This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
LaShun writes:
It seems every piece of advice about cover letters says to call the company
you want to work for to get a SPECIFIC NAME of the person who has the authority
to call you for an interview. But what if the company refuses to give that information?
Most of the companies I call say just send a resume to the HR department
at an email address or fax number but won’t give a name. And when I do get
a specific name, I’m sure I’m not the only one who called. What else can I do?
The Career Doctor responds:
I empathize with all the job-seekers who are finding it harder and
harder to get the name of the hiring manager — which is what all job
experts recommend you do. Unfortunately, companies seem to be
making it harder and harder for job-seekers to identify and follow-up
with the hiring manager.
You have several options for getting the name (and correct spelling)
of the hiring manager. You could call the human resources office, but
remember that office’s role is one of screening. So, I would avoid HR
altogether and simply call the main switchboard and ask the receptionist
for the name of the department manager for the position you are seeking.
Receptionists are wonderful sources of information — so cultivate them!
You could also default to writing to the division or company president and
hope your application trickles down to the hiring manager, but more often
than not, if it does trickle down, it goes to HR. The final possibility is
another important use of your network; contact all the people in your
network and see if anyone works or knows someone who works for the
company — and then ask that person to use internal channels to get
you the name of the hiring manager.
One final comment about the many employers who state in job ads:
“no phone calls.” This comment refers to applying by phone — but should
not stop any job-seeker who has submitted an application from following-up to check on the status of his/her application.
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- application,
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- email address,
- fax number,
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- HR department,
- human resources office,
- internal channels,
- job-seekers,
- resume
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Francis writes:
I have been scouring the Internet for some guidance concerning cover letters when responding to ads for jobs from web sites like Monster, Yahoo Hot Jobs, etc. The current thinking is that you should always respond with the name of a person. If this is the case, no one seems to advocate not applying for a job using one of the above sources to submit a resume since many times there is no name given.
My experience is limited in calling to find out who to send the resume to. One time I called and was told “we don’t give out names” when I asked for a contact.
Would you tell me why this is so? Is it because it could be financial suicide if this type of advice were given?
Thanks for your time. I have found you web site very helpful.
The Career Doctor responds:
There are critical differences between traditional job-hunting and job-hunting on the Web — and you’ve discovered a big one. An emailed cover letter, while having the same job-search function, is quite different than a traditional cover letter. An emailed cover letter needs to be shorter and more concise, needs to grab the attention of the reader more quickly, and needs to focus on keywords.
An emailed cover letter is generally no more than three paragraphs. The first paragraph identify the key benefits you can offer the employer — in a dynamic and inviting style. The second paragraph provides the details that support the benefits you mention in the first paragraph. The third paragraph must close the deal by asking for the interview.
You should still try and identify the hiring manager for the position if it is not listed in the job posting. Contacting the company and asking for the name of the hiring manager will work for many organizations, but some may have privacy policies — or concerns about getting deluged with responses. Alternative solutions include “Dear Hiring Manager” or skipping the salutation completely and just starting the letter with “Re: Job Posting XX7783Y.”
You can get much more tips and advice about writing email cover letters by reading my article, Tips for a Dynamic Email Cover Letter.
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Lorraine writes:
I have a query. My husband was retrenched almost 8 months ago now, and
I want to send his CV to as many printing
companies that I can find in South Africa. I also want to send a covering
letter attached with his CV explaining that he was retrenched 8 months ago and
would like to know if any of these companies have any vacancies. Please help
me with the wording of this letter as I am at a loss?
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
The Career Doctor responds:
Certainly one of the key components of a job search should still be cold contact,
where the job-seeker sends his or her cover letter and resume (or CV) to companies
that might have job openings. The critical factor with this strategy is getting the
name and title of the hiring manager for your area of expertise and then writing
a powerful cover letter. Why does cold contact work? It works because of the
large hidden job market; the vast majority of job openings never get advertised
or posted, so cold contact is a way of applying for positions that may in fact be
open.
I assume that while you are writing the letters, that they will actually be signed
by your husband. The cover letter is critical — its function is to spark enough
interest so that the employer then looks at your resume (or CV). Think of the
cover letter as a sales pitch letter, where the item you are selling is yourself —
your mix of skills, accomplishments, and education. You NEVER want to put
anything negative in your cover letter. And while many folks are being retrenched
or rightsized or re-engineered out of jobs, it’s still a negative. Employers want to
see job-seekers who are (or appear) gainfully employed. So, please, say nothing
about the retrenchment in your cover letter; saying anything will only harm your
husband’s chances. Read more about writing cover letters in the Quintessential
Careers Cover Letter Tutorial.
