What is the Value of Writing a Cover Letter?

What is the Value of Writing a Cover Letter?
February 17th, 2009
The cover letter is often thought of as a last-minute item, sometimes left out altogether. Believe it or not, the cover letter does have two very specific purposes. It is a demonstration of your knowledge about the organization and the position with which you are applying, it serves as a work sample of your writing and communication skills, and it is one more opportunity that you have to make it past human resource’s screening process.

These tips may help you to end up on the potential employer’s interview list.

Avoid a synopsis of your resume- The HR folks have your resume, don’t make them read it twice. Instead, research the organization and the job for which you are applying. Use keywords from the job description and website to explain specifically how your skills and experience match the job. This is especially helpful when your career history does not obviously speak to the job being applied for.




Address your letter to a specific name- Addressing your cover letter to “To Whom it May Concern” or misspelling the individual’s name is a clear sign that you did not make the effort to do your research. If you cannot find out who you should be addressing it to on the website, call the front desk and ask, do a Google search, or try LinkedIn.




Share your enthusiasm- Companies want to know that you are interested and enthusiastic about their role, not just in finding a job. Be specific about how you can contribute to the organization’s overall mission. At then end, be direct and ask for an interview to demonstrate your skills and commitment.




Avoid typos- As I mentioned, this is a sample of your writing and communication skills. Misspellings and punctuation errors are unacceptable. Also, use an active voice (I am confident, I know) instead of a passive voice (I think, I feel).




Keep it to the point- Remember this cover letter is about the job, not your life. The letter should be no more than one page.




Yes, crafting a cover letter for each job you apply for does take more time, but a well developed cover letter can give you an edge up on the competition

Opportunity for you to Change in 2009!

Change is coming across the United States and across the Globe. After listening to rants and raves, reading articles, listening to the news, and C-span, BBC, we are all in a state of change. Change has been with us since the beginning of time so I don't exactly understand why we think it is all so strange. Perhaps we are in a state of how do we change our career, our lives to adapt to the current situation.
I also, pay close attend to trends. If you Google trends for the next few years you will see that Education, Accounting and It won't have so much of a hard time.
I think one beautiful gift is to think positive despite circumstances. This is a great moment in time for us to Re-invent our purpose and re-evaluate where our true
Priorities are. We always will want to be successful and accomplish our dreams, goals, and ambitions. Now we are faced with some real life challenges. We can't really at this point effect the Globe unless of course you are a world leader and in the public forum, so best to tackle your own center of the universe. Why not start out with healthy New Year’s resolutions to improve your outlook, the way you approach business, relationships and everyone around you and don't forget to treat yourself kindly this year. Make time for the basics, reading, and writing and keep track of your progress. Set goals for your life that are attainable and measure your results.

Tips for the Tough job search,
Networking has become my favorite pastime. Networking is your Best chance of creating an exciting opportunity for your new position. Be your own campaign manager for success.
Join as many groups and organizations so that you can meet people. I spend a good amount of time at the library and on the internet reading current publications on
How to start a new business, how to create opportunities for those seeking employment.
Try using some different techniques to get employers to respond to your resume.
After over 10,000 interviews with potential candidates two stand out, one candidate
left his resume and cover letter in a huge envelop at the receptionist desk with my name on it. He followed up with a phone call to make sure that I received his resume. Of course he got an interview. One candidate went so far to send me a box with a shoe in it, and asked if he could get his foot in the door. We did recruit him and hire him on his creative way to get in front of our management team.
Most candidates now days don't send a thank you. Guess they are too busy interviewing to remember social graces but are always welcome when we hear a thank you for your time and consideration from a potential candidate. After all wouldn't you rather hire someone who is appreciative?
The biggest complaint I hear from those seeking a new opportunity is that it is hard work? Months later I receive emails and phone calls seeking my help to help them find employment. I explain to people to research firms that they are interested in working for and than send them your resume and cover letter asking them for an opportunity. Generally, these firms do not advertise opportunities.
The Best is yet to Come!! Turn change into opportunities to seek out new ways to create your success!

Interview Tips- Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hi well we are just about ready to close out another wonderful year of tremendous "change" and new and exciting possibilites. Merry Christmas to all
and a Happy Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

Here are some helpful interview hints......
See you in the New Year!!!! Happy Holidays!!!

