This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
James writes:
I’m searching for a guide on how to write my resume, but I can’t seem to find
anything. If you could give me some tips, or a site that I could go to, that would
be greatly appreciated.
The Career Doctor responds:
Can’t find anything on resumes? Wow. There’s tons of stuff available on resumes —
in magazines, books, and on the Web… but I’ll give you a quick primer.
Your resume is a critical marketing tool. Your resume has to entice a prospective employer enough — through its focus, content, and style — to first consider your
qualifications for the job at hand and then to invite you for a job interview. A resume
is a statement of your unique mix of experiences, education, and skills. You must
not lie on your resume, but you must always remember its goal.
I think the most important thing any job-seeker should do before attempting to write
a resume is to first sit down and make a list of your skills and accomplishments from
all your previous experiences (work, volunteer, school, etc.) because you will take
from this list those critical skills and accomplishments — not your duties and
responsibilities — that highlight your fit for the next job you are seeking.
The next step is researching and identifying the job — and all the requirements of
that job — that you are seeking because it is critical that your resume is focused on
specifics. You should also research the potential employers that may have jobs that
you seek so that you can incorporate some of their keywords into your resume.
Wait! Does this advice suggest that job-seekers need to have a specifically tailored
resume for every single job they apply for? Yes! There is absolutely no reason for you
not to develop a different resume for each job and employer. For most job-seekers,
this task will simply mean tweaking small parts of your resume for similar jobs.
Once you have the content down, you should focus on the style and look of your
resume. Do not use a template; design your own. Follow a consistent style. Use
normal fonts and sizes. Use bullets rather than paragraphs. Do not use personal
pronouns. Consider using a career/job objective or profile section. Always list
education and experience in reverse chronological order (starting with the most
recent stuff). Do not list any personal information (such as age, marital status,
weight). Do not include controversial information. And ALWAYS, ALWAYS,
spell-check and carefully proofread your resume for any and all errors.
Read our articles published on Quintessential Careers: The
Scoop on Resume Length: How Many Pages Should Your Resume Be? and
10 Resume Mistakes to Avoid.
You can gets lots more advice, including resume samples, resume-writing tutorial, and more, in this section of
Quintessential Careers: Resume and CV Resources.
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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- skills
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Allison writes:
I thought I’d take a chance and see if I could have a question
answered that I didn’t find addressed on your Quintessential Careers Website. (Excellent site, by the way).
I am required to turn in a resume for a school district with whom
I am applying. I have been in the same type of position for 9 years,
doing relatively the same type of work (counseling). Since each of
the jobs I have held have virtually the same description, how do I
address that under the work experience?
I wondered if I should do a functional resume and bullet all the skills
I have acquired through the years and then just list the schools (or
districts) in which I have worked under the work experience.
The Career Doctor responds:
Kudos first for planning in advance — and for doing the research — with regard to
your resume. Resumes are extremely important documents, and I am always
amazed at how many bad resumes I see — poor focus, too wordy, ugly/boring
appearance, with typos and misspellings. Resumes are one of the main tools
with which prospective employers judge you — and help them decide whether
to call you for an interview.
The key element of resumes you are missing is that a resume is not some
statement of job duties or descriptions. A resume is about showing how you
took a job and made it your own — and helped the employer in the process. A
resume highlights your key accomplishments in every job. And even when
you have held similar jobs over a long period, you should still have quantifiable accomplishments in every position.
So, you certainly could make a chrono-functional resume, where the job-seeker chooses about three broad functional skills areas, but what would you list under the
functional categories? Not job duties. But I think a standard chronological resume
would work fine for you as long as you take the time to sit back and examine
your accomplishments in each job.
Here are some Quintessential Careers resume resources that you may find useful:
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document?
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- accomplishments,
- Accomplishments Worksheet,
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- resume,
- Resume Critique,
- resume resources,
- typos and misspellings,
- work experience
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Janet writes:
When should you use a chronological resume? When should you use a functional resume?
The Career Doctor responds:
You’re not going to like this answer: It depends. The resume format most in favor these
days is the standard chronological resume, which is organized around a straightforward
employment history. Job-seekers with a solid employment history who are looking for
advancement within their career field typically use a chronological resume. Employers
and headhunters prefer the chronological resume because it’s easy to assess issues
such as employment history, qualifications, and career advancement by a simple
glance at the resume. Functional resumes (and I advise not a purely functional resume but a chrono-functional resume) downplay employment history in favor of
functional skills clusters, and are most used by new college grads, career changers,
and job-seekers with employment gaps.
The answer I am giving to all my clients and students is this: In today’s job market, it
is critical to have resumes for all job-search situations. Thus, I recommend developing
both a chrono-functional and chronological resume for job-seekers in situations where a
functional is typically the preferred. I also recommend having a least one electronic
version of a resume as more and more of job searching moves to computer-based
resume databases. The traditional print resume is not dead, but it is losing ground
daily to its electronic counterparts.
Remember that a resume is a statement of facts designed to sell your unique mix of
education, experience, accomplishments, and skills to a prospective employer.
On the other hand, remember that a resume is a marketing document, so do not
be modest; be clear about successes and accomplishments — and quantify
whenever possible.
So, what are the most important things to remember about resumes?
- The function of a resume is to get you a job interview, not the job.
- A resume is a statement of facts, so do not fudge dates, titles, accomplishments.
- Focus is critical; each resume should be tailored to a specific job, a specific employer.
- With employment history, focus on (quantifiable) accomplishments rather than duties and responsibilities.
- Appearances matter, so make sure your printed resume uses conventional (for your profession) fonts, colors, margin widths, etc.
- Avoid mistakes. Typos and misspellings will end the chances of even the most qualified job-seekers.
- Provide detailed contact information. Include your home phone, cell phone, and email.
Read more in my article, published on Quintessential Careers:
What Resume Format is Best For You?
You should also consider reading this article about e-resumes written by my partner,
Katharine Hansen: The Top 10 Things
You Need to Know about E-Resumes and Posting Your Resume Online.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document?
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- typos
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Laura writes:
Since moving to Daytona Beach 5 years ago, I have worked for 10 employers and also tried
self-employment. (Four of the jobs were temporary.) Only one of those employers was a good
match for me, but unfortunately, they went out of business nine months after I started working
for them. I am a highly qualified accountant/bookkeeper, but it seems this town is unwilling to
pay a decent salary to someone with my skills and more than 25 years of experience. My age (over 50)
may also have something to do with my inability to get a good job offer. I have been on several
interviews, but I seem to come in second or third choice.
The Career Doctor responds:
I think now is the time to reinforce the whole concept of a job search as a marketing
campaign. Your cover letter and resume are the key marketing promotion documents
and the job interview is the critical sales call. If you then look at yourself as a product,
it puts job-hunting in a much different light.
You have a number of issues/problems/concerns that need to be addressed. First, I let
me preface the rest of this answer with the depressing news that the Central Florida job
market is one of the weakest and low-paying that I have ever researched. So, as you’ve
discovered, job-seekers need to keep their expectations tempered.
Your resume. There are a number of issues you need to deal with here. First, you need
to remove older job experience and take older dates off your experience and education
so that employers can’t easily guess your age. Next, you need to do something with all
the jobs; 10 jobs in five years is a huge red flag. I would consider lumping all your temporary
work into one grouping in a traditional resume — or consider experimenting with some sort of chrono-functional resume, in which skills are emphasized and employment history is secondary. Next, are you
current with your training/technology skills — and if so, does it come across on your resume?
So much of accounting and bookkeeping practices have changed, even in the last 10 years,
that employers may assume older job-seekers still do it the “old” way and may be resistant
to change. Your task is to not let them assume that!
In the interview. Your resume can only do so much for you — which is basically get you to the
interview. Now you need to sell yourself to the employer. Don’t go into interviews, as some
older workers do, with anything but a positive attitude — focused on how you can make an
immediate contribution to the company (rather than relying on all your years of solid experience).
Attitude, especially with older workers, is critical.
