Personalise Your Cover Letter

Nothing can be more frightening than seeing your resume getting lost in a pile of hundreds of similar job applications and then ending up in a ‘black hole’. So what can be that one thing that can possibly make your employer pause and take a good look at your resume? The answer is – your personalized cover letter! It is like a sales letter, which sells your resume and therefore sells you. In times of instant information your resume and cover letter go hand in hand. Making ‘maximum impact in minimum time’ is the new name of the game here.
Spend 15 minutes and personalise your pitch to make that perfect first impression:
Personalise it
Not customizing your cover letter can be a major turn off for most employers. It is always great to know your audience and give them what they value and desire. So, learn as much as you can about your potential employer. The more you know, the better are your chances of tailoring your cover letter to their requirements.

Read More

Eight Ways to Maximize Your Cover Letter's Power

Like peanut butter and jelly or bacon and eggs, résumés and cover letters go hand-in-hand. Although both pieces are valuable on their own, they pack the most punch when served together. But while all job seekers know the importance of a well-organized résumé, many don't understand the power of a strong cover letter. In addition to reinforcing key skills and experience, a cover letter demonstrates your desire to work for the employer and the specific ways in which your expertise can benefit the firm. More importantly, it helps differentiate you from other job seekers and provides incentive to contact you for an interview. Even if composition isn't your forte, you can still create a killer cover letter.

Here's how:

1. Know your stuff. |
Before you begin writing, learn as much as you can about the potential employer. Visit the firm's Web site and scan industry publications to familiarize yourself with recent news about the company, such as quarterly earnings, and to learn about future plans, like expansion into new markets. The more you know about an organization, the better you can tailor your cover letter to the firm's needs.

Read More

How To Write A Cover Letter For A Sales Position

A cover letter is your first opportunity to impress a potential employer, and when you work in sales, you know how important a first impression can be.

While the goal of a cover letter is to introduce yourself, explain why you're a good fit for the position and express your interest in the company, a cover letter for a sales position will be more targeted. Are you unsure if your cover letter can close the deal? Read on for tips on what to include.

Strut your sales statistics
If you've already held a sales position, this is your opportunity to show off your winning numbers. Sandra Lamb, a career, lifestyle and etiquette expert, says to include your most important achievements:

Sales success rate, expressed in numbers.
Customers or clients retained and converted to new product areas.
New customers or clients gained.
Increase in profits and sales levels.
Being specific has more impact than simply saying you were one of the best sales team members at your company.

Read More

How To Write A Cover Letter For A Marketing Position

If you're a marketer promoting a product, you'd try to sell the customer on why the product is unique, why it meets a specific need and why it will make a short- and long-term difference in the customer's life.

If you're seeking a marketing position, you should market yourself just like you would a product. While your résumé should include all the details about your experience and successes, you can use your cover letter to sell yourself and hook the hiring manager into reading your résumé.

"In my opinion, cover letters are the 'first impression' for a potential recruit," says Tracey Gould, director of marketing at Baskervill, an architectural, engineering and interior design firm in Richmond, Va. "This is the opportunity where a candidate should wow the potential employer with a summary of who they are and what they are passionate about in terms of marketing, display their successes in terms of qualitative and quantitative results, and demonstrate the value they ... would bring to the particular role and organization for which they are applying."

Read More

How To Craft A Cover Letter Worth Reading

The cover letter. Perhaps the most controversial job-search document. Well, if not the most controversial, then it's at least the one that annoys people the most. "What should I put in it?" "Do I really need to include this?" "Will anyone actually read this?" "What's the point if I'm including my résumé?"

I always recommend including a cover letter, especially if the job is related to communications, marketing or any profession that relies on you being well-spoken and having exceptional writing abilities.

Similar to the résumé infographic we created to show you the before and after, here is an infographic on cover letters and how to make one that is eye-catching to a hiring manager.

Read More

Cover Letter Tips To Help You Land Your Dream Job

If you're looking for a new job, then you know the importance of a great résumé. But don't forget that the cover letter is also a key tool. This is the place to highlight your knowledge of the company and how you're a brilliant match for the position. A compelling cover letter may mean the difference between getting an interview and never hearing back. If you're applying online, your cover letter may essentially be the text of your introductory email or a field in an employer's online form. Here are five cover letter tips that can help you stand out.

1. Keep it short and sweet
Think of a cover letter as a more personal elevator pitch. Write no more than three paragraphs, or about half a page. Hiring managers have to read dozens of résumés and cover letters, so don't annoy them by sending a tome.

Limit yourself to no more than two or three sentences about your work experience; your résumé will do a much better job of detailing this. Reserve the cover letter for showing why you're a great fit for the company and the position, and tell a brief story or anecdote to illustrate this.

Read More

Don't Give Away Your Entire Story In The Cover Letter

When you're applying for jobs, it can become mind-numbing to repeatedly include or discuss your credentials, big career wins and interest in the position in your resume and cover letter and during an interview. While you want to keep an employer's interest and stand out from the competition, you also want to make as strong a case for yourself as possible, right from the start.

So how do you balance the information flow throughout the application process? How do you avoid giving away the entire story in the cover letter, or other application materials? The key is to take each step mindfully.

Write your resume first
To avoid repeating yourself throughout the application process, first make sure you understand the purpose of each application material. As Jene Kapela, principal and founder of Jene Kapela Leadership Solutions LLC, says, "The resume demonstrates your experience. The cover letter, on the other hand, should be used to show how your experiences make you a great fit for the position you're applying for." This means that your resume is what sets the tone for your candidacy.

Read More