Pam

Interview Tips
Interview Dos

Arrive on time or a few minutes early.
If presented with an application, fill it out neatly and completely. Don't attach your resume unless you're told to do so.
Greet the interviewer by last name if you are sure of the pronunciation. If not, ask the employer to repeat it.
Project energy and enthusiasm. Smile and shake hands firmly.
Wait until you're offered a chair before sitting. Sit upright, look alert and interested at all times.
Listen carefully and respond succinctly and articulately. Look the hiring manager in the eye while speaking.
Early in the meeting, try to get the interviewer to describe the job and the duties to you so you can focus your responses on your background, skills and accomplishments that relate to the position.
Be sincere and truthful while focusing on communicating your specific professional achievements that relate to the accounting or finance job opening.
Interview Don'ts

Don't answer with a simple "yes" or "no." Explain whenever possible.
If you don't understand a question - or need a moment to think about it - say so. Never pretend to know something or someone when you don't.
Don't rely on your application or resume to do the selling for you. Interviewers will want you to be convincing.
Don't make negative remarks about present or former employers. When explaining your reasons for leaving, communicate your rationale professionally.
Don't over-answer questions. If the interviewer steers the conversation into controversial - or even illegal - topics, try to do more listening than speaking. Keep your responses non-committal.
Don't inquire about salary, vacations, benefits, bonuses or retirement on the initial interview unless you are sure the employer is interested in hiring you. If the interviewer asks what salary you want, give a range based on your research of the job market, but indicate that you're more interested in the opportunity for continued learning and professional development than in a specific salary.

Happy Thanks Giving!! Gobble Gobble!!

Happy Thanksgiving !!!



Thank you - Your business is appreciated. Have a wonderful Holiday!

This year I am so Thankful for All my friends and Family and just wanted to say a special Thank you to you for all you do.

Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a Happy Holiday..

All the Best,

Pam

Jokes for The Turkeys.......................
A lady was picking through the frozen turkeys at the grocery store, but couldn't find one fresh enough for her family. She asked the stock boy, "Don't you have fresh turkeys?" The stock boy answered, "But they are all dead. Now how can I make them take a bath?"

What did the mama turkey say to her naughty son?
If your papa could see you now, he'd turn over in his gravy!

Asked to write a composition entitled, "What I'm thankful for on Thanksgiving,"
little Timothy wrote, "I am thankful that I'm not a turkey."

Have you finished off the first one?
Yeah!
Eaten it too?
Yeah!
What happened to the other one?
The other turkey is now reading our conversation, boss.

If a man wants to eat a turkey on Thanksgiving, what does a turkey want?
Ans- It simply wants to run away.

What did the turkeys sing on Thanksgiving Day?
Ans- God save the kin.

What did the turkey say to the man who tried to shoot it?
Ans- Liberty, Equality and Bad aim for all.

What will a turkey with a dramatic bent of mind say to another turkey on Thanksgiving morning?
Ans- To be or not to be roasted, that is the question.

The pro football team had just finished their daily practice session when a large turkey came strutting onto the field. While the players gazed in amazement, the turkey walked up to the head coach and demanded a tryout. Everyone stared in silence as the turkey caught pass after pass and ran right through the defensive line. When the turkey returned to the sidelines, the coach shouted, "You're terrific!!! Sign up for the season, and I'll see to it that you get a huge bonus." "Forget the bonus," the turkey said, "All I want to know is, does the season go past Thanksgiving Day?"

How to find a job during a recession- from CNN

How to find a job during a recession
15 October 2008 3 views No Comment
Excellent CNN.com story for job-seekers in this economy to take notes:

If you are getting ready for a job search during troubled times, here are some tips from the experts.

1. Take a closer look at industry data

Research industries and job sectors that are experiencing worker shortages or still experiencing job growth. These are the areas where you may want to focus your search.


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More CareerBuilder.com stories
CareerBuilder.com produces a quarterly job forecast that indicates hiring manager trends for the next few months, both regionally and across major sectors. The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases updated figures every month on occupational job growth.

For example, by looking at the BLS data, you will learn that health care, education, government, food services and drinking places, and IT categories have all gained jobs this year.

2. Freshen up your skills

“Don’t give an employer a reason to pass you over because you don’t know the basics,” states Diane Morgan, director of career services at London Business School. Morgan says everyone should know basic office skills like Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel. “Since these are skills you can teach yourself from the Internet or a library book, there are no excuses for not having them.”

Another alternative is CBInstitute.com, which offers easy-to-use online courses at all levels, including business etiquette, project management, foreign languages and typing. You can take courses at times that are convenient for you, so no matter how little time you have to invest, you can make it work. At the same time, the courses are affordable and reasonably priced.

Morgan also suggests brushing up your sales skills (persuasion, negotiating and influencing) even if you aren’t in the sales industry. You need to sell your best product, which is you, so make sure your personal pitch is relevant, timely and effective, she asserts.

3. Try part-time or freelance work

“Rather than one ‘job,’ think in terms of multiple positions. Breaking in [to a new job] may be easier if you aim for part-time work within a company,” advises Katy Piotrowski, career counselor and author of “The Career Coward’s Guides.” “Line up multiple part-time positions and you’ll benefit from more job security; if one position evaporates, you have the others to fall back on.”

Moreover, it will pad your résumé and your wallet.

Rachel Weingarten, author of “Career and Corporate Cool,” recommends job sharing or taking over for someone on maternity leave or during the holiday crunch.

“A lot of people don’t want to commit full-time skills to a part-time or temporary gig. In this economy though, it can allow you to not only try on a job for size, but to also improve your skills, impress a potential long-term employer and network like crazy with people in your chosen industry,” she says. “Instead of nervously waiting for the right full-time career, you can potentially make something better happen in the short term.”

