Posted by ResumeHelp on October 14, 2009
That’s the question consciously or unconsciously running through the mind of someone looking through a stack of resumes. That person will often not find the answer if there’s no cover letter from you. Resumes list the information about your skills and experience. Cover letters pinpoint why you should receive serious consideration for a particular job. A cover letter helps readers see how your experience relates specifically to what they are looking for in an employee. Instead of making readers interpret your resume, your cover letter does the work for them. A cover letter says, “I know your company and what it does. Here’s why you should take notice of my qualifications.”
A planning advisor for a huge oil corporation who scans hundreds of resumes a week looks at it this way: “The more someone can tell me what attracted him or her to my company, the better. I try to get a feel for whether the applicant is interested in our industry, which is sometimes clear in the resume and sometimes not. That is where a good cover letter can make a difference. If I get 10 resumes with similar experience and skills, the cover letter prioritizes who I need to speak to. If the resume is strong, then I don’t need the cover letter, but lots of times resumes don’t answer the questions I have.”
Keep in mind that the people who read resumes and cover letters spend mere seconds on them. You could meet every requirement of the job you’re going for but unfortunately, your qualifications might be buried somewhere in your resume. The people who are considering you for a job don’t like to dig. That’s where the best cover letter can be a make or break proposition.
Resumes are a record of your past and current experience. A well thought-out cover letter selects only those skills and experiences that apply to a job description and company. It summarizes your qualifications for that particular job so the hiring manager doesn’t have to search for them on your resume. If your cover letter doesn’t showcase the main points of your resume that match their requirements, the hiring manager is more likely to move on to the next candidate. And in this job market, you don’t want that to happen. Many times it is helpful to have a professional resume writer prepare your resume and cover letter. It’s an excellent investment.
But you may be saying; “I simply cannot afford to hire a Professional Resume Writer”. What’s the answer to that statement? I cannot deny a professionally written resume costs at least a couple of hundred dollars. But there is an answer. Here is a website that will give you basically the same thing for much, much less. You do the work, they tell you exactly how! Most people stumble over Interview questions. They offer help for that too! And you save lots of dinero! Go to Resume On A Budget now!
Authors bio: Darlene Zambruski is the managing for Resume Edge. She has authored 10,000+ resumes/cover letters/CVs for clients at every career stage.
Posted by ResumeHelp on September 23, 2009
By Alison Doyle, About.com
Do you need resume help? Writing a resume is hard work and it’s important to get help, or at least have your resume reviewed, before you send it to employers. There are quite a few options available for getting help with your resume.
If you’re a college student or alumnus, the career services office at your alma mater may be able to help you with resume writing and with resume reviews. There are professional resume writing services that will write or edit your resume, for a fee. Other options include reviewing samples and Templates to get an idea of what a good resume should look like. Another thing that scares most people is the job interview, although this is the object of every resume. Find out more about help with interviewing here!
Posted by ResumeHelp on February 22, 2009
Everything has a market. If you could go back in time thirty years and tell someone people would actually be buying water in 2005 for prices higher than gasoline, you would probably be severely ridiculed. Go back fifteen years and tell someone that you would actually be able to purchase air in an oxygen bar and they would think you had been hitting the sauce. Water and oxygen are interesting products because they are readily available, free, and vital to life. There has been a demand created for them out of, well, thin air.
The basic principle of selling air or water is the same as selling an entry-level career in which you have no experience. Entry-level workers are cheap, plentiful, and easily found. As a new graduate/entry-level worker with little or no real experience, what can you do to sell your experience to employers? The same as if you were selling air – package it well, market it effectively, and create a demand.
Packaging your budding entry-level career is the first and most important step to getting your start. How you present your background and education in an entry-level resume is the make-or-break point. You have 35 to 60 seconds to pique the interest of the employer in your non-experience. The entry-level resume should be hard-hitting and aggressively written in order to gain that attention.
The key is to find your point of individuality and play upon it. Each brand of bottled water has a “claim to fame” whether it is that the water is from a mountain spring, or it is flavored, or it is vitamin-enriched, etc. You can do the same thing with your entry-level resume. Do you have an exceptional academic record that can be highlighted in your entry-level resume? Do you have an internship that adds value to your degree? Have you worked your way through school and financed your own education? There is something in everyone’s background that is notable and can be used to advantage in an entry-level resume.
Appearance is also key to a resume. People are drawn to attractive things – it’s human nature. By packaging your qualities in an attractive, eye-catching format, your entry-level resume will automatically have an advantage over your competition. Appearance can be more than pretty whiz-bangs in a Word format. Even database-friendly entry-level resumes can be made more attractive with the strategic use of spacing, font size, and placement of text.
Marketing yourself as a valuable entry-level hire is the second component of success. How do you go about getting your entry-level resume to employers who are seeking trainable workers? With the Internet, sending out your entry-level resume is very easy, but are you sending to the correct people? An indiscriminate resume blast may not be the best selection if you have set strict parameters on relocation preference. You need to find out who would be in the market for entry-level workers with your education and who might be a good match for your career goals. A little (gasp!) homework might be in order!
Finding out about employers and selecting those in the market for entry-level personnel is called market research. A little research on employers, their goals, and the work opportunities they offer will assist you in being more focused in your hunt for that first “real” job. It will also provide insight on how best to approach a company. Knowing what the employer wants helps you to position yourself as the best choice. Just as product manufacturers do market research before they launch a new product, you can do the same to better market your entry-level career.
Creating demand is the third aspect of marketing your entry-level career. Personal career branding backed by solid research and an excellent entry-level resume will compel potential employers to contact you about joining their teams. Demand can also be further enhanced during the interview by being well-prepared, mature, and knowledgeable. An entry-level candidate who is eager, open to training, and flexible is desirable by employers.
As an entry-level job seeker, you essentially are selling “air” – lack of experience. To do that, you must create a great package (a resume), market it strategically, and create the demand. Most people take air for granted and laugh at the thought of paying for it. Put those same people at the top of Pikes Peak where the rarified air of 13,000+ feet is thin and most will pay for air at the oxygen bar at the summit café. Air can be very valuable to those in need.
Copyright 2008, Teena Rose, All Rights Reserved; www.teenarose.com
