Cover Letter

Coming from the mind of someone who has been doing recruiting for many years, I can tell stories of the type of cover letters I receive with every resume or application. Some are fantastic others, my gosh it is telling me their whole personal life story or it is one of those cheesy used car sales speeches. I am not trying to offend anyone, but the truth always hurt.

People keep talking about being in a recession and jobs are hard to find as the competition is triple of what the normal is. I am here to tell you “this is true”. In my line of work I human resources, you have the same amount of hours in the day, but triple the work. The last you want to do is send a cover letter saying you life’s story or a cheesy sales speech. Cover letters are as a resume – a first impression, so like such needs to be spectacular. You need to sale your skills and abilities at a higher category; with professionalism and excellent writing skills. Focus on the job description and how your abilities, experiences do match this position and how you consider to be the best candidate for this position.

By telling you this please, don’t write I do have experience for example in only the field or the position. Talk about your professionalism ethics, your ability to communicate effectively, your experience at problem solving and teamwork. Again match your experience, your previous tasks at other jobs with the position in hand. Learn more about the company before sending your resume and place some of the information from the website on your letter and express you did that. This shows you’re interested in the company as well and not just the job.

Now write a short, sweet and straight to the point letter, not a two page story. If you aced your cover letter your chances for your resume to be reviewed have increased. Remember you only have about 30 seconds for your cover letter and 30 seconds on your resume to really pull someone’s socks out.

Hope this helps you in your career endevours.

Online Networking

Now a days everything is about networking, from job hunting to companies expanding their client base, online networking has become the most popular item. With that being said – have you looked at your online history lately? If you are one of the thousands of people who have Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Tweeter, Viadeo or any other online connecting website - what does your profile reveal? What type of postings show on your profile? What about the pictures you have posted?

In today’s world companies are doing their secret searches looking for the appropriate candidate to fill available positions. Believe it or not but your profile is your electronic resume, so instead of talking about all fun and no work experience, think again. Create an outstanding profile including all your accomplishments in and out of your job, school information and even mention your short goals. The more constructive information you can provide to the reader the better. Now don’t take this content literally, I am not suggesting to place your personal information as to phone number, home address, name of your husband and kids on your profile. This type of information can increase your chances of identity theft or for someone to do unspeakable things to you and your family. I am talking about general information.

Another thing I suggest for anyone to do is “Google” your name - see what comes out of the search; you might be surprised of the amount of people who can be sharing your same name. Now this can be a double edge sword as you might run into the situation in which someone with the same name has a bad reputation. What can you do about that? Well; there are several things you could do – one of them could be to do a blog on something you like such as a pastime activity. Another option can be to create your own website and/or your own discussion forum.

One more thing to do will be research on the company or companies you are interested in and network with the people already on the same online connection site. Little by little you will see how quickly your connections will grow and who knows, that can increase your changes on landing the job you were always looking for. Last piece of advice, which is common sense – post your resume on the networking sites you are already a member of.

Whatever you decide to do, always choose your words wisely and if you have a question drop me an email at: emrophx5@yahoo.com – I will be happy to assist. Your success is my success.

This is Elaine M. Rodriguez from Resume Writing Services. Until next time!