4. Rev up your social networking

Gone are the days of peddling your résumé at anonymous networking events with watered-down drinks and goofy nametags. Now you can have countless opportunities with a few keystrokes and a couple of mouse clicks.

Sure you’ve received those requests to join LinkedIn and BrightFuse, and you certainly use Facebook daily. (Scrabble anyone?) But now is the time to really take of the network you’ve probably casually built over the years.

Networking is easier than in years past because of the easy access to your network and those of your friends and colleagues, Matuson declares. “Now you can go onto [social networking] sites and see who in your network knows someone at a company that you might be interested in working for. You can then ask them to make an introduction on your behalf.”

Interview preparation

The 30-Minute Interview Preparation
Is it enough?



Interview preparation is recognized as a critical part of the recruiting process, and recruiters acknowledge that they have responsibility for preparing a candidate for the interview. The question is: how much preparation is adequate and appropriate?


To learn more about the interview preparation process I posted the following questions on LinkedIn:

For candidates: Having worked with a recruiter, what was your experience with interview preparation?
For recruiters: As a recruiter, how much time do you spend in interview preparation with your candidates?
The response from candidates includes:
"What prep?"
"I think 95 candidates out of any 100 asked the same question would say, 'what preparation?"
"Content was just info. on people involved, a little on the business. Not really prepared to be honest."
"If I was a recruiter, I’d haul the person into my office and drill them. Or have extensive notes prepared for them."
The responses from the recruiters include:
"At least a solid half hour."
"I spend at least a half hour per interview prepping candidates."
" …which takes 30 - 45 mins in total."
"I am a firm believer that too much coaching and preparation brings on anxiety, and from experience, when the candidate is focusing too hard on everything you told them-they end up trying too hard during the interview."
"30 minutes and an in-depth email with all the details"
Summing up these responses, candidates don’t think they are getting adequate preparation from recruiters and recruiters think that thirty minutes is an adequate amount of time for interview preparation.


Many recruiters have the philosophy that a candidate should not be too prepped for an interview. They see interviews as a place where a candidate should perform spontaneously and reveal their "true" self. Their concern is that too much preparation will bias the interview, which would put the client is at risk of hiring an unqualified candidate that "just interviews well". I propose that this is an outdated and incorrect notion.


As I have written previously, the interview is a sales call. Can a sales person be too prepared for a sales call? The more the candidate knows about the company/position/hiring manager, the better they are prepared to answer questions and handle objections. The better they are prepared to proactively communicate why they are an excellent candidate, the better their chances of landing the job.


As excellent sales people, recruiters have a great deal to teach candidates about selling themselves in an interview. Let’s take just one example. Teaching a candidate the difference between selling themselves based on their potential benefit to the company instead of features (experience) would significantly improve their performance. Is knowing how to sell oneself based on benefits being too well prepared?


To avoid the risk of a bad hire, hiring managers are primarily looking to screen out rather than screen in candidates. Thus, more qualified candidates interview poorly and lose a job than bad candidates interview well and land an unwarranted job. The more recruiters can prepare their candidates, the greater the benefit for both the candidate and the client company. Next month I will suggest efficient ways of preparing candidates for interviews.


Eric Kelly

Yearning for the Authentic ! It Pays to be Authentic

Yearning for the Authentic
Throughout human history, there has never been a shortage of men and women willing to point humanity along the right path. Nor have the needs of the human family ever been a secret: food, shelter, purposeful work, companionship, freedom, forgiveness, acceptance, and love. In every age, there is an abundance of people who are able to articulate the truth of these matters and announce their social implications particular to that time. These people stand at the crossroads and point humanity down a path they have never traveled themselves. In our own age, there is certainly no shortage of books, tapes, courses, radio shows, seminars, retreats, and television programs - all of which speak to these needs in various ways.
But amidst this abundance, there is a great poverty. It seems in every place and in every time, the shortage is always of men and women willing to lead humanity along the right path with the example of their own lives. In each moment of history, authentic lives are ever so rare.
Appearance vs. The Authentic
Our own age seems to be governed by illusion and deception. We have built a whole culture based on appearance. Everything looks good, but scratch just below the surface, and you will discover little substance. Appearance has become a standard. We have grown so numb to the realities of good and evil that lying and cheating have become almost universally accepted as necessary evils. So we tolerate them, as long as they are performed in the dim light of "respectability." Occasionally, in the midst of this cultural darkness, the great light of the human spirit shines forth with honesty and integrity. At those times we seem surprised, even taken off-guard. Honesty, loyalty, and integrity seem almost out of place in the modern schema.
But beneath the surface, under the guise of appearances, this age like any other is made up of people like you and me. And if you listen carefully, if you look closely, you will discover that the people are hungry. Created to love and be loved, we feel a restlessness, a longing for more, a profound discontent with our lives and with our culture. Our hunger is not for appearances, but for something of substance. We are hungry for truth. The people of today are starving for the authentic, thirsting for the tiniest droplet of sincerity, aching to experience the genuine.

By Matt Kelly