Finally, please remember that your efforts are not complete once you mail the
cover letters and CVs to the printing companies. The last paragraph of your cover
letter should request action — an interview — and after a reasonable amount of time
(1-2 weeks), you MUST follow-up and contact each company — each hiring
manager — and ask for the interview. If you don’t follow-up, you are wasting your
time even sending the cover letters and CVs.
A note to all job-seekers: Please don’t wait eight months after being downsized to
start job-hunting. Take some time to reflect and consider whether it’s time to change
careers — but even if you get a big severance package, you should get right back out
there on the job market. The longer you wait to start job-searching, the harder it will
be for you.
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- accomplishments,
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Adrianne writes:
I am in the preliminary stages of a job search and I found your
article on researching a company to be very useful.
I also understand that cover letters should be specific. But to
avoid writing “dear sir/madam,” I wonder what one can do if the
company’s human resources department does not want to divulge
the name of who is assessing the applicants?
The Career Doctor responds:
The bad news is that technology trends make it even harder for job-seekers
to track down the names of hiring managers. The good news is that when
you do, you will certainly have an edge over other job-seekers.
One of the biggest complaints I hear from job-seekers is the ever-increasing
difficulty in reaching or following-up with a hiring manager.
So, what’s the best way around HR folks, screening assistants, voicemail,
or vague email addresses? Having someone inside the company who can
get you the information — this is the real power of networking.
A lot of job-seekers have a misconception that networking is all about
asking people for jobs — and it’s not. Networking is about sharing information —
about people, companies, and, yes, job leads. A strong network will provide
you with plenty of information and resources to help your job search. And
having this information will give you the inside edge in the job hunt.
Another misconception about networking is that you are using people, but the
whole idea behind networking is one of reciprocation; someone helps you now
and you’ll help that person in the future. So, get your network out there
helping you!
And if you must use a salutation, I prefer “Dear hiring manager,” or “Dear
hiring manager for [fill-in-the-blank] position.
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In a guest blog posting on All Moms Work, Debra Wheatman of Resumes Done Right (www.ResumesDoneWrite.com and ResumesDoneWrite.blogspot.com) offers this tip for increasing the chances that your cover letter will be read by a hiring manager: Include it in the body of your email and attach your résumé. That way the hiring manager will have to open one one attachment and can quickly read the cover letter when opening your email.
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In a guest blog posting on All Moms Work, Debra Wheatman of Resumes Done Right (www.ResumesDoneWrite.com and ResumesDoneWrite.blogspot.com) notes that your cover letter is part of the résumé package.
She writes:
The package is not complete without the cover. Will everyone read the cover? Probably not. While I haven’t done a full study of how many hiring managers read them vs. those that don’t, I can tell you this: when I worked in human resources I ALWAYS read them. I gained a better understanding of the candidate, what underlying skills he [or she] possessed and how he [or she] might contribute in the organization I represented.
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In response to a job-seeker who wondered if cover letters are still necessary in this "day and age," Phyllis Korkki wrote:
Cover letters are still necessary, and in a competitive market they can give you a serious edge if they are written and presented effectively.
Cover letters are a graceful way to introduce yourself, to convey your personality and to impress a hiring manager with your experience and your writing skills, said Katy Piotrowski, an author of career books and a career counselor based in Fort Collins, Colo. You can also tailor them to a specific company in ways that you cannot with a résumé.
Ms. Piotrowski recently had a job opening at her small company, Career Solutions Group, and she was dismayed when about a quarter of the 200 applicants did not send cover letters. Most were within five years of graduating from college, she said, reflecting a more informal mind-set among younger people.
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Give hiring managers exactly what they want in your cover letter, advises Heather Eagar of www.ResumeLines.com.
“Being a hiring manager is not an easy job,” Eagar writes. “They have to sift through many resume packages from job-seekers who don’t meet the specified requirements and have no skills they need to fill the open position. It’s a frustrating job and it can get them a little on edge. Knowing that, just give them what they want! Don’t beat around the bush or wait until the interview (that you think is coming) to enlighten them about how perfect you are for the job; now is the time to do it.”
