability, 24-hour, and due-date

  • Whether to include student names/emails in submissions

  • Whether to enable CSV/PDF summaries for aggregated reporting

  • Additional faculty access via manual entry or CSV

Fig 5: Notifications toggle screen showing availability, 24-hour, and due-date reminders

C. Reviewing & Managing Resume & Cover Letter Assignments

i. View Student Submissions

After deployment, you’ll be able to:

  • See individual submissions for each student

  • Monitor aggregated summaries

  • Track both resume and cover letter uploads if enabled together

Fig 7: Submission overview page showing student list and status

ii. Export Reports

You can download:

  • A CSV of all student submissions

  • A PDF summary report for record-keeping

D. Tips & Best Practices

  • Use Shared Due Dates if both resume and cover letter are required - simplifies tracking.

  • Enable Summaries to reduce manual checking.

  • Leverage Reminder Emails to minimize missed deadlines.

  • Test with a personal assignment first to see exactly what students experience.

E. Support

If you require further assistance, contact our support team using the chat button in the bottom right corner of the page.

Please note support is available from 9AM-5PM Eastern Time Mon-Fri

Important Note and Notice of Data Collection

  • InStage is a third-party tool and to access it for use in this course you need to create an account on their platform. The institution has reviewed the security, data and privacy policies of the platform and has approved the use of InStage for this course. Please understand that by creating an account with InStage you are consenting to the platforms use of your personal data and agreeing to their Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

  • Please be aware the AI functionality of the InStage platform utilizes processing by OpenAI's API to generate interview feedback. If you have any concerns please review OpenAI's Privacy Policy and Security Policies. InStage has made it clear that user data is not used in the training process of their AI tool. Only the pre-trained models provided by OpenAI, and no additional user data is incorporated into training. If you disagree with involvement with any of the platforms above, you may choose to decline account creation. In this case, please contact us immediately and inform us of your decision and we will get back to you with an alternative assignment option.

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