I strongly recommend that you read some of the articles and other resources in this section of
Quintessential Careers: Job
Resources for Mature and Older Jobseekers.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document?
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- resume,
- self-employment,
- skills,
- technology skills,
- temeporary work,
- training
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Anonymous writes:
Quick question: How do you handle and resume that is now 2 pages…
no way around the second page…have to turn in Friday and I am stumped!!
The Career Doctor responds:
There is nothing wrong with established job-seekers having a two-page resume.
Even some exceptional recent college grads may need two pages to showcase
all their accomplishments, skills, education/training, and talents and abilities.
In fact, it’s much better to have a two-page resume with normal margins and font
size than to try and condense all your information onto one page using narrow
margins and tiny type, virtually guaranteeing that no employer is going to even
bother trying to read it.
Here are some rules about writing a two-page resume. First, if you need to go
to a second page, do so. Just be sure that the second page is at least half full;
anything less, and you should find a way to cut/condense to make the
information fit on one page. Second, be careful not to divide elements from page
one to page two; in other words, do not start a section on page one that carries
over to page two. Third, be sure to include a header at the top of the second page
identifying it as page two of your resume. Fourth, do not even consider going to a third page.
Some other general rules of resume-writing: focus (and quantify whenever possible) on accomplishments rather than job duties or responsibilities; showcase transferable skills when your work experience has been outside the traditional path; consider a functional style over a (traditional) chronological format when changing careers; consider leaving dates off college degrees to avoid age discrimination.
Find lots more information, articles, tutorials, and resources in the
Resume and CV
Resources section 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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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Julie writes:
I have been unemployed for a little over a year, but I have been doing all the paper work for my husband’s business he has on the side. I also live on a farm. So I really haven’t been employed. How would I add this in my resume? If I leave it off they will think I haven’t been working.
The Career Doctor responds:
You have to remember, Julie, that you determine how you frame your experience — both on your resume and in job interviews. The employer is not a mind-reader, so unless you showcase your experience, skills, and accomplishments, you are not going to get many interviews.
So many job-seekers are in a similar situations as yours. Perhaps they worked for a family business, perhaps it was volunteer work, or perhaps it was taking a year off to go back to school…But what you and all these other job-seekers don’t understand is that all these things add up to your specific mix of skills and abilities. Employers are more interested in job-seekers that have been doing something during a hiatus from full-time, paid employment than job-seekers who appear to have been doing nothing,
What’s the answer? Don’t discount any of the year that you’ve been working on the farm and helping your husband’s business. Instead, embrace that experience. Find experience, skills, and accomplishments that you can pull from the past year’s work. If you find the experience doesn’t quite fit into a neat career path, then consider experimenting by supplementing your conventional chronological resume with a chrono-functional style. What’s the difference? Chronological resumes focus on your job history while chrono-functional resumes focus on specific (transferable) skills sets you’ve mastered. Read more in these articles published on Quintessential Careers: Should You Consider a Functional Resume? and Strategic
Portrayal of Transferable Skills is a Vital Job-search Technique.
You can also find many more resume-related articles and tutorials in the Resume Resources section 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.
- accomplishments,
- chrono-functional resume,
- experience,
- job interview,
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- Quintessential Careers,
- resume,
- Resume Resources,
- skills,
- transferable skills,
- tutorial
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Tad writes:
What if your job doesn’t involve numbers, dollars saved. I’m a security officer. How do I write a compelling resume?
The Career Doctor responds:
Tad, kudos to you for understanding the importance of quantifying on your resume. Job-seekers must show prospective employers your accomplishments rather than simply telling them — and quantifying results is one method to do just that.
But now you have to take that understanding to the next level, because you can quantify and showcase your accomplishments in just about any job. For example, can’t you quantify the number of hours, days, weeks, etc. without incidents; the number of hours of training and professional development; the number (and types) of security devices/technology you’ve mastered; number of security investigations successfully closed; commendations (or other records of achievement) you have received.
There are really two keys to writing successful resumes and cover letters. The first key, as you know, is stating your accomplishments (rather than job duties). For an in-depth review of this issue, please read our article, For Job-Hunting Success: Track and Leverage Your Accomplishments.
The second key is researching and using job-specific keywords in your resumes and cover letters. Employers are increasingly turning to keywords to conduct searches of resume databases, and if your resume doesn’t contain those keywords the company is using, then you are pretty much dead in the water. So, how does a job-seeker know what keywords to use on his or her resume? Good question. The quick and dirty answer is that you need to study job postings and job descriptions and find the pattern of words employers use and then be sure to insert them into your resume. The longer — and
better — answer is to read the very detailed article (and sidebars) from my partner, Katharine Hansen, published on Quintessential Careers: Tapping
the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume’s Effectiveness.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document?
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Orlando writes:
I have recently moved to New York City. I have 4 solid years of web development/programming and design experience. I have also worked 2 years, out of the 4 years, as a web-development consultant. On top of my experiences and skills, I am still pursuing my first bachelor’s degree in computer information systems.
For some reason, I am experiencing difficulties in finding a job in New York. I have been
sending resumes for more than a month now and generated only one interview, but another candidate was selected. I was wondering if this is because I don’t have my degree yet or is it my resume? How long does it usually take, on average, for someone to hear from companies?
Please help me. I would really appreciate any suggestions you can give me on how to get interviews with companies.
The Career Doctor responds:
Job-hunting is all about marketing and selling — and being more aggressive in hunting down job opportunities than other job-seekers. One of your biggest problems is a common one among job-seekers — applying for jobs and then sitting back waiting for the phone to ring. And as you have discovered, job-hunting just does not work that way. You need to get on the phone (or via email if you applied for jobs using email) and call every company you have not heard from and see what the status of your application is — and ask for interviews where appropriate.
I don’t know what method you are using to find job leads, but if you are relying only on job ads — either job postings on Web sites or in help wanted ads in New York area newspapers — you need to move your job search up quite a few gears. Have you joined any professional or social organizations since you moved to New York? Do you have friends or family in New York? I ask because networking is the best method to find strong job leads.
Learn more about networking by going to Quintessential Careers: The Art of Networking.
Don’t get discouraged, but don’t sit at home waiting for a phone call. Pound the pavement. Make your own opportunities.
Finally, one other great source for understanding the importance of marketing in job-hunting is my article: Using Key Marketing Tools to Position Yourself on the Job Market.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document?
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- bachelor's degree,
- experience,
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Karen Danyels writes:
I’m thinking about switching jobs, but when I look at what my duties are here, they don’t sound like very much at all. My job is basically data entry and word processing. My duties include running almost all packages that go to the courthouse. These include starting evictions, running eviction packages, the Substitute Trustee, Notice of Sale, Notice of Hearing, staying in contact with the mortgage companies, ordering Title Searches, ordering Publication requests from the newspapers, Final Reports, and various other forms. I also had the highest grade in my class in editing and
proofreading, the only A in the class.
The Career Doctor responds:
Karen, you are making one of the classic job-seeker mistakes. You should not be focusing on your duties at all — you should be focusing on your accomplishments! Accomplishments are so much more meaningful to prospective employers than run-of-the-mill litanies of job duties or responsibilities. Spend some time brainstorming about your skills and accomplishments — in all your jobs and education — with an eye toward the type of job you want next. Eliminate any skills that you no longer want to perform; otherwise you will be stuck in another job doing things you no longer enjoy.
Once you have this list of accomplishments and skills, it’s time to work on your resume. One article in particular that you should find useful is: Ten Easy Ways to Improve Your Resume, by my partner, Katharine Hansen. If you need more help with your resume, go to the Resume
Resources section of Quintessential Careers.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document?
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Anonymous writes:
I have applied several times to a particular company and just discovered,
much to my horror, that I had been spelling the city’s name wrong (at least
three applications so far). It’s a two-word name and I made it one word.
Worse, it’s a company I do business with regularly and that’s one of my “ins”
into the company, my “knowledge” of them, and yet I didn’t know such a
small thing. How embarrassing, but worse, how damaging to my credibility.
