Archive for the ‘Cover Letters’ Category
July 7th, 2010 | 
Author: Hiring managers routinely receive hundreds, perhaps thousands, of responses from applicants for any given job. To avoid having your resume sink into this sea of paper, it’s imperative to stand out from the crowd and make a good first impression. A compelling cover letter that meets five essential requirements will convince a hiring manager to read an applicant’s resume.
Rule #1: Create appealing appearance
The resume and cover letter must be aesthetically pleasing and consistent in appearance. This includes using the same heading and fonts for each.
Rule #2: Target your audience
Always use the hiring manager’s name in the salutation. If the contact’s name isn’t provided in the job posting, a bit of Internet research or a well-structured phone call can produce results.
Rule #3: Produce a strong opening
A dynamic opening paragraph is essential to capture and retain a hiring manager’s interest. Pared down to essentials for a quick and effective read, it should reference the position you are seeking and include a brief statement as to why you believe you are qualified to fill the job.
Rule #4: Showcase accomplishments
Include a bulleted area to emphasize accomplishments pertinent to the targeted job.
Rule #5: Close with a proactive statement
Always initiate further action at the end of a cover letter. A proactive closing indicates that you will call within a few days to see if a time might be scheduled to meet. Then, be sure to follow through on the action you include in your letter.
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There has been a lot written about using proper English, (in fact I have written four articles myself) yet there still seems to be a lot of work to be done. It used to be just immigrants who didn’t know the right usage of “proper grammer or proper grammar”, but now it’s people born here as well. This article is not about “Why Jane Can’t Read” however, so we won’t play the blame game. We’ll just state this: if your resume looks like it was written by an 8th grader then it’s your own fault. Because the tools are out there to help you write a professional resume and cover letter.
This year I went to my local bookseller and looked over the classic books that have been reprinted. One particular book caught my attention – the autobiography of a former slave, Sojourner Truth.
Sojourner Truth was a brilliant, but uneducated, slave woman who was freed when New York passed their anti-slavery law in the 1840’s. She never learned to read or write so her autobiography was ghost written, but the writers used her words, which made it hard to read because she talked in the language of the slaves – a mixture of English and whatever. And although it was interesting, it was hard to read.
Why am I telling you this? Because many of you write like that. Your resume spelling goes like this: Special Interests: Reeding and righting. A future employer will look at that and think – “What a dummy! And this person claims to have a B.A.?”
Another area where people make major mistakes is with proper punctuation. Putting a comma or period in the right place, or using past or present tense correctly is important. Now most of us are not professional writers, we get that. Maybe writing using correct grammar is hard for you, but you can do something about that. Did you know there is English grammar software available?
WhiteSmoke is an awesome inexpensive software that will make you look absolutely brilliant. It checks your grammar as you type and make suggestions to correct any errors. There are also templates for your cover letter or any business letter that will set you apart from everyone else.
This super software includes:
- New writing review
- English grammar checker (not the same as a spell checker)
- Spelling checker
- Punctuation checker
- Style checker (a really neat and unique thesaurus tool that offers alternative words to enhance your writing.
- Dictionary
- Translator to 21 languages
- Auto correct – detects errors as you type
- Explanation – gives you a short explanation about your error and improves your skills
- Single click correction — apply all your corrections in one single click
AND the best for last – WhiteSmoke also includes a special template package, more than 600 different templates, from thank you letters to happy Birthday email and Resume (CV) templates – all for FREE!
If you have a hard time writing, and you know your resume looks like you graduated from junior high just last year, then I’d encourage you to download WhiteSmoke today and take advantage of the tools they have to make your resume look as professional as you really are.