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Mike writes:
No too long ago, I used one of your samples for resume and cover letter writing.
I must say, they really helped me.
The Career Doctor responds:
OK. So technically there is no question here, but I wanted to address this
issue because I had been recently interviewed on the subject of job-seekers
borrowing too heavily from samples found on job-search Websites and
books. And by the way, I am not saying that Mike did anything wrong; I
am assuming he used the samples correctly.
Why do career professionals provide samples? I know I do so as a learning
tool. I want you to be able to see what a good resume, cover letter, thank-you letter, etc., looks like. I have seen so much poorly written job-seeker
correspondence, that I thought it important for you to see good examples.
But I do not expect job-seekers to copy phrases or sentences word-for-word
in academic circles, we call that plagiarism, and if I were a hiring manager, I
would call it a reason not to interview or hire you. Borrowing someone else s
work brings into question your ethics — and work ethic.
So, please use the samples you find as guidelines for what your resume or
cover letter should look like and sound like, but do not lift whole chunks and
use them as your own. And be sure to read the accompanying articles that
describe in detail how to develop your job-search documents.
One final point. Someone raised the question of the difference between
borrowing a sample resume versus hiring a professional to write the resume
for you. The difference is one is stealing someone else’ s work (that may not
even apply to you) and the other is paying a professional to develop a
document specifically for you.
For those interested in samples, check out the many sample job-search
materials we have in this section of Quintessential Careers:
Job-Hunting
Samples and Examples.
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- career professionals,
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- job-seekers,
- Quintessential Careers,
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- samples,
- thank-you letter
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Anonymous writes:
I don’t think its smart to have my resume for all to review, how I can I post my resume and keep it confidential?
The Career Doctor responds:
There certainly is validity to wanting to be discrete about job-hunting when you are currently employed — you wouldn’t want your current employer to do a search for a position and get your resume from one of these job sites.
The good news is that many job boards now offer you a confidentiality option — thus your resume is still out there getting viewed, but you control who actually knows it is your resume. There are a few other job sites that even allow you to block your resume from going to certain companies, thus allowing no chance that your current employer will see your resume. You can search through a list of The Top 10 Job Web Sites.
And one final warning. Please remember that job-hunting on the Net should only comprise a small portion of your overall job-hunt — a little larger for people in technical and computer fields. You’ll do much better taking advantage of networking and other more traditional job-search techniques, but I also understand the value of the Web in a passive job search — putting your resume online and seeing what kind of responses you get, even when you are fairly happy with your current position.
confidentiality, employer, job board, job-hunting, resume, Top 10 Job Web Sites
Use Resume and Cover-Letter Samples Carefully
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Mike writes:
No too long ago, I used one of your samples for resume and cover letter writing.
I must say, they really helped me.
The Career Doctor responds:
OK. So technically there is no question here, but I wanted to address this
issue because I had been recently interviewed on the subject of job-seekers
borrowing too heavily from samples found on job-search Websites and
books. And by the way, I am not saying that Mike did anything wrong; I
am assuming he used the samples correctly.
Why do career professionals provide samples? I know I do so as a learning
tool. I want you to be able to see what a good resume, cover letter, thank-you letter, etc., looks like. I have seen so much poorly written job-seeker
correspondence, that I thought it important for you to see good examples.
But I do not expect job-seekers to copy phrases or sentences word-for-word
in academic circles, we call that plagiarism, and if I were a hiring manager, I
would call it a reason not to interview or hire you. Borrowing someone else s
work brings into question your ethics — and work ethic.
So, please use the samples you find as guidelines for what your resume or
cover letter should look like and sound like, but do not lift whole chunks and
use them as your own. And be sure to read the accompanying articles that
describe in detail how to develop your job-search documents.
One final point. Someone raised the question of the difference between
borrowing a sample resume versus hiring a professional to write the resume
for you. The difference is one is stealing someone else’ s work (that may not
even apply to you) and the other is paying a professional to develop a
document specifically for you.
For those interested in samples, check out the many sample job-search
materials we have in this section of Quintessential Careers:
Job-Hunting
Samples and Examples.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document?
Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.