I just applied for THE position I had been waiting for and it was after I mailed
that letter that I realized the mistake I had been making. I was hoping so
much to finally get an interview with this company and now this. Is there any
way to recover from this error? Should I follow-up with an “at least I’m
consistent” light-hearted, letter or hope they didn’t notice as it was going to
a different department?
The Career Doctor responds:
If the job you are applying for is that of an editor or proofreader, then perhaps
it’s a major blunder, but otherwise I think you can just let this error be. In the
great scheme of cover letters, it is MUCH more important to get the name of
the hiring manager and name of the company spelled correctly — and I am
assuming you did that.
Look at DeLand, where I am based. Most of the mailed correspondence I get
spells it as Deland, and don’t even get me started about how people pronounce
it. Regardless, while I would of course recommend all job-seekers have perfect
spelling and grammar in your cover letters, I would not make a big deal of your
oversight.
I might be concerned, however, about someone who has applied for three
different positions within the company. Are the positions similar? Do you
have any sense why you were not interviewed for the previous positions? If you
do have a few contacts within the company, I would ask them whether there is
any “word” on your reputation from the people within the departments you are
applying to.
And speaking of cover letters, wanted to share this comment from a job-seeker
who had asked me how to make a bigger impact with his cover letter for an
internship — and I told him to deliver it to the manager personally, but when
doing so to be prepared for an on-the-spot interview, which is just what happened:
“Just writing to thank you again for your advice with my cover letter for an
internship and how to deliver it. I found the manager’s name, and went to
deliver my letter to her today. She was so impressed with my initiative of
actually delivering the letter by hand, that she interviewed me on the spot,
and wants to set up a more formal interview in the near future. Thanks so
much, your edits and advice about actually hand-delivering the letter were
invaluable, and I really appreciate your time.”
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document?
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Michelle writes:
I recently was let go from my position at my office due to financial reasons.
How do I start off a cover letter letting the employer know this information in
a positive manner? I just need some advice on how to construct the first part
of the cover letter and I did not see that on the website. Hope you can help
and thank you for your time.
The Career Doctor responds:
Repeat after me — again and again — never ever put any kind of negative information
in your cover letter, resume, or any other job-search materials. The time to address
any of these negative issues — such as being fired — is in the job interview ONLY
after the employer raises the issue.
Your cover letter is the job-search tool that sets the tone for you as a job-seeker and
provides the critical first impression for the employer. How positive an impression is the
prospective employer going to have if your opening paragraph states, “although I was
recently let go from my previous job because the company was having financial difficulties… ”
The employer is going to stop reading before he/she even gets to the end of your sentence.
But you are not alone. In the thousands of cover letters I have seen over the years, it
is absolutely amazing the kind of negative information job-seekers put in their cover letters.
Perhaps they mistakenly think that full disclosure is necessary. Or perhaps because
professionals stress being truthful, they think this means they need to fess up to all prior
mistakes.
Please remember a cover letter is a marketing document. Its sole purpose is to entice the
hiring manager just enough to review your resume. It’s then the resume’s job to verify that
you are worthy of getting an interview for the open position.
If your cover letter is not focused, if it provides negative information, if it has typos or spelling
errors, or if it has too little or too much detail, your resume will simply not get a look
and your job prospects for the position are officially over.
Finally, let me once again stress that I am not saying to lie. I am simply saying do NOT
disclose negative information (or even too much information) until the employer asks you
about it. And at that point you need to put a positive spin on the negative information —
but only then.
I believe you need to review two key resources. First, read my article about moving beyond after
getting laid off: Getting Fired: An
Opportunity for Change and Growth.
Second, take advantage of the all the tools and resources we offer in this section of Quintessential Careers: Cover Letter Resources for Job-Seekers.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document?
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Eugene writes:
I am a student studying law, and I recently decided to apply for a position as a
paralegal with some law firms. I spent some time looking at your Quintessential
Careers website. Now, I do not doubt for a minute that much research is able to
substantiate the information that you have presented, but I find it difficult to
imagine that some of the techniques you mention do work. What immediately
springs to mind is the section on closing paragraphs: “I will call your office in
the next week to schedule an appointment.”
To me, that sounds quite unorthodox, and perhaps even pushy and rude. I
actually incorporated a line to the same effect in my cover letters after
reading your website, but now I am wondering whether it was the best thing
to do. Could you please explain to me why this works?
The Career Doctor responds:
In any job market, but especially in this job market, job-seekers need to know
how to best market themselves to prospective employers. This self-marketing strategy has several components when writing cover letters.
First, rather than saying something like “I hope you’ll find my qualifications a good
match with what you’re looking for,” you need to show — and tell — the employer that
you are a good match for the position. Describe how your accomplishments, skills, and training are a perfect match for the employer’s needs.
Second, you do need to end your letter with an aggressive stance. If you do not want
to be so aggressive as to say you will call for an interview, you can simply say you
will call to discuss the job. Employers want go-getters, not passive employees.
Third, as I have stated numerous other times, you MUST follow-up all your cover
letters and job applications. Saying you are going to call is the easy part; the hard
part is actually making the phone call. And in the phone call, you need to still be
aggressive in not taking no for an answer — just remember to stay professional
at all times — while showcasing why you are the perfect person for the job.
Find lots more helpful information and resources in the
cover letter resources
section of Quintessential Careers.
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- accomplishments,
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- Quintessential Careers,
- self-marketing strategy,
- skills,
- training
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Jacqueline writes:
I have a question regarding the closing, “Take Care,” at the end of business
cover letters. Is that considered “less” professional than all the traditional closings?
The Career Doctor responds:
I consider “take care” as a bit too informal for traditional cover letters. I have
seen it in email cover letters, and I find it a bit more acceptable there. When
writing conventional cover letters, I would stick with the traditional closings:
sincerely and cordially.
In the grand scheme of cover-letter writing, though, I think how you close the
letter is of little consequence compared to the much bigger issues that I list
below.
Key cover letter strategies:
- Addressing the letter to a named individual. Job-seekers must address the
letter to a person — the hiring manager. And if you make the effort to get the name,
make sure you spell it correctly. Do not write to the Human Resources department.
- The first paragraph must engage the reader and entice him/her to read more
of your letter. Do not waste this opening paragraph with the typical boring one that
many job-seekers use.
- The second and third paragraphs must show how well you fit the position you
are seeking — as well as highlight key accomplishments. Focus on what you can
do for the company rather than what the company can do for you.
- The last paragraph must state how you plan to follow-up the letter (usually
with a phone call). Be sure to give a timeframe — and then be sure to do what you
say you are going to do.
Finally, be sure also to avoid:
- Long (read boring) sentences and paragraphs;
- Letters longer than one page;
- Typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors;
- Simply rehashing/highlighting your resume
And remember to follow-up all cover letters with a phone call — showing your
continued interest in the position and the employer.
Read more in this article published on Quintessential Careers:
Don’t
Make These 10 Cover Letter Mistakes.
And to find just about everything you ever wanted to know about cover letters, including
numerous samples, go to the Cover Letter Resources section of Quintessential Careers.
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Diane writes:
I would like to send my resume with a cover letter to recruiters/employment
agencies. The career development office I’m working with advises that it is
better to have someone’s name to address the cover letter to. Since it would
require a great deal of time to try and get a staff member’s name for each
agency, would it be acceptable to use a generic salutation, such as Dear
Recruiter?
The Career Doctor responds:
The rules of cover-letter writing are a bit different when writing letters to
headhunters than when writing letters to employers, but the one rule of
all cover letter writing is that the job-seeker must — as best as possible —
address the letters to named individuals. Think about it, when was the last
time you read (junk mail) addressed to “Dear Homeowner” or “Dear Pet
Owner.” If you don’t read these kinds of letters, why should busy professionals?
Job-seekers must always take the time to get names and titles for cover letters.
Before I get to the differences in content, let me also address one other red flag
in your question. Why would you be sending off so many letters to recruiters?
