Here’s a tip for cover letters to get more interviews. Use a bulleted format cover letter rather than a standard letter in paragraphs. The bulleted format is more eye catching, and is more likely to be glanced at by the hiring manager or other person assigned to sort through resumes. This format will help you get your resume seen by more people and as a result get more interviews and more job offers.
If you follow this advice and decide to use the bulleted format, make sure that each bullet point specifies a reason for the hiring manager to talk with you. This reason can be your number of years experience, your education, a personality trait that you have, or an accomplishment.
Examples of bulleted points would be:
• Over 20 years experience in Human Resource Management.
Or…
• Outstanding work ethic. Lead by example.
Or…
• Master of Science in Education. Currently enrolled in Doctorate program.
Or…
• Saved last employer $30,000 in revenue through modernization of accounting system.
Or…
• Increased sales by 25% last quarter.
This bulleted format allows you to toot your own horn, but in a way that does not seem egotistical because it is obviously part of a resume package.
Another tip that will increase the readability of your cover letter is to use bold faced fonts on occasion to emphasize points you want read. Bold face catches the eye, and is a common device used by graphic designers in advertising copy. Your resume and cover letter are marketing tools for you, just as a print media advertising piece is a marketing tool for a business. Consider using bold face as tip from the Fortune 500 ad agencies that you can use without charge.
The next piece of advice to consider concerns the final paragraph of the letter, and will help you in your follow up efforts. When following up often times the hardest thing to do is to get past the gatekeeper. The secretary or administrative assistant that screens calls for his or her boss has an important job to do, but so do you, and reaching the decision maker will make you look good. The gatekeeper will try to stop you if the decision maker is busy—after all, he has better things to do with his time than speak with job seekers. So, in the final paragraph of your letter, before the “sincerely” and your name, simply state “I will call you next week to check on a convenient time to speak with you in person.” You’ve told the hiring manager you will be calling. Logically he should be expecting your call. For this reason you may tell the gatekeeper that ” Mr. HR Manager is expecting my call this week.” This will increase your chances of getting through, and of getting the interview. This tip is a variation on techniques that good business-to-business sales people use, and will work for you as well, bringing you more interviews and more job offers.
Tags: Accounting System, Bold Face, Bullet Point, Bulleted Points, Cover Letter, Cover Letters, Doctorate Program, Fortune 500, Gatekeeper, get that job, Getting A Job, Graphic Designers, Hardest Thing, Hiring Manager, Human Resource Management, Increased Sales, Marketing Tool, Marketing Tools, Master Of Science, Personality Trait, Piece Of Advice, Print Media Advertising, Toot Your Own Horn, Work Ethic
Here’s a tip for cover letters to get more interviews. Use a bulleted format cover letter rather than a standard letter in paragraphs. The bulleted format is more eye catching, and is more likely to be glanced at by the hiring manager or other person assigned to sort through resumes. This format will help you get your resume seen by more people and as a result get more interviews and more job offers.
If you follow this advice and decide to use the bulleted format, make sure that each bullet point specifies a reason for the hiring manager to talk with you. This reason can be your number of years experience, your education, a personality trait that you have, or an accomplishment.
Examples of bulleted points would be:
• Over 20 years experience in Human Resource Management.
Or…
• Outstanding work ethic. Lead by example.
Or…
• Master of Science in Education. Currently enrolled in Doctorate program.
Or…
• Saved last employer $30,000 in revenue through modernization of accounting system.
Or…
• Increased sales by 25% last quarter.
This bulleted format allows you to toot your own horn, but in a way that does not seem egotistical because it is obviously part of a resume package.
Another tip that will increase the readability of your cover letter is to use bold faced fonts on occasion to emphasize points you want read. Bold face catches the eye, and is a common device used by graphic designers in advertising copy. Your resume and cover letter are marketing tools for you, just as a print media advertising piece is a marketing tool for a business. Consider using bold face as tip from the Fortune 500 ad agencies that you can use without charge.
The next piece of advice to consider concerns the final paragraph of the letter, and will help you in your follow up efforts. When following up often times the hardest thing to do is to get past the gatekeeper. The secretary or administrative assistant that screens calls for his or her boss has an important job to do, but so do you, and reaching the decision maker will make you look good. The gatekeeper will try to stop you if the decision maker is busy—after all, he has better things to do with his time than speak with job seekers. So, in the final paragraph of your letter, before the “sincerely” and your name, simply state “I will call you next week to check on a convenient time to speak with you in person.” You’ve told the hiring manager you will be calling. Logically he should be expecting your call. For this reason you may tell the gatekeeper that ” Mr. HR Manager is expecting my call this week.” This will increase your chances of getting through, and of getting the interview. This tip is a variation on techniques that good business-to-business sales people use, and will work for you as well, bringing you more interviews and more job offers.
Tags: 7 Ways To Get That Job Offer, Accounting System, Bold Face, Bullet Point, Bulleted Points, Cover Letter, Cover Letters, Doctorate Program, Fortune 500, Gatekeeper, Getting A Job, Graphic Designers, Hardest Thing, Hiring Manager, Human Resource Management, Increased Sales, Master Of Science, Personality Trait, Piece Of Advice, Print Media Advertising, Toot Your Own Horn, Work Ethic
If you are able to follow these guidelines, you will surely get the response that you deserve out of your job application.
Definitely, cover letters should not be taken for granted - and not let your resume do all the talking for you. If you can make use of two venues to sell yourself, wouldn’t it be practical and logical to use both?
Make use of your resumes and cover letters effectively. Both can work together to promote and market you well.
While resumes may have the necessary content and details that are relevant to your job applications, the reader will still have to do some thinking and some more analysis of your qualifications and their needs. But with well-written cover letters that go along with these resumes, you make it easier for the prospective employers to choose you because of your effective sales pitch on what you can offer to their organization.
These sales pitches are but only necessary - and anyway, these are not manipulative efforts since what you are saying here are the truth - you are just making it easy for them to realize that you are fit for the job and you have lots to offer. In the sales pitch, you are merely highlighting your strengths and expertise that matches what they need.
Never give the reader who is screening your cover letters to doubt if you are truly qualified for the position – don’t let him or her entertain that thought, not even for a second.
Let the guidelines stated above be your reference so that you will get the right impression from the prospective employers though your persuasive cover letters.
So the next time you make your cover letters, don’t miss on the opportunity to make cover letters with taste. It should always be professionally written – brief, well organized and truthful. With cover letters written appropriately, you already have the edge and interviews are surely forthcoming.
Tags: Application Letters, Cover Letter, Cover Letters, covering letter, Effective Sales, Fit, Interviews, job application, Job Applications, Job Letters, Opportunity, persuasive, Prospective Employers, Resume, Resumes, Sales Pitch, Sales Pitches, Truth
There is nothing worse than your resume and cover letters containing spelling and grammatical errors.
Not only do such errors give you negative points, it might be interpreted by the prospective employers of the quality of the work you do. What do you think they will expect once you’ll be working for them?
Tags: career, Check Spelling, Cover Letters, covering letter, cv, gramma, grammatical, Grammatical Errors, Grandma, job, Prospective Employers, Resume, Resume Letters, Spelling
Use your creativity. Cover letters provide for you the chance to show the prospective employers what you are made of and what you’ve got.
So if you can find a way to let one very good reason stick to their mind with regards to your job application, you may just succeed in being able to make your name synonymous with their job position – in a way that they can no longer seem to speak about the job opening without your name tagging along with it.
Tags: career, Cover Letters, covering, Creativity, cv, Good Reason, hire, job, job application, Job Opening, letter, new, Prospective Employers, Resume