- career professionals,
- cover letter,
- cover letter writing,
- hiring manager,
- job-search documents,
- job-seekers,
- Quintessential Careers,
- resume,
- sample resume,
- samples,
- thank-you letter
Bill Belknap and Helene Seiler, in the excellent book For Executives Only, describe a case study in which a client wrote a targeted letter to a hiring decision-maker after already having sent one in response to a job posting for the same job. The authors write:
She tracked down who the hiring manager was and wrote him directly. The hiring manager was impressed enough to ask HR to pull her resume out of the stack, and she was interviewed within a few days.
The candidate began her targeted letter by noting that she had applied for the position through the employer’s Web site. Her next paragraph expressed her understanding of the key requirement of the position. Then, she included a bulleted section recapping significant, relevant career accomplishments. She concluded with a proactive paragraph asking for an interview and noting that she would call the recipient’s assistant to schedule an appointment.
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Linda writes:
My husband is retiring from the service. He has made his way
up the ladder, from an enlisted personnel to an officer. He is in
the engineering field. The problem is most of the minimum
requirements for positions he is applying for require a bachelor’s
degree. He is approximately 20 credit hours away from this,
and still actively in school. What are some suggestions on
verbiage for the cover letter and resume to address this?
The Career Doctor responds:
First, kudos to your husband, both for the service to our country,
but also for working on furthering his education in preparation for
work in the civilian sector.
Your husband has three things working for him right now. First,
many employers are actively seek transitioning military veterans
because of the extensive experience and training they receive
while in the service. Second, engineering is an occupation back
in demand. Third, he is close to completing his degree.
Here’s how you address his situation on these key documents.
On the resume. The goal of a resume is to secure a job interview.
I would start with a summary of qualifications section, outlining
his three or four key qualities that make him the perfect candidate
for the job he is seeking. One of those bullets should be his
college education, the others should focus on his experience.
Since he is actively working on his education, I would list
education next, and when you list the degree he is receiving,
put the date you expect him to be done with it. Then list his
experience. I would also have a section on his advancement
from enlisted personnel to officer.
On the cover letter. Remember the key task of the cover letter is
to sell the hiring manager just enough so that he or she will
review the resume. You want to start of strongly identifying the
key strengths — and ideally tie those directly to what the employer
is looking for in a job candidate. In the second paragraph, I would
highlight some of the specific accomplishments of the work
experience, along with the number of years in the field. In the
third paragraph, I would mention the near-completed degree,
and the specific date when it’s expected to be completed.
Note: some employers will substitute years of experience for
an incomplete education. For example, college grad and five
years experience, or some college and eight years of experience.
Learn more both in the
resume resources
and the military transition
sections of Quintessential Careers.
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Heather Eagar of www.ResumeLines.com advises using your cover letter to point out the highlights of your resume. Says Eagar: “Sometimes employers get so bogged down with resumes that they resort to weeding them out rather quickly. The first thing they read about you comes from your cover letter. Be sure to look at the job description for which you are applying and make a point to highlight them in your cover letter.”
She continues with a technique for making this information easy to read:
One of the most effective ways to do this is by using bullets. The reader might only spend 20 seconds on your resume package before deciding whether or not to read the entire document. You don’t want to go through all that work only to have him or her believe you’re not qualified (when you really are). By making your cover letter easy for the reader to skim over while picking up on all the important information, you’ve just made the hiring manager quite pleased. And if your qualifications are indeed a good fit, then you have a great chance of being moved into the ‘interview’ pile.
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Heather Eagar of www.ResumeLines.com advises the unusual approach of including a title on a cover letter. Says Eagar: “This is a tactic that really helps hiring managers focus in on what job you are applying for without having to take even a few seconds to figure it out. Remember, anything you can do to make their job easier you should try to do. “
Says Eagar:
The title doesn’t have to be word-for-word the actual position but something very closely related. You can work it in pretty effortlessly in the first sentence of your cover letter.
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Cathy writes:
For the first time in 23 years, I am conducting a job search that includes the
Internet. I understand the importance of having a resume in text format to
submit where requested.
I am also hearing that most recruiters, employers, etc. prefer resumes now be
submitted electronically. Is this true? Maybe it’s the old-fashioned marketer in
me, but my tendency is to search the web for jobs and then send my resume the
traditional way by mail so I can differentiate by different fonts, paper style,
appearance-related factors. Could this be working against me?
If so, even when I am asked to attach my resume as a Word document, I fear that
various PCs will alter formats, fonts and spacing — so it’s back to the plain Jane text,
or is it?