Take the time to research the recruiting agencies that specialize in your field
and in your preferred location — and contact only those recruiters. Don’t waste
your time — and the time of those recruiters — by writing to recruiters who don’t
work in your area.
One other comment about strategy. The majority of recruiters say that the resume
is the single most important document they look at when evaluating job-seekers;
cover letters are a distant second. The message here? Make sure your resume is
exceptional.
Your cover letter to a recruiter should focus on these elements:
- Contact information
- Why you are on the job market
- Job titles and industries of interest to you
- Salary history and salary expectations
For more information about this topic, please read the article published on
Quintessential Careers written by my partner Katharine Hansen:
Cover Letters
to Recruiters Require Special Handling.
You can also follow this link to a
sample cover letter to a recruiter.
And don’t forget to follow all the other guidelines for good cover letters —
especially avoiding typos and misspellings and always being truthful. Find
more resources in this section of Quintessential Careers:
Cover Letter Resources.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document?
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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:
Maria writes:
I had been job-hunting without much success when a recruiter at a job fair
told me he thought my resume was really bad. I was shocked! I thought
I had a pretty darn good resume. What do I need to write and improve my
resume?
The Career Doctor responds:
You didn’t attach your resume, so I don’t know for sure what the specific
problem is with your resume, but I have seen enough bad resumes to know
some of the most common problems. And for a recruiter to tell you that your
resume was bad means that it must be really bad. I’m not trying to be overly
harsh, but to add a douse of realism because I find job-seekers often ask for
advice on improving their resume when they secretly love it and plan no changes.
So… here are my all-purposes fixes for resumes.
First, your resume has to have a focus. Every job-seeker needs to be a specialist,
a specialist that fits the needs of the prospective employer perfectly. Sometimes
a job objective or summary of qualifications can give you the edge you are seeking.
Second, your resume must showcase your accomplishments. Employers like
specifics. They don’t want to know you saved your former employer money; they
want to know exactly how much money you saved. They want to know the exact
size of the staff you managed, the amount you increased revenues, the level of
customer satisfaction you delivered.
Third, there is no such thing as one resume. Gone is a one-size-fits-all resume.
Every resume you send out should be different from all the others. You need to
use specific keywords and phrases that fit each employer.
Fourth, your resume has to look appealing, welcoming. Yes, it’s superficial, but a
plain resume (or worse, from a template) screams plain job-seeker. Take the initiative
to design your own resume style… or hire a professional resume-writer who can do
it for you.
For more information, check out these articles on Quintessential Careers:
Many more articles, resources, and tools can be found in the
Resume Resources section of
Quintessential Careers and in the Resume
and Cover Letters Tips Blog of Quintessential Resumes & Cover Letters.
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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:
Ira writes:
I have been asked to create a brief resume for a friend who has
an extensive career history.
He has a professional background which is varied and I feel that
everything he has done is very relative to the situation he is applying for.
I feel the resume needs to combine both functional and chronological
aspects of his career and expertise; however, the same problem arises —
it ALL seems relevant.
How should I target/focus this resume? What could be deemed
unnecessary, if anything? How can I condense a 20-year-work history
and list of achievements into 1-2 pages?
The Career Doctor responds:
The No. 1 rule of resume writing is focus. You must have a focus
when you write a resume. A resume is not a work summary; it is,
however, a marketing document that clearly shows why a job-seeker
is the perfect candidate for the job.
If your friend truly has a varied work experience, you could categorize
those experiences within the resume — but why not just do a standard
chronological resume? (A side note for inexperienced job-seekers:
everything goes in reverse chronological order, with the most recent
information first.)
Also, the rule-of-thumb is that you do not want to list work experience
that is more than 15 years old, partly because you do not want to
give away information about age, and partly because technologies
in most fields have changed greatly in the last 20 years.
As for page length, you can certainly go to two pages for someone who
has that much experience, and some resume-writing experts say you
can make an executive resume as long as it needs to be.
As you are writing the resume, remember to focus on quantifiable
accomplishments.
Other key resume rules: make it perfect/avoid all errors; use traditional
fonts/sizes; avoid graphics and excess colors; provide detailed contact
information; do not include salary information, names of supervisors, or
references.
One other tip for someone who has a lot of experience. If you have done
a number of projects or consulting work, you might consider an
addendum to your resume that focuses on them specifically.
Bottom line? This resume sounds like it may be too much for an
amateur to tackle. I would probably recommend that your friend
invest in a professional resume writer.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document?
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
James writes:
I’m searching for a guide on how to write my resume, but I can’t seem to find
anything. If you could give me some tips, or a site that I could go to, that would
be greatly appreciated.
The Career Doctor responds:
Can’t find anything on resumes? Wow. There’s tons of stuff available on resumes —
in magazines, books, and on the Web… but I’ll give you a quick primer.
Your resume is a critical marketing tool. Your resume has to entice a prospective employer enough — through its focus, content, and style — to first consider your
qualifications for the job at hand and then to invite you for a job interview. A resume
is a statement of your unique mix of experiences, education, and skills. You must
not lie on your resume, but you must always remember its goal.
I think the most important thing any job-seeker should do before attempting to write
a resume is to first sit down and make a list of your skills and accomplishments from
all your previous experiences (work, volunteer, school, etc.) because you will take
from this list those critical skills and accomplishments — not your duties and
responsibilities — that highlight your fit for the next job you are seeking.
The next step is researching and identifying the job — and all the requirements of
that job — that you are seeking because it is critical that your resume is focused on
specifics. You should also research the potential employers that may have jobs that
you seek so that you can incorporate some of their keywords into your resume.
Wait! Does this advice suggest that job-seekers need to have a specifically tailored
resume for every single job they apply for? Yes! There is absolutely no reason for you
not to develop a different resume for each job and employer. For most job-seekers,
this task will simply mean tweaking small parts of your resume for similar jobs.
Once you have the content down, you should focus on the style and look of your
resume. Do not use a template; design your own. Follow a consistent style. Use
normal fonts and sizes. Use bullets rather than paragraphs. Do not use personal
pronouns. Consider using a career/job objective or profile section. Always list
education and experience in reverse chronological order (starting with the most
recent stuff). Do not list any personal information (such as age, marital status,
weight). Do not include controversial information. And ALWAYS, ALWAYS,
spell-check and carefully proofread your resume for any and all errors.
Read our articles published on Quintessential Careers: The
Scoop on Resume Length: How Many Pages Should Your Resume Be? and
10 Resume Mistakes to Avoid.
You can gets lots more advice, including resume samples, resume-writing tutorial, and more, in this section of
Quintessential Careers: Resume and CV Resources.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document?
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Allison writes:
I thought I’d take a chance and see if I could have a question
answered that I didn’t find addressed on your Quintessential Careers Website. (Excellent site, by the way).
I am required to turn in a resume for a school district with whom
I am applying. I have been in the same type of position for 9 years,
doing relatively the same type of work (counseling). Since each of
the jobs I have held have virtually the same description, how do I
address that under the work experience?
I wondered if I should do a functional resume and bullet all the skills
I have acquired through the years and then just list the schools (or
districts) in which I have worked under the work experience.
The Career Doctor responds:
Kudos first for planning in advance — and for doing the research — with regard to
your resume. Resumes are extremely important documents, and I am always
amazed at how many bad resumes I see — poor focus, too wordy, ugly/boring
appearance, with typos and misspellings. Resumes are one of the main tools
with which prospective employers judge you — and help them decide whether
to call you for an interview.
The key element of resumes you are missing is that a resume is not some
statement of job duties or descriptions. A resume is about showing how you
took a job and made it your own — and helped the employer in the process. A
resume highlights your key accomplishments in every job. And even when
you have held similar jobs over a long period, you should still have quantifiable accomplishments in every position.
So, you certainly could make a chrono-functional resume, where the job-seeker chooses about three broad functional skills areas, but what would you list under the
functional categories? Not job duties. But I think a standard chronological resume
would work fine for you as long as you take the time to sit back and examine
your accomplishments in each job.
