Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters Tips
Providing daily suggestions for making your resume, cover letter, and other career-marketing communications as effective as they can be.
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Think of Cover Letter as Sales Letter
Think of your cover letter as a sales letter, advises Jimmy Sweeney in his article for Quint Careers, the 7 Elements of a Highly Effective Cover Letter. The only purpose of your job-search cover letter is to land you job interviews. That’s the bottom line. By using proven marketing strategies, you will land a greater number of quality job interviews than your competition. |
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On Resume, Highlight Key Areas of Expertise
Highlighting your key areas of expertise once on your resume is one of the trends executive resume and branding expert Meg Guiseppi writes about in her article for Quint Careers, Five Top Trends for Executive Resumes. Guiseppi advises that instead of taking up precious space repeating obvious lists of responsibilities for each position you’ve held, consolidate them in the top part of the first page. For best impact, position them in nicely formatted columns or a shaded graphic box. |
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Cover Letter Should Entice the Reader
Cover letters play a vital role in the job-search process when done correctly, says the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD. Cover letters should entice the reader, draw him/her into your story — enough so to turn the page and review your resume. Is that all, you may ask? Yes, that’s the function of a cover letter — to get your resume reviewed a little more carefully than without it, which in turn, ideally, leads to an invitation to a job interview. For the complete lowdown... |
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Avoid Using "I" on Your Resume
Hiring decision-makers surveyed for the book, Top Notch Executive Resumes identified this as one of their Top 30 Executive Resume Pet Peeves: Resume contains the personal pronoun “I.” It might seem like a silly protocol to omit “I” when the understood subject of resume bullet points is, in fact, “I.” But eliminating personal pronouns (I, me, my) is simply an accepted style, and not following that style, recuiter Alice Hanson noted, makes the candidate... |
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Strive for "Happy Medium" in Cover-Letter Appearance
Don’t design your cover letter to have a heavy or light appearance. You’re shooting for something that is within a “happy medium,” advises Teena Rose in her article for Quint Careers, Optimizing Your Cold-Contact Cover Letter. When you’re finished writing, sit back and examine your words. Let it sit overnight, if necessary. Always analyze every fragment and sentence you’re using to determine if there’s a better or more effective way of presenting yourself.... |
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End Your Cover Letter with Enthusiasm
End your cover letter with enthusiastic and telling verbiage, such as, “I look forward to being interviewed at your earliest convenience. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Sincerely, Jane Jobseeker,” suggests Jimmy Sweeney in his article for Quint Careers, the 7 Elements of a Highly Effective Cover Letter. (Notice how Jane assumes she’ll land the interview? This approach is clever, smart, and it works like a charm). |
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The Most Important Aspects of a Resume
The most important things to remember about writing an effective resume can be encapsulated in a six-letter acronym, FAKTSA, in which the letters stand for: Focus Appearance Keywords Transferrable Skills Accomplishments Get more details about these elements in our article, FAKTSA: An Easy Acronym for Remembering Key Resume Enhancers. |
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Don't Have a One-Size-Fits All Resume and Cover Letter
In her article for Quint Careers, Are You Up To Snuff When It Comes To Soft Skills?, Peggy Klaus tells this story: One hiring manager — who echoed the sentiments of many others — says she can spot what she calls a soft-skills impostor in seconds. “In our executive-level job postings, we purposely ask candidates to explain how their experience will translate into helping grow our organization. You would not believe the number of responses we get from very senior executives who... |
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Writing a Great Cover Letter Is Worth the Effort
Writing a winning cover letter isn’t the easiest task, but it’s well worth the effort, especially when you know that it can make the difference between a good first impression and a bad one, notes Elizabeth Freedman in her article for Quint Careers, Cover Letters That Count. After all, taking the time to write a great letter ensures you’ll impress a prospective employer and practically guarantees a wince-free moment. |
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Use Top of Resume to Best Advantage