The Career Doctor responds:
While I totally agree with you about the power of print resumes, I have to sadly
state that their influence in job-hunting is definitely on the decline. Job-seekers
will still need these documents for job fairs, interviews, and a direct-mail campaign,
but because the Internet has so dramatically changed how we search and apply
for jobs, you know need to focus on having a text resume.
Employers want text resumes — especially electronic versions (submitted online
or via email) — because they can easily deposit every resume into a massive
database and then use keywords to search and find the resumes that most match
their needs.
Text resumes are almost completely void of any style — and when printed, they
look pretty ugly.
So, not only are resume formats changing, but so is the content. As you work on
your electronic resume, you must be focused on keyword and keyword phrases
for your occupation and industry. Where we often avoided industry jargon in the
past, now we embrace it. Of course, accomplishments are still extremely important,
but you must now also try to phrase them the way you think a hiring manager
might conduct a resume database search.
One final thought, though. I always recommend — when possible — to follow-up an
emailed resume with a formatted resume sent through the mail. I think job-seekers
who use this combination approach have an edge over those who do not.
Read more about electronic resumes in this article on Quintessential Careers:
The Top 10 Things You
Need to Know about E-Resumes and Posting Your Resume Online. And for a
quick review of resume-writing, you might want to review this article:
Avoid These
10 Resume Mistakes.
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- text resumes
Jimmy Sweeney, president of CareerJimmy and author of the www.Amazing-Cover-Letters.com, advises “If you have not been called for an interview, about 10 days after you mail your cover letter, pick up the phone and call the hiring manager directly.” Says Sweeney:
Ask for an in-person interview in a friendly, straightforward manner. Your enthusiasm will encourage the employer to consider your request seriously.
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
LaShun writes:
It seems every piece of advice about cover letters says to call the company
you want to work for to get a SPECIFIC NAME of the person who has the authority
to call you for an interview. But what if the company refuses to give that information?
Most of the companies I call say just send a resume to the HR department
at an email address or fax number but won’t give a name. And when I do get
a specific name, I’m sure I’m not the only one who called. What else can I do?
The Career Doctor responds:
I empathize with all the job-seekers who are finding it harder and
harder to get the name of the hiring manager — which is what all job
experts recommend you do. Unfortunately, companies seem to be
making it harder and harder for job-seekers to identify and follow-up
with the hiring manager.
You have several options for getting the name (and correct spelling)
of the hiring manager. You could call the human resources office, but
remember that office’s role is one of screening. So, I would avoid HR
altogether and simply call the main switchboard and ask the receptionist
for the name of the department manager for the position you are seeking.
Receptionists are wonderful sources of information — so cultivate them!
You could also default to writing to the division or company president and
hope your application trickles down to the hiring manager, but more often
than not, if it does trickle down, it goes to HR. The final possibility is
another important use of your network; contact all the people in your
network and see if anyone works or knows someone who works for the
company — and then ask that person to use internal channels to get
you the name of the hiring manager.
One final comment about the many employers who state in job ads:
“no phone calls.” This comment refers to applying by phone — but should
not stop any job-seeker who has submitted an application from
following-up to check on the status of his/her application.
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- application,
- company president,
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- HR department,
- human resources office,
- internal channels,
- job-seekers,
- resume
To get what we need and want we must ask for it,” advises Jimmy Sweeney, president of CareerJimmy and author of www.Amazing-Cover-Letters.com. “Yet, when it comes to including in a cover letter, the all-important request for a job interview, some job-seekers shy away from asking, ‘May I meet you to discuss the opening for restaurant manager (or whatever the position may be)?’ or ‘May I come to your office for an interview?’”
ASKING is essential, Sweeney says. “Without the question, the hiring manager has no reason to respond. Your cover letter might read well, but unless you ask for an interview, the manager will likely set your letter aside. You risk the chance of never hearing from that person about your interest in the job opening.”
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Give the hiring manager reason to keep reading your cover letter by creating a HEADLINE written and centered in bold text right above the greeting in your cover letter:
I Would Welcome The Opportunity To Interview For The Position Of [Fill In Job Title Here].
So advises Jimmy Sweeney, president of CareerJimmy and author of www.Amazing-Cover-Letters.com
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Adrianne writes:
I am in the preliminary stages of a job search and I found your
article on researching a company to be very useful.