Here are some Quintessential Careers resume resources that you may find useful:
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Why would you went to employ storytelling in cover letters — or indeed in any part of your job search?
Cover letters offer job-seekers great latitude to tell stories because letters are quite compatible with the narrative form.
In a cover letter, you can engage the employer, make an emotional connection, show results, and become instantly memorable by including at least one paragraph in the form of a powerful story. Not all employers read cover letters (about a third don’t),
but those who read, do truly read the letter, unlike the resume, which they almost always skim.
Quintessential Careers’ article on integrating stories in cover letters details the types of stories you can tell in a cover letter and provides examples of how to tell them. The article is excerpted from the book Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling to Get a Job and Propel Your Career, releasing April 1, 2009.
Types of stories you can tell in a cover letter:
- Stories of early interest in your career path and determination to reach your career goal.
- Stories that depict your motivation, enthusiasm, and passion for the job you seek.
- Stories describing specific projects you’ve led or collaborated on, including results.
- Stories detailing problems you’ve solved for your employers.
- Stories describing other accomplishments and successes.
- Stories that reveal your personality.
- Stories describing long-term interest in, knowledge of, and admiration for the organization you’re targeting.
- Stories that describe how well you fit in with the organization’s culture, values, and mission.
- Stories — for new graduates — of how your education has prepared you for the targeted job.
- Stories that touch the heartstrings.
- Stories to back up your claims about yourself.
- Stories that tell how you are uniquely qualified for the targeted job.
- Stories that capitalize on networking contacts.
- Stories to explain unusual or potentially negative situations.
- Stories to explain a career change.
- Future stories that address employer needs and challenges and tell how you would address those issues.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document?
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When it comes to cover letters, have you got writer’s block? Do you feel that if you could just start the letter, you’d be OK? Writing help is here with Quintessential Careers’ large collection of job-seeker cover-letter openers for all cover-letter writing situations. That opening paragraph is the most important of your letter, setting the tone and grabbing the reader’s attention to ensure he or she will continue reading (and then review your resume).
With this new Quint Careers tool-set, you’ll find dynamic cover-letter opening paragraphs, including more than 100 customizable openers — with accompanying sample paragraphs showing each opener in action.
The Customizable Cover Letter Opening Paragraphs and Samples include:
Customizable Opening Paragraphs for Cover Letters for …
- Uninvited (Prospecting) Letters
- Invited (Job Ad) Letters
- Letters for College Students and New Grads
- Letters for Students and New Grads of Graduate and Professional Schools
- Letters for Students Seeking Internships
- Letters to Recruiters, Headhunters, Executive Search Firms
- Referral Letters that Spring from Networking
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.
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Janet writes:
When should you use a chronological resume? When should you use a functional resume?
The Career Doctor responds:
You’re not going to like this answer: It depends. The resume format most in favor these
days is the standard chronological resume, which is organized around a straightforward
employment history. Job-seekers with a solid employment history who are looking for
advancement within their career field typically use a chronological resume. Employers
and headhunters prefer the chronological resume because it’s easy to assess issues
such as employment history, qualifications, and career advancement by a simple
glance at the resume. Functional resumes (and I advise not a purely functional resume but a chrono-functional resume) downplay employment history in favor of
functional skills clusters, and are most used by new college grads, career changers,
and job-seekers with employment gaps.
The answer I am giving to all my clients and students is this: In today’s job market, it
is critical to have resumes for all job-search situations. Thus, I recommend developing
both a chrono-functional and chronological resume for job-seekers in situations where a
functional is typically the preferred. I also recommend having a least one electronic
version of a resume as more and more of job searching moves to computer-based
resume databases. The traditional print resume is not dead, but it is losing ground
daily to its electronic counterparts.
Remember that a resume is a statement of facts designed to sell your unique mix of
education, experience, accomplishments, and skills to a prospective employer.
On the other hand, remember that a resume is a marketing document, so do not
be modest; be clear about successes and accomplishments — and quantify
whenever possible.
So, what are the most important things to remember about resumes?
- The function of a resume is to get you a job interview, not the job.
- A resume is a statement of facts, so do not fudge dates, titles, accomplishments.
- Focus is critical; each resume should be tailored to a specific job, a specific employer.
- With employment history, focus on (quantifiable) accomplishments rather than duties and responsibilities.
- Appearances matter, so make sure your printed resume uses conventional (for your profession) fonts, colors, margin widths, etc.
- Avoid mistakes. Typos and misspellings will end the chances of even the most qualified job-seekers.
- Provide detailed contact information. Include your home phone, cell phone, and email.
Read more in my article, published on Quintessential Careers:
What Resume Format is Best For You?
You should also consider reading this article about e-resumes written by my partner,
Katharine Hansen: The Top 10 Things
You Need to Know about E-Resumes and Posting Your Resume Online.
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Laura writes:
Since moving to Daytona Beach 5 years ago, I have worked for 10 employers and also tried
self-employment. (Four of the jobs were temporary.) Only one of those employers was a good
match for me, but unfortunately, they went out of business nine months after I started working
for them. I am a highly qualified accountant/bookkeeper, but it seems this town is unwilling to
pay a decent salary to someone with my skills and more than 25 years of experience. My age (over 50)
may also have something to do with my inability to get a good job offer. I have been on several
interviews, but I seem to come in second or third choice.
The Career Doctor responds:
I think now is the time to reinforce the whole concept of a job search as a marketing
campaign. Your cover letter and resume are the key marketing promotion documents
and the job interview is the critical sales call. If you then look at yourself as a product,
it puts job-hunting in a much different light.
You have a number of issues/problems/concerns that need to be addressed. First, I let
me preface the rest of this answer with the depressing news that the Central Florida job
market is one of the weakest and low-paying that I have ever researched. So, as you’ve
discovered, job-seekers need to keep their expectations tempered.
Your resume. There are a number of issues you need to deal with here. First, you need
to remove older job experience and take older dates off your experience and education
so that employers can’t easily guess your age. Next, you need to do something with all
the jobs; 10 jobs in five years is a huge red flag. I would consider lumping all your temporary
work into one grouping in a traditional resume — or consider experimenting with some sort of chrono-functional resume, in which skills are emphasized and employment history is secondary. Next, are you
current with your training/technology skills — and if so, does it come across on your resume?
So much of accounting and bookkeeping practices have changed, even in the last 10 years,
that employers may assume older job-seekers still do it the “old” way and may be resistant
to change. Your task is to not let them assume that!
In the interview. Your resume can only do so much for you — which is basically get you to the
interview. Now you need to sell yourself to the employer. Don’t go into interviews, as some
older workers do, with anything but a positive attitude — focused on how you can make an
immediate contribution to the company (rather than relying on all your years of solid experience).
Attitude, especially with older workers, is critical.
I strongly recommend that you read some of the articles and other resources in this section of
Quintessential Careers: Job
Resources for Mature and Older Jobseekers.
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Anonymous writes:
Quick question: How do you handle and resume that is now 2 pages…
no way around the second page…have to turn in Friday and I am stumped!!
The Career Doctor responds:
There is nothing wrong with established job-seekers having a two-page resume.
Even some exceptional recent college grads may need two pages to showcase
all their accomplishments, skills, education/training, and talents and abilities.
In fact, it’s much better to have a two-page resume with normal margins and font
size than to try and condense all your information onto one page using narrow
margins and tiny type, virtually guaranteeing that no employer is going to even
bother trying to read it.
Here are some rules about writing a two-page resume. First, if you need to go
to a second page, do so. Just be sure that the second page is at least half full;
anything less, and you should find a way to cut/condense to make the
information fit on one page. Second, be careful not to divide elements from page
one to page two; in other words, do not start a section on page one that carries
over to page two. Third, be sure to include a header at the top of the second page
identifying it as page two of your resume. Fourth, do not even consider going to a third page.
