Results tagged “hiring managers” from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters Tips Blog

Avoid These Common Cover-Letter Mistakes

on May 8, 2009 12:25 AM | Permalink

In response to a question about common mistakes in cover letters, Phyllis Korkki said, “A cover letter with typos, misspellings and poor sentence structure may take you out of the running for a job. If you cannot afford to pay someone to review your cover letter and résumé, enlist a friend or a family member with good language skills to do it instead.

Korkki continues:

Another misguided thing people do is to make the cover letter all about them: “I did this, I’m looking for, I want to … I, I, I.” Structure your letter so that it stresses the company and what you can do to help it reach its goals, [experts] said.

Korkki cites well-known career-management expert Wendy Enelow for the advice to avoid including too much information — for example, very specific salary or geographic requirements. Enelow also told Korkki that it is also unwise to point out that you do not meet all the criteria in the job description. You can deal with that later, if you get an interview. Hiring managers are looking for ways to exclude you as they narrow down their applications. Do not give them that ammunition.

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Permanent-Resident PhD Struggles to Explain Resume Gap

Katharine

on April 16, 2009 1:16 AM | Permalink

This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:

Reena writes:

I got my PhD degree in microbiology a year ago. Since I am an international scholar, I had to wait for my immigration papers to get processed for my permanent-resident status (that I got through marriage to an American citizen) for a year. I was not legally allowed to work (earn any money) for a year. Now that I have got my permanent-resident status I have started sending out job applications, and I keep getting asked what work I did for a year since I got my PhD. I did do some volunteer work off and on during my year off, and I also did a lot of traveling. Do I need to explain my year off in the applications that I send out? How do I explain it? I am just afraid that potential employers will not understand this explanation since none of them had to go through this themselves (some of them are really rude when they demand an explanation).

The Career Doctor responds:

While yours is a very specific question, I include it in the blog because there are some lessons here that all job-seekers should learn.

Employers want to hire productive employees, and so any unexplained gaps on a resume or vitae send out a large caution flag to hiring managers. As a job-seeker, your goal is to show that you were productive during any and all gaps — pursing further education or credentials, volunteering or freelancing, in some way staying active in your career field.

In your situation, newly minted PhDs are supposed to be at one of their most productive peaks, so appearing to take a year off of research would be very worrisome to prospective employers who want to hire a research workhorse. And those that don’t go to work right after the degree often to some post-doctoral work.

I would avoid the whole immigration issue — mainly because employers never want to hear complications… they simply want workers who will show and work.

So, I think you do need to show that you were somehow working during that year… perhaps through the volunteering, perhaps through some pending research or publications.

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.

Termination Results in Resume Gap

Katharine

on March 28, 2009 8:03 AM | Permalink

This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:

Tasha writes:

I have a question. I was fired last summer, but I don’t use my last employer on my resume so there’s a huge gap of employment and I don’t know what to put on applications for “reason for leaving” when really I was fired for a misunderstanding without opening a can of worms with an interviewer.

Example of gap: 11-2006 thru 12-07 is my last employment history on my resume. I worked 12-07 thru 06-08, but I was fired and don’t use this employer on my resume.

Can you give me a suggestion — please?

The Career Doctor responds:

Yours is an interesting situation. Before I even get to the issue of the job you were fired from, let’s start with what you’ve been doing in the year-plus since you were fired. Have you worked at all during this time? Have you volunteered your services? Have you received additional education or training? You must find something to fill this gap — other than job-hunting or sitting home feeling sorry for yourself over being fired for some sort of misunderstanding. If you have not done anything — start doing something NOW.

While a resume is a statement of facts, it is also a sales document — it needs to convince the prospective employer that you are worthy of an interview. And in my opinion, a short stint is much better than having a much longer gap on your resume. Regardless of the month, hiring managers will see 2007 and think that you have been out of work for two years and there must be something wrong with you. It’s just too long of a gap. You could consider using a chrono-functional or hybrid resume centered around skills clusters, but many employers favor the traditional chronological resume because it’s easier to find the information they need.

As for job applications, simply put “left company” as the reason. You certainly do not need to go into any detail on the application. Again, the application is designed to weed out applicants, so it too is a sales document for you. Once in the interview, you may need to address the issue — so be prepared with a short statement about how you were fired over a misunderstanding, being very certain to address the lesson you learned from the experience so that you show a positive attitude and growth. Do not blame your previous employer or manager; accept your responsibility in the issue, but do not dwell on it.

And don’t worry too much what this past employer will say about you. The one benefit of living in such a litigious society is that most employers are very unwilling to say anything too negative about current or former employers for fear of being sued.

Finally, it sounds as though you are having a hard time rebounding from being fired. If so, consider getting some sort of career counseling to deal with these feelings. You might also benefit from my article, Getting Fired: An Opportunity for Change and Growth, published on Quintessential Careers.

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.

Include Resume with Broadcast Letter?

Katharine

on January 25, 2009 10:45 AM | Permalink

This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:

Brian writes:

I came across Quintessential Careers last night as I was trying to unearth the answer to a question which was plaguing me all night.

I’d be most grateful if you could tell me whether or not one should include a resume with a broadcast letter.

I’ve heard conflicting opinions on the subject. What’s your advice?

The Career Doctor responds:

The answer is: it depends.

Although not talked about as much compared to networking and online job-hunting, a broadcast cover letter is part of a direct marketing campaign by the job-seeker —in which you identify a list of prospective employers, research the names of the hiring managers at each employer, and send an unsolicited letter to tap into what has been called “the hidden job market.”

The strength of this strategy is that you can sometimes catch a hiring manager just as an opening is occurring, giving you sort of a first-strike advantage over other job-seekers before the position is even advertised — internally or externally. Because turnover happens frequently, a broadcast letter is still a good job-seeker strategy.

But I never liked using the term broadcast letter because it carries the implication that the job-seeker can write one cover letter and broadcast it to a large number of employers — and that strategy will just not work.

If you want to effectively use a direct-marketing approach, you will need to target (customize) each letter for each prospective employer. While parts of the letters can be the same, you will need to adjust other parts to showcase your knowledge of the company.

Should you include a resume with your cover letter? My view is yes — always. But again, as with the cover letter, you will need to customize each resume to each employer. You’ll want to use some of the keywords that each employer uses in describing themselves in describing yourself.

Other experts, such as Jeffrey Fox, author of Don’t Send a Resume, say that job-seekers should send resume after first winning over the hiring manager with a dazzling cover letter. In fact, Fox says a job-seeker should not send a resume to the employer until after the job interview — so that the resume can be as narrowly targeted to the position and employer as possible.

Read more about cover letters — and resumes — in these sections of Quintessential Careers.

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.

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