I also understand that cover letters should be specific. But to
avoid writing “dear sir/madam,” I wonder what one can do if the
company’s human resources department does not want to divulge
the name of who is assessing the applicants?
The Career Doctor responds:
The bad news is that technology trends make it even harder for job-seekers
to track down the names of hiring managers. The good news is that when
you do, you will certainly have an edge over other job-seekers.
One of the biggest complaints I hear from job-seekers is the ever-increasing
difficulty in reaching or following-up with a hiring manager.
So, what’s the best way around HR folks, screening assistants, voicemail,
or vague email addresses? Having someone inside the company who can
get you the information — this is the real power of networking.
A lot of job-seekers have a misconception that networking is all about
asking people for jobs — and it’s not. Networking is about sharing information —
about people, companies, and, yes, job leads. A strong network will provide
you with plenty of information and resources to help your job search. And
having this information will give you the inside edge in the job hunt.
Another misconception about networking is that you are using people, but the
whole idea behind networking is one of reciprocation; someone helps you now
and you’ll help that person in the future. So, get your network out there
helping you!
And if you must use a salutation, I prefer “Dear hiring manager,” or “Dear
hiring manager for [fill-in-the-blank] position.
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Lorraine writes:
I have a query. My husband was retrenched almost 8 months ago now, and
I want to send his CV to as many printing
companies that I can find in South Africa. I also want to send a covering
letter attached with his CV explaining that he was retrenched 8 months ago and
would like to know if any of these companies have any vacancies. Please help
me with the wording of this letter as I am at a loss?
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
The Career Doctor responds:
Certainly one of the key components of a job search should still be cold contact,
where the job-seeker sends his or her cover letter and resume (or CV) to companies
that might have job openings. The critical factor with this strategy is getting the
name and title of the hiring manager for your area of expertise and then writing
a powerful cover letter. Why does cold contact work? It works because of the
large hidden job market; the vast majority of job openings never get advertised
or posted, so cold contact is a way of applying for positions that may in fact be
open.
I assume that while you are writing the letters, that they will actually be signed
by your husband. The cover letter is critical — its function is to spark enough
interest so that the employer then looks at your resume (or CV). Think of the
cover letter as a sales pitch letter, where the item you are selling is yourself —
your mix of skills, accomplishments, and education. You NEVER want to put
anything negative in your cover letter. And while many folks are being retrenched
or rightsized or re-engineered out of jobs, it’s still a negative. Employers want to
see job-seekers who are (or appear) gainfully employed. So, please, say nothing
about the retrenchment in your cover letter; saying anything will only harm your
husband’s chances. Read more about writing cover letters in the Quintessential
Careers Cover Letter Tutorial.
Finally, please remember that your efforts are not complete once you mail the
cover letters and CVs to the printing companies. The last paragraph of your cover
letter should request action — an interview — and after a reasonable amount of time
(1-2 weeks), you MUST follow-up and contact each company — each hiring
manager — and ask for the interview. If you don’t follow-up, you are wasting your
time even sending the cover letters and CVs.
A note to all job-seekers: Please don’t wait eight months after being downsized to
start job-hunting. Take some time to reflect and consider whether it’s time to change
careers — but even if you get a big severance package, you should get right back out
there on the job market. The longer you wait to start job-searching, the harder it will
be for you.
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Francis writes:
I have been scouring the Internet for some guidance concerning cover letters when responding to ads for jobs from web sites like Monster, Yahoo Hot Jobs, etc. The current thinking is that you should always respond with the name of a person. If this is the case, no one seems to advocate not applying for a job using one of the above sources to submit a resume since many times there is no name given.
My experience is limited in calling to find out who to send the resume to. One time I called and was told “we don’t give out names” when I asked for a contact.
Would you tell me why this is so? Is it because it could be financial suicide if this type of advice were given?
Thanks for your time. I have found you web site very helpful.
The Career Doctor responds:
There are critical differences between traditional job-hunting and job-hunting on the Web — and you’ve discovered a big one. An emailed cover letter, while having the same job-search function, is quite different than a traditional cover letter. An emailed cover letter needs to be shorter and more concise, needs to grab the attention of the reader more quickly, and needs to focus on keywords.
An emailed cover letter is generally no more than three paragraphs. The first paragraph identify the key benefits you can offer the employer — in a dynamic and inviting style. The second paragraph provides the details that support the benefits you mention in the first paragraph. The third paragraph must close the deal by asking for the interview.