Some other general rules of resume-writing: focus (and quantify whenever possible) on accomplishments rather than job duties or responsibilities; showcase transferable skills when your work experience has been outside the traditional path; consider a functional style over a (traditional) chronological format when changing careers; consider leaving dates off college degrees to avoid age discrimination.
Find lots more information, articles, tutorials, and resources in the
Resume and CV
Resources section of Quintessential Careers.
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Julie writes:
I have been unemployed for a little over a year, but I have been doing all the paper work for my husband’s business he has on the side. I also live on a farm. So I really haven’t been employed. How would I add this in my resume? If I leave it off they will think I haven’t been working.
The Career Doctor responds:
You have to remember, Julie, that you determine how you frame your experience — both on your resume and in job interviews. The employer is not a mind-reader, so unless you showcase your experience, skills, and accomplishments, you are not going to get many interviews.
So many job-seekers are in a similar situations as yours. Perhaps they worked for a family business, perhaps it was volunteer work, or perhaps it was taking a year off to go back to school…But what you and all these other job-seekers don’t understand is that all these things add up to your specific mix of skills and abilities. Employers are more interested in job-seekers that have been doing something during a hiatus from full-time, paid employment than job-seekers who appear to have been doing nothing,
What’s the answer? Don’t discount any of the year that you’ve been working on the farm and helping your husband’s business. Instead, embrace that experience. Find experience, skills, and accomplishments that you can pull from the past year’s work. If you find the experience doesn’t quite fit into a neat career path, then consider experimenting by supplementing your conventional chronological resume with a chrono-functional style. What’s the difference? Chronological resumes focus on your job history while chrono-functional resumes focus on specific (transferable) skills sets you’ve mastered. Read more in these articles published on Quintessential Careers: Should You Consider a Functional Resume? and Strategic
Portrayal of Transferable Skills is a Vital Job-search Technique.
You can also find many more resume-related articles and tutorials in the Resume Resources section of Quintessential Careers.
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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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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Tad writes:
What if your job doesn’t involve numbers, dollars saved. I’m a security officer. How do I write a compelling resume?
The Career Doctor responds:
Tad, kudos to you for understanding the importance of quantifying on your resume. Job-seekers must show prospective employers your accomplishments rather than simply telling them — and quantifying results is one method to do just that.
But now you have to take that understanding to the next level, because you can quantify and showcase your accomplishments in just about any job. For example, can’t you quantify the number of hours, days, weeks, etc. without incidents; the number of hours of training and professional development; the number (and types) of security devices/technology you’ve mastered; number of security investigations successfully closed; commendations (or other records of achievement) you have received.
There are really two keys to writing successful resumes and cover letters. The first key, as you know, is stating your accomplishments (rather than job duties). For an in-depth review of this issue, please read our article, For Job-Hunting Success: Track and Leverage Your Accomplishments.
The second key is researching and using job-specific keywords in your resumes and cover letters. Employers are increasingly turning to keywords to conduct searches of resume databases, and if your resume doesn’t contain those keywords the company is using, then you are pretty much dead in the water. So, how does a job-seeker know what keywords to use on his or her resume? Good question. The quick and dirty answer is that you need to study job postings and job descriptions and find the pattern of words employers use and then be sure to insert them into your resume. The longer — and
better — answer is to read the very detailed article (and sidebars) from my partner, Katharine Hansen, published on Quintessential Careers: Tapping
the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume’s Effectiveness.
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Orlando writes:
I have recently moved to New York City. I have 4 solid years of web development/programming and design experience. I have also worked 2 years, out of the 4 years, as a web-development consultant. On top of my experiences and skills, I am still pursuing my first bachelor’s degree in computer information systems.
For some reason, I am experiencing difficulties in finding a job in New York. I have been
sending resumes for more than a month now and generated only one interview, but another candidate was selected. I was wondering if this is because I don’t have my degree yet or is it my resume? How long does it usually take, on average, for someone to hear from companies?
Please help me. I would really appreciate any suggestions you can give me on how to get interviews with companies.
The Career Doctor responds:
Job-hunting is all about marketing and selling — and being more aggressive in hunting down job opportunities than other job-seekers. One of your biggest problems is a common one among job-seekers — applying for jobs and then sitting back waiting for the phone to ring. And as you have discovered, job-hunting just does not work that way. You need to get on the phone (or via email if you applied for jobs using email) and call every company you have not heard from and see what the status of your application is — and ask for interviews where appropriate.
I don’t know what method you are using to find job leads, but if you are relying only on job ads — either job postings on Web sites or in help wanted ads in New York area newspapers — you need to move your job search up quite a few gears. Have you joined any professional or social organizations since you moved to New York? Do you have friends or family in New York? I ask because networking is the best method to find strong job leads.
Learn more about networking by going to Quintessential Careers: The Art of Networking.
Don’t get discouraged, but don’t sit at home waiting for a phone call. Pound the pavement. Make your own opportunities.
Finally, one other great source for understanding the importance of marketing in job-hunting is my article: Using Key Marketing Tools to Position Yourself on the Job Market.
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Karen Danyels writes:
I’m thinking about switching jobs, but when I look at what my duties are here, they don’t sound like very much at all. My job is basically data entry and word processing. My duties include running almost all packages that go to the courthouse. These include starting evictions, running eviction packages, the Substitute Trustee, Notice of Sale, Notice of Hearing, staying in contact with the mortgage companies, ordering Title Searches, ordering Publication requests from the newspapers, Final Reports, and various other forms. I also had the highest grade in my class in editing and
proofreading, the only A in the class.
The Career Doctor responds:
Karen, you are making one of the classic job-seeker mistakes. You should not be focusing on your duties at all — you should be focusing on your accomplishments! Accomplishments are so much more meaningful to prospective employers than run-of-the-mill litanies of job duties or responsibilities. Spend some time brainstorming about your skills and accomplishments — in all your jobs and education — with an eye toward the type of job you want next. Eliminate any skills that you no longer want to perform; otherwise you will be stuck in another job doing things you no longer enjoy.
Once you have this list of accomplishments and skills, it’s time to work on your resume. One article in particular that you should find useful is: Ten Easy Ways to Improve Your Resume, by my partner, Katharine Hansen. If you need more help with your resume, go to the Resume
Resources section of Quintessential Careers.
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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.
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Anonymous writes:
I have applied several times to a particular company and just discovered,
much to my horror, that I had been spelling the city’s name wrong (at least
three applications so far). It’s a two-word name and I made it one word.
Worse, it’s a company I do business with regularly and that’s one of my “ins”
into the company, my “knowledge” of them, and yet I didn’t know such a
small thing. How embarrassing, but worse, how damaging to my credibility.
I just applied for THE position I had been waiting for and it was after I mailed
that letter that I realized the mistake I had been making. I was hoping so
much to finally get an interview with this company and now this. Is there any
way to recover from this error? Should I follow-up with an “at least I’m
consistent” light-hearted, letter or hope they didn’t notice as it was going to
a different department?
The Career Doctor responds:
If the job you are applying for is that of an editor or proofreader, then perhaps
it’s a major blunder, but otherwise I think you can just let this error be. In the
great scheme of cover letters, it is MUCH more important to get the name of
the hiring manager and name of the company spelled correctly — and I am
assuming you did that.
Look at DeLand, where I am based. Most of the mailed correspondence I get
spells it as Deland, and don’t even get me started about how people pronounce
it. Regardless, while I would of course recommend all job-seekers have perfect
spelling and grammar in your cover letters, I would not make a big deal of your
oversight.
I might be concerned, however, about someone who has applied for three
different positions within the company. Are the positions similar? Do you
have any sense why you were not interviewed for the previous positions? If you
do have a few contacts within the company, I would ask them whether there is
any “word” on your reputation from the people within the departments you are
applying to.
