Articles - The Voice of Job Seekers

13 Keys to Write a Carefully Crafted Cover Letter

When crafting a cover letter one has to be perfect and to the point as what is reflected in your cover letter should get you the job you are applying for. Ensure the cover letter is clear, grammatically correct, concise and error free. Here are cover letters writing tips that will make you stand out from the crowd.

1) Attach a cover letter with each resume sent out

It’s always good to send a cover letter even if not requested by the employer. Your cover letter may make the difference between obtaining a job interview and having your resume ignored.

2) Target your cover letter

Check out the job posting and list the criteria the employer is looking for and make a comparison with the skills and experience you have. From there you are able to address your skills and qualifications that match the job description.

3) Provide quality evidence of your qualities

Pick out the top most qualities the employer is seeking in their job specification that you most likely posses and include in the resume.

4) Write a custom cover letter

Writing a custom cover letter at times can be time-consuming but in the end, the cover letter will show the hiring manager at a glance why you are the best person for the job as skills and experiences are included.

5) Start from a cover template

Use a cover letter template s a starting point which will help you create your own personalized cover letter a cover templates helps you take little details and fix them in your own personal letter.

6) Don’t rehash your resume

The cover letter should go hand-in-hand with your resume, therefore expand your resume the highlights of your background in relation to the job you are applying for should match.

7) Write simple and clearly

Make the first paragraph clear enough to sell you to the job. Write short and targeted letters that the employer can read and get what type of personality you have. Each letter should be one page or less and short paragraphs maintained. Finish the last paragraph with a call to action, request the hirers to contact you for an interview.

8) Relevant and brief

Ensure your cover letter draws the recruiter’s eye to relevant experience on attached resume and give him or her a positive picture of you. A brief and a straight to the point cover letter is an advantage as it will not take the managers much time knowing the type of person you are in just few words.

9) Personalize your letter

Write your cover letter and address it to the individual in charge of hiring. The individual is able to go through your cover letter and by reading it he/she will know what you really are targeting.

10) Use email for cover letters

Include cover letters in the mail and keep the message short. Send as attachment when the employer has requested for one. As sometimes cover letters are the ones preferred by the hirer.

11) Spell check and proofread

Ask someone to read your correspondence before sending it out. The other person can take note of important mistakes and correct you. It’s not always easy to note our own mistakes.

12) Sign the letter

Provide a signature at the bottom of your cover letter. This shows a strong signal for authenticity. The cover letter is the only paper needed to be signed.

13) Review cover letter samples

Take time to review cover letter samples that will enable you get ideas for formatting and content. Check to ensure that your letter explains how your skills relate to the criteria listed in the job posting. Reviewing other peoples cover letters will give you a guide on how to better your cover letter.

What challenges you writing cover letters? Let us know in the comment section.

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by Mark Anthony Dyson

Do you impress potential employers?

Do you impress potential employers? Nobody will hire you to just give you a chance. It doesn’t matter if you are hard-working and dedicated unless you own the skills and applied knowledge needed for the employers’ position. A lasting impression is sustainable if there is a pattern of project completion or successful business accomplishments.

Employers want the job done in spite of obstacles, personality conflicts, and bad hair days. The blog, America’s Job Exchange’s article, “What Do Employers Want?” stated, “A good employee gets the job done. A great employee gets the job done in spite of everything – including when priorities and schedules shift.”

What does it take for a job seeker to impress? Among having a great resume, cover letter, an impressive portfolio among other things, here are some important attributes needed:

1. Impress employers with wide range of collaborations and projects

Presently, the workplace excels when employees create and embellish their projects and deepen existing expertise along the way. Job seekers who show creative solutions while partnering departments and businesses establish core competencies attractive to future employers. Even more impressive is offering a range of diverse work relationships across various global cultures.

2.Impress employers with quick and perpetual learners

Job seekers who quickly absorb lots of content in a short amount of time shows you quickly create value from ideas. This often comes from lots of reading and writing in your niche, and finding new ways to apply new learning and theory. Job candidates acutely aware of his or her learning style thrive from taking something from nothing.

3. Impress employers with soft skills

Everyone has virtues that he or she excels in that employers find attractive. Do not discount attributes and virtues such as, patience, tact, and customer service. Interviews are tests exposing weaknesses such as patience, or handling conflict. Other soft skills such as communication, courtesy, flexibility, integrity, and interpersonal skills are still gold and stands out in a crowded field of candidates.

4. Impress employers with initiatives saving cost and time

You have heard numbers on your résumé catch the eye of the reader and demonstrates your accomplishments. Employers want to see step-by-step actions that made project goals attainable. Furthermore, explaining clearly project strength and weaknesses are a plus demonstrating your understanding of how your steps impacted cost/time results.

5. Impress employers with observations and evaluations

While interviewing candidates when I was a manager, we gave a short explanation of how our department worked. After the explanation we asked the candidate learned from the explanation. Whether or not the candidate learned from our spiel, we can successfully assess the candidate’s ability to assimilate blocks of information given in short period. This told us a lot about the candidates learning ability and whether he or she was the right fit for our call center area.

What do you think impresses employers? Please share in the comments section below.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

How Frugality Could Benefit Job Seekers

Editors Note: This article was written by guest contributor Ruth Hinds (@RuthHinds)

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that we’re living in tough economic times. With many organizations cutting back on their spending and looking at ways to slash unnecessary expenses, finding a job can be extremely difficult. You’ll be pleased to know that this doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t find work. In fact, organizational frugality could be a good thing for savvy job seekers.

Let’s take a look at why.

More freelance opportunities are available

Traditionally, most people spent their days working for someone else. But as the economic landscape changes, more and more opportunities are opening up for freelance workers who sell their services to bigger corporations. Businesses might not have the budget to pay for a full-time member of staff, but there are still jobs to be done. Working as a freelancer, you could secure several contracts with businesses who need skills just like yours, but on a more flexible basis. Whether you’re a copywriter, a web developer, a graphic designer, or an admin assistant, there are probably freelance opportunities out there that are perfect for you.

Employers could be more flexible

The fact that employers could have less desire for permanent and full-time members of staff could actually work in your favor if you have existing commitments. For job seekers to balance around childcare or studies is notoriously difficult, and employers usually prefer workers who can fit in with any schedule. When they’re working with tighter budgets though, there’s often some added leeway. It’s great news for job seekers looking for part-time employment.

If job seekers become proactive, could seek out amazing roles

When business is booming, no expense is spared when it comes to advertising vacancies. They may feature in national newspapers and trade magazines, meaning that lots of people know about them, and of course, will apply for them. If a business is cutting costs, they may just advertise via their own social media channels and websites. In other words, it can be harder to find out about vacancies, but there could be considerably less competition. If you want to take advantage of this, make sure that you’re closely following the businesses you’d love to work with online.

Lower level jobs could turn into something bigger

If you’ve got high career aspirations, frugality could lead to you getting a foot in the door and working your way up. If you’re happy to start at the bottom of the ladder, and are willing to prove your worth, you could really stand out. For this reason, don’t just rule out trainee jobs. Make it clear that you’d like some further responsibility and seek out opportunities to learn new skills and show your employer what you’re made of.

As you can see, it’s not all doom and gloom when it comes to finding work. You can make the recession work for you by thinking creatively and approaching your job search in a slightly different way.

How do you think frugality is changing the job market? Have you found ways to use a company’s frugality to your advantage?

This article was brought to you by Ruth Hinds on behalf of AllTheTopBananas.com. ATTB allows you to search for and browse through UK jobs in one place, from engineer jobs to IT jobs. You can also upload your CV to increase your chances of being headhunted.