You should still try and identify the hiring manager for the position if it is not listed in the job posting. Contacting the company and asking for the name of the hiring manager will work for many organizations, but some may have privacy policies — or concerns about getting deluged with responses. Alternative solutions include “Dear Hiring Manager” or skipping the salutation completely and just starting the letter with “Re: Job Posting XX7783Y.”
You can get much more tips and advice about writing email cover letters by reading my article, Tips for a Dynamic Email Cover Letter.
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Anna writes:
I just wanted to say a big thank you for creating such a brilliant website. I don’t
know what I would do without it — it’s my source.
I’ve been sending out cover letters which (at the time) I thought were very good, but I then
came across a job ad where they said they are expecting high volumes of responses. It was a job
where I didn’t have the exact experience they required so I thought I would change tactics and try out your
2-column dynamic cover
letter and see whether I would get offered an interview.
Well, I DID and as soon as I sat for the interview, the first thing he said was that he was very
impressed by my cover letter and that all the information was in front of him easy to read.
Quick question for you. I just had the interview yesterday… how soon should I follow-up?
The Career Doctor responds:
Our mission in everything we do at Quintessential Careers — including
this blog — is to empower job-seekers like you and help you succeed, and I am so
happy that you were able to use the information on our site to help obtain the interview.
So many job-seekers seem to think that most of the work is done once they get the interview —
and I guess I see the logic of that because so much focus is put on obtaining the interview —
but really the interview is just an interim step because your goal should be the job offer.
Did you send a thank-you note? A short note thanking the interviewer and reminding him/her
of your key selling point is your first line of follow-up, and should be completed as soon as
possible after the interview.
Your next follow-up partly depends on the information you received at the interview. If the company
is close to making a final decision, then I would follow-up sooner than later. Typically, job-seekers
should follow-up once a week by politely contacting the hiring manager and expressing your
continued interest in the position and the company.
Read more about following-up after job interviews in this article published on Quintessential Careers:
The Art of the Follow-Up After Job Interviews.
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Hobbies and Interests on a resume are usually considered superfluous and trivial. Some job-seekers consider
these items conversation-starters, while some employers feel the information humanizes the
candidate and presents a fuller picture. Many recruiters and employers feel hobby and interest
information can expose the candidate to discrimination. A workaholic hiring manager “could perceive
the candidate as frivolous with too many outside interests,” observes Alison, a corporate recruiter
for a specialized information provider. As with most information on your resume, the option to list
hobby and interest information is a personal choice, but it’s usually more risky to list it than
to leave it off. Ask yourself: Does this information add value to my resume? Space constraints
may also guide your decision. Read more in our
Frequently Asked Questions About Resumes: The Complete Resume FAQ.
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- candidate,
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- Interests,
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Any disclosure on your resume — such as religion, church affiliations, or political affiliations —
that could get you screened out as a candidate is risky. You may take the stance
that you don’t want to work for an employer that would eliminate you because a hiring
manager didn’t like your political beliefs or religious affiliation. But given that,
for most candidates, religion, politics, and any other controversial affiliations
are not relevant to your next job, it’s wise to leave them out. Read more in our
Frequently Asked Questions About Resumes: The Complete Resume FAQ.
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- candidates,
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- The Complete Resume FAQ
In her article for Quint Careers,
Are You Up To Snuff When It Comes To Soft Skills?,
Peggy Klaus tells this story: One hiring manager — who echoed the sentiments of many others — says she can spot what
she calls a soft-skills impostor in seconds. “In our executive-level job postings, we purposely ask candidates to explain how their experience will translate into
helping grow our organization. You would not believe the number of responses we get from very senior executives
who fail to address our question, much less even mention the name of our organization in their letter!” Translation:
The job candidate is taking the “throw spaghetti against the wall and see if it sticks” approach by using one-size-fits-all-
communication. As for those applicants who don’t follow the instructions in her postings, “If they ignore me, I ignore them.”
The hiring manager also noted, “Would you want this person leading your organization and presenting to clients?
Communicating, listening, critical thinking — even at the most basic level — these are all very important soft skills.”
A loud message is sent when an applicant fails to highlight details most relevant to the position, follow simple directions,
or show signs of having bothered to visit the company’s website.