And speaking of cover letters, wanted to share this comment from a job-seeker
who had asked me how to make a bigger impact with his cover letter for an
internship — and I told him to deliver it to the manager personally, but when
doing so to be prepared for an on-the-spot interview, which is just what happened:
“Just writing to thank you again for your advice with my cover letter for an
internship and how to deliver it. I found the manager’s name, and went to
deliver my letter to her today. She was so impressed with my initiative of
actually delivering the letter by hand, that she interviewed me on the spot,
and wants to set up a more formal interview in the near future. Thanks so
much, your edits and advice about actually hand-delivering the letter were
invaluable, and I really appreciate your time.”
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Michelle writes:
I recently was let go from my position at my office due to financial reasons.
How do I start off a cover letter letting the employer know this information in
a positive manner? I just need some advice on how to construct the first part
of the cover letter and I did not see that on the website. Hope you can help
and thank you for your time.
The Career Doctor responds:
Repeat after me — again and again — never ever put any kind of negative information
in your cover letter, resume, or any other job-search materials. The time to address
any of these negative issues — such as being fired — is in the job interview ONLY
after the employer raises the issue.
Your cover letter is the job-search tool that sets the tone for you as a job-seeker and
provides the critical first impression for the employer. How positive an impression is the
prospective employer going to have if your opening paragraph states, “although I was
recently let go from my previous job because the company was having financial difficulties… ”
The employer is going to stop reading before he/she even gets to the end of your sentence.
But you are not alone. In the thousands of cover letters I have seen over the years, it
is absolutely amazing the kind of negative information job-seekers put in their cover letters.
Perhaps they mistakenly think that full disclosure is necessary. Or perhaps because
professionals stress being truthful, they think this means they need to fess up to all prior
mistakes.
Please remember a cover letter is a marketing document. Its sole purpose is to entice the
hiring manager just enough to review your resume. It’s then the resume’s job to verify that
you are worthy of getting an interview for the open position.
If your cover letter is not focused, if it provides negative information, if it has typos or spelling
errors, or if it has too little or too much detail, your resume will simply not get a look
and your job prospects for the position are officially over.
Finally, let me once again stress that I am not saying to lie. I am simply saying do NOT
disclose negative information (or even too much information) until the employer asks you
about it. And at that point you need to put a positive spin on the negative information —
but only then.
I believe you need to review two key resources. First, read my article about moving beyond after
getting laid off: Getting Fired: An
Opportunity for Change and Growth.
Second, take advantage of the all the tools and resources we offer in this section of Quintessential Careers: Cover Letter Resources for Job-Seekers.
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Eugene writes:
I am a student studying law, and I recently decided to apply for a position as a
paralegal with some law firms. I spent some time looking at your Quintessential
Careers website. Now, I do not doubt for a minute that much research is able to
substantiate the information that you have presented, but I find it difficult to
imagine that some of the techniques you mention do work. What immediately
springs to mind is the section on closing paragraphs: “I will call your office in
the next week to schedule an appointment.”
To me, that sounds quite unorthodox, and perhaps even pushy and rude. I
actually incorporated a line to the same effect in my cover letters after
reading your website, but now I am wondering whether it was the best thing
to do. Could you please explain to me why this works?
The Career Doctor responds:
In any job market, but especially in this job market, job-seekers need to know
how to best market themselves to prospective employers. This self-marketing strategy has several components when writing cover letters.
First, rather than saying something like “I hope you’ll find my qualifications a good
match with what you’re looking for,” you need to show — and tell — the employer that
you are a good match for the position. Describe how your accomplishments, skills, and training are a perfect match for the employer’s needs.
Second, you do need to end your letter with an aggressive stance. If you do not want
to be so aggressive as to say you will call for an interview, you can simply say you
will call to discuss the job. Employers want go-getters, not passive employees.
Third, as I have stated numerous other times, you MUST follow-up all your cover
letters and job applications. Saying you are going to call is the easy part; the hard
part is actually making the phone call. And in the phone call, you need to still be
aggressive in not taking no for an answer — just remember to stay professional
at all times — while showcasing why you are the perfect person for the job.
Find lots more helpful information and resources in the
cover letter resources
section of Quintessential Careers.
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Jacqueline writes:
I have a question regarding the closing, “Take Care,” at the end of business
cover letters. Is that considered “less” professional than all the traditional closings?
The Career Doctor responds:
I consider “take care” as a bit too informal for traditional cover letters. I have
seen it in email cover letters, and I find it a bit more acceptable there. When
writing conventional cover letters, I would stick with the traditional closings:
sincerely and cordially.
In the grand scheme of cover-letter writing, though, I think how you close the
letter is of little consequence compared to the much bigger issues that I list
below.
Key cover letter strategies:
- Addressing the letter to a named individual. Job-seekers must address the
letter to a person — the hiring manager. And if you make the effort to get the name,
make sure you spell it correctly. Do not write to the Human Resources department.
- The first paragraph must engage the reader and entice him/her to read more
of your letter. Do not waste this opening paragraph with the typical boring one that
many job-seekers use.
- The second and third paragraphs must show how well you fit the position you
are seeking — as well as highlight key accomplishments. Focus on what you can
do for the company rather than what the company can do for you.
- The last paragraph must state how you plan to follow-up the letter (usually
with a phone call). Be sure to give a timeframe — and then be sure to do what you
say you are going to do.
Finally, be sure also to avoid:
- Long (read boring) sentences and paragraphs;
- Letters longer than one page;
- Typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors;
- Simply rehashing/highlighting your resume
And remember to follow-up all cover letters with a phone call — showing your
continued interest in the position and the employer.
Read more in this article published on Quintessential Careers:
Don’t
Make These 10 Cover Letter Mistakes.
And to find just about everything you ever wanted to know about cover letters, including
numerous samples, go to the Cover Letter Resources section of Quintessential Careers.
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Diane writes:
I would like to send my resume with a cover letter to recruiters/employment
agencies. The career development office I’m working with advises that it is
better to have someone’s name to address the cover letter to. Since it would
require a great deal of time to try and get a staff member’s name for each
agency, would it be acceptable to use a generic salutation, such as Dear
Recruiter?
The Career Doctor responds:
The rules of cover-letter writing are a bit different when writing letters to
headhunters than when writing letters to employers, but the one rule of
all cover letter writing is that the job-seeker must — as best as possible —
address the letters to named individuals. Think about it, when was the last
time you read (junk mail) addressed to “Dear Homeowner” or “Dear Pet
Owner.” If you don’t read these kinds of letters, why should busy professionals?
Job-seekers must always take the time to get names and titles for cover letters.
Before I get to the differences in content, let me also address one other red flag
in your question. Why would you be sending off so many letters to recruiters?
Take the time to research the recruiting agencies that specialize in your field
and in your preferred location — and contact only those recruiters. Don’t waste
your time — and the time of those recruiters — by writing to recruiters who don’t
work in your area.
One other comment about strategy. The majority of recruiters say that the resume
is the single most important document they look at when evaluating job-seekers;
cover letters are a distant second. The message here? Make sure your resume is
exceptional.
Your cover letter to a recruiter should focus on these elements:
- Contact information
- Why you are on the job market
- Job titles and industries of interest to you
- Salary history and salary expectations
For more information about this topic, please read the article published on
Quintessential Careers written by my partner Katharine Hansen:
Cover Letters
to Recruiters Require Special Handling.
You can also follow this link to a
sample cover letter to a recruiter.
And don’t forget to follow all the other guidelines for good cover letters —
especially avoiding typos and misspellings and always being truthful. Find
more resources in this section of Quintessential Careers:
Cover Letter Resources.
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This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Anonymous writes:
In your Do’s and Don’ts you say to always address the cover letter to a specific
person. Most of the job opportunities that I am sending to are blind drops. There
is no person listed to send to. They frequently are email sites with no names
attached. How should this be handled?
The Career Doctor responds:
For those who are unaware, let me stress the rule before addressing your question.
First, always send a cover letter with your resume unless the employer specifically
requests that you do not send a cover letter (and very few do this). Second, always
strive to address the cover letter to a named individual rather than rather a title or job number.
The problem with a number of online job postings is that they do not list the name
of the hiring manager — and some of the ads even go as far as to request “no phone
calls.” So, what is the good job-seeker to do? It’s a two-part answer.
First part: you can follow the rules and simply address the letter to the “Hiring
Manager for Job #49394” or “Dear Friends” or “Dear Boxholder.” Don’t use a sexist salutation, such as “Gentlemen” when answering a blind ad.
Second part: I cannot stress this important fact often enough — are you ready?
When job-hunting, job-seekers should use as many sources as possible to find
job leads. And if you need to rely more heavily on one source over another, put
the emphasis on networking, not job postings.
A good article for you is Maximize
Your Internet Job Search, published on Quintessential Careers.
And to get more help with networking, go to the
Art of Networking section of
Quintessential Careers.
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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:
Vince writes:
I have a question about resumes. I am a manager with several years of
experience with one company. I have been approached about a couple of
interesting job opportunities that I want to explore, so I am working on my
resume. I am having a hard time keeping my resume to one page and I was
wondering if you could tell me whether it was OK to go to two pages. Thanks.
The Career Doctor responds:
It used to be there was a hard-and-fast one-page resume rule,
but no longer — and especially not for someone with your experience.
Better than cramming all your information on one page, go to a second
page. I recently saw a resume that was written in 9 point type (very
small) with almost no margins… it looked like some densely worded
document (which it was) that no one would want to read.
So, revert those page margins back to standard levels, and push that
type size back up to normal viewing (typically 10-12 pt.), and go to a
second page. Just remember two rules about doing so. First, make sure
you have a header on the second page that identifies that is your resume
(Vince Smith, p. 2) and make sure that you use at least half of the
second page.
In fact, some resume experts now say that a resume should be as long as
necessary, and the more senior a job-seeker, the longer the resume.
Other resume tips:
- If you are a seasoned job-seeker, remember that you should really
not include work experience older than 12-15 years. While the experience
is valuable, the process to do the work has probably changed dramatically
in that time.
- You do not need to include every single work experience you’ve ever
had; instead, showcase the experiences that best showcase the skills/accomplishments
for the job you are seeking.
- Always focus on accomplishments and how you contributed to the employer
rather than on your duties and responsibilities. And quantify those accomplishments
whenever possible.
- If you’re a new college grad, a two-page resume is acceptable if you have a
lot of internships and other work experience, although I still prefer to see most
new grads with a one-page resume.
You can find lots more suggestions, tools, and helpful advice about resume
preparation in this section of Quintessential Careers:
Resume and CV Resources.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document?
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Our colleague, Barbara Safani of Career Solvers, wrote yesterday:
I recently sat in on a panel of staffing professionals representing such prestigious companies as Microsoft, Starbucks, and PacSun. One of the questions that came up in the audience was "Do you read cover letters?" All three representatives of these companies said they do not. But is this representative of most recruiters and hiring authorities? I decided to conduct my own informal survey and quickly realized that people's reactions to cover letters are all over the board. So here are my conclusions:
- Half the people you send your cover letter to will probably read it and the other half will not. Since you can never be sure who your audience is, it is best to cover your bases and send a cover letter. [Editor's note: Studies such as this one suggest the number is higher than half, but it's certainly true that not all recipients read cover letters.]
- A strong cover letter might distinguish you in a sea of mediocrity. Most people's cover letters fail to convey a message of value to the employer. But a strong cover letter can help you customize your resume and grab the attention of a hiring authority.
- A resume is fairly formulaic; a cover letter is not. Cover letters can be used to communicate interest, passion, and enthusiasm regarding a job opening. They are often used to build the initial rapport between the job-seeker and the employer.
- Specific action-oriented cover letters work better than generic ones full of fluff. Showcase strong accomplishments that are relevant to your reader and use metrics whenever possible to validate your competencies. Stay away from tired cover-letter phrases such as team player, strong communicator, or detail oriented. Hiring authorities assume you have these competencies. Leverage accomplishment statements to prove your success across these competencies.
You can contact Safani here.
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Do your legwork before sending any cold-contact letter, exhorts
Teena Rose in her article for Quint Careers,
Optimizing Your Cold-Contact Cover Letter.
Every job-seeker finds himself or herself sending this type of letter from time to time,
so do yourself a favor by cultivating the info you’ll need to design a letter that outshines
those used by others. A good rule of thumb is “be innovative, not imitative.” To see an explanation
of cold-contact letters and two other types of
cover letter, see The
Basics of a Dynamic Cover Letter.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document?
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With regard to resumes and cover letters, Peggy Klaus says she often tells professionals: “When approaching
any business communication situation, start out by tuning in to your listeners’ favorite radio station,
what I call WIFT-FM, or What’s In It For Them? This helps you to identify the potential needs, objectives, and goals of your audience,” Klaus writes in her article for Quint Careers, Are You Up To Snuff When It Comes To Soft Skills?
“In other words, why should they be listening to you in the first place?”
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.
 Hiring decision-makers surveyed for the book,
Top Notch
Executive Resumes identified this as one of their Top 30 Executive Resume Pet Peeves:
Resume is written in third-person. Survey respondents were surprisingly vocal in their
irritation over this resume affectation. Although the pronoun “I” is generally not used in resume,
it is the understood — but unwritten — subject of a resume’s
bullet points. Note that “I” is the unwritten subject of this bullet point:
[I] Facilitate restriction-removal processes on restricted/private placement securities.
When the bullet point, however, is written with a third-person verb, as in the following, the subject
becomes “he” or “she:”
[He] or [She] Facilitates restriction-removal processes on restricted/private placement securities.
Some job-seekers are even more blatant in their use of third person, annoying employers
with summary statements such as:
George Jones is a globally experienced broker and trader with significant, progressive brokerage
experience and expertise.
As an Information Resources Management manager (IRM) at both the corporate and project level, Bob
Smith has consistently demonstrated his ability to understand customer needs and develop and implement
effective IRM solutions for both commercial and government contracts.
See all 30 peeves: executive resume peeves
1-10 in Part 1, executive resume peeves 11-20 in Part 2 and
executive resume peeves 21-30 in Part 3.
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One of the greater purposes of a well-crafted resume is more for the benefit of the candidate, rather than the employer, writes Sherri Edwards in her article for Quint Careers, Dispelling the Myth About Resumes.
A candidate who has selected language that is used by the employer, and included specific examples of accomplishments that are relevant to the employer’s needs has a far greater chance of using this information to his or her advantage during an interview. The candidate who has thoughtfully considered each piece of information included in the resume, and qualified and quantified his or her examples has most certainly done the hardest part of the preparation required to succeed in the interview. Without completing the connections between experiences and the employer’s needs long in
advance of the interview, a job-seeker’s ability to present that information in a meaningful way and effectively lead the employer directly to those same conclusions during an interview is vastly limited. By using only relevant examples of experience, being very clear about why these examples have been selected for inclusion in the resume, a candidate has built the framework for the impending conversation. The candidate, not the employer, in essence, can control the conversation. The resume is used as the “agenda” or a “cheat sheet’ for the candidate.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document?
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Teens, there really is not a whole lot of mystery behind developing and writing a good resume. It does take some time and effort — and a good set of eyes to spell-check and proofread it — but if you are serious about making a statement as a job-seeker, then use our worksheet as a guide for creating your resume.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document?
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Many resumes are duties-driven when they should be accomplishments-driven. Job-seekers should, for example, NEVER use expressions like “Duties included,” “Responsibilities included,” or “Responsible for.” That’s job-description language, not accomplishments-oriented resume language that sells. After all, if you were an employer and wanted to run a successful organization, would you be looking for candidates who can perform only their basic job functions, or would you want employees who can make real contributions? In these days in which most resumes are placed into keyword-searchable databases, you won’t find employers searching resumes for words like “responsibilities,” “duties,” or “responsible for.” Learn more about these components in our article, FAKTSA: An Easy Acronym for Remembering Key Resume Enhancers
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document?
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At a loss for words? Many job-seekers would like to write their own resumes and cover letters but have difficulty coming up with the right words with which to describe their skills and sell themselves.