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- applicant,
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- Quint Careers,
- soft skills
A strong cover letter doesn’t just create a good impression —
it helps you sell yourself, declares
Elizabeth Freedman in her article for Quint Careers,
Cover Letters That Count.
But selling yourself isn’t always easy.
So use a technique that marketers use to sell us stuff: the convince … that … because
method. When drafting your cover letter, think about the following:
Whom do you want to convince?
For instance, you might be writing to a hiring manager who needs somebody with strong
writing skills. By knowing your audience, you’ll have the opportunity to specifically
address the concerns or needs of your readers in your persuasive cover letter. One caveat:
You may find job announcements that instruct applicants to send a letter to human resources,
rather than provide a specific name of an individual. In these instances, you can try to
track down, through company sources or networking, the name and title of a specific
individual to whom you can address your letter. Otherwise, use the job description and
knowledge of the company to best gauge your audience’s needs.
What are you trying to convince them of?
Using the example above, you are trying to convince a hiring manager that you have terrific
writing skills. You may also want the hiring manager to know about your ability to speak French
and your mastery of PowerPoint, if these are skills that are relevant to the job for which you’re
applying. Be specific here: If you want to talk about your skills as a leader, be sure to
mention a situation in which you demonstrated leadership skills. And remember to discuss
the same skills that appear on your resume, providing additional information and detail
in your letter.
Why should you be hired over someone else?
Here’s your opportunity to make a persuasive, convincing argument and sell your unique abilities.
Using the previous example, you want to convince a hiring manager that you have terrific writing
skills because you’ve consistently written on a wide range of topics for your school’s newspaper,
providing valuable information to more than 500 students weekly for the past three years. Whatever
your example, make sure you point out how your work made a positive difference, quantifying this
difference whenever possible.
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- argument,
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- Elizabeth Freedman,
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- human resources,
- impression,
- job description,
- marketers,
- networking,
- Quint Careers,
- selling
We recently performed a Google search on our Quintessential Careers fax number to prove a point. We advise job-seekers to follow up with employers after sending out their resume and cover letter, but sometimes ads and job postings provide only a fax number, so you don’t even know what company you’re writing to, let alone the name of
the hiring manager. But if you try entering the fax number into Google, as we did, there’s a good chance the name of the company will come up (as it did for the QuintCareers fax number), enabling you to further research the name of the hiring manager. You can also try reverse phone lookup feature at a site such as AnyWho. Employers will likely admire your resourcefulness if you can tailor the letter to their organization when only a fax number appeared in the job posting.
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Think most hiring managers don’t read cover letters? The perception that cover letters aren’t important anymore is likely fed by the fact that some online job boards don’t have a mechanism for submitting cover letters. But a study by CareerBuilder.com of 290 hiring managers across the U.S. revealed that 66 percent prefer an appropriate cover letter with the resume. Since you don’t know which two-thirds of hiring managers like cover letters and which third don’t, you need to always include a cover letter with your resume.
Further breaking down that 66 percent, Wendy Enelow, founder of the former Career Masters Institute (now the Career Management Alliance) points out that 33 percent of all recipients ALWAYS read the cover letter first; the other 33 percent glance at the cover letter after they’ve read the resume. Therefore, says Enelow, “Your letter must immediately communicate your value to an organization, for you never know which 33 percent will receive it.”
For an overall refresher on cover letters, see our Cover Letter Tutorial.
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Try to avoid addressing your cover letter to “Dear Personnel Director/HR Director,” “To Whom It May Concern,” “Dear Sir or Madam” (or worse, “Dear Sirs”) instead of a named individual — all lazy approaches that show the employer that you were not concerned enough to find out the name of the person with the hiring power. It’s not always easy to find the name of the specific hiring manager, but try to do so if at all possible. Usually, you can just call the company and ask who the hiring manager is for a given position. Tap into your personal network to learn the names of hiring managers. Let’s say a company post an opening online. You know someone who works at the company. Ask your contact to find out the name of the person hiring for that position. Also use the library, phone book, our Guide to Researching Companies, Industries, and Countries, annd article, Sleuthing Out Hiring Managers Is Key to Job-Search Follow-up, to track down names of hiring managers. The worst-case scenario is that your letter will begin
“Dear Hiring Manager for [name of position]:”
It’s not the best approach, but if you absolutely cannot find a name, this salutation does at least provide some specificity.
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