Using the top of the first page of your resume to your best advantage is one of the trends executive resume and branding expert Meg Guiseppi writes about in her article for Quint Careers, Five Top Trends for Executive Resumes. Guiseppi points out that since the top of your resume is the first, and possibly the only section that will be read, place your most important information here. It’s okay to move up to the forefront information normally found further down within the “Professional... |
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Use Top of Resume to Best Advantage
Using the top of the first page of your resume to your best advantage is one of the trends executive resume and branding expert Meg Guiseppi writes about in her article for Quint Careers, Five Top Trends for Executive Resumes. Guiseppi points out that since the top of your resume is the first, and possibly the only section that will be read, place your most important information here. It’s okay to move up to the forefront information normally found further down within the “Professional... |
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Request an Employer Action in Your Cover Letter
Request one action you want the employer to take, advises Jimmy Sweeney in his article for Quint Careers, the 7 Elements of a Highly Effective Cover Letter. For example: “I would really like the opportunity for a personal interview this week.” (You never know until you ASK)! |
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Be Sure to Include Phone, Professional E-mail Address on Resume
Hiring decision-makers surveyed for the book, Top Notch Executive Resumes identified this as one of their Top 30 Executive Resume Pet Peeves: Resume does not list phone number, only an e-mail address, or has inappropriate e-mail address. In the age of electronic submission, many candidates seem to think decision-makers will want to communicate by e-mail only, but a phone number on your resume is an absolute must. Be sure to include a daytime phone number as that’s when recruiters are... |
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Today's Cover Letters Are More Conversational
Unlike correspondence written a decade ago, the tone of letters has changed in today’s job market, notes Teena Rose in her article for Quint Careers, Optimizing Your Cold-Contact Cover Letter. Incorporating a conversational tone to your letter will help readers relate to you. It’s difficult to explain what exactly writing in conversational tone is other than to say it’s similar to how you speak. You’ll ditch many of the stuffy, stock fragments that once existed, such... |
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Tools to Help You Get Started on Your Resume
If you’ve never created a resume before, here are some suggestions for resources to get you started: Use our Quintessential Careers Resume Worksheets, especially our Resume Components Worksheet. Try the Inexpensive Resume Workbooks from the late Yana Parker A resume wizard or template in Microsoft Word can be a useful starting point because it will prompt you to fill in appropriate information. Once you’ve used a Word template to start your resume, it’s best to customize... |
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Cover Letter is YOU -- on Paper
Think of your cover letter as you, on paper — so you want to look your best and present a neat, professional package to your prospective employer, advises Elizabeth Freedman in her article for Quint Careers, Cover Letters That Count. For starters, choose a quality paper (such as the kind used for resumes) in a conservative color (like white or ivory) to send your message, and make sure you use the same paper and font for your cover letter, resume, and envelope, since they are typically packaged... |
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Be Sure to Answer the Question, What's In It for Them?
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... |
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Keywords Important in Cover Letters as Well as Resumes
Keywords are crucial in resumes, but use keywords in your cover letters, too. Many employers don’t include cover letters in the applicant tracking systems that create resume databases, but some do. And keywords in cover letters can be important for attracting the “human scanner.” If you’re answering an ad, tying specific words in your cover letter as closely as possible to the actual wording of the ad you’re responding to can be a huge plus. In his book, Don’t... |
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Make Resume Concise and Readable
Keeping your executive resume to two pages is one of the trends executive resume and branding expert Meg Guiseppi writes about in her article for Quint Careers, Five Top Trends for Executive Resumes. Guiseppi suggests that to accommodate the need for brevity, pare down and consolidate all your great achievements and qualifications into a quickly readable communication. Provide deeper slices of success “stories” in collateral one-to-two-page documents — Leadership Initiatives... |
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Recruiter Tells Why Cover Letters are Important
Here’s what John Logan, human resources manager with ZS Associates, had to say about the importance of cover letters in our Q&A interview with him: Cover letters are the sole way our firm understands why an applicant seeks a position in our firm and what skills they will add; they are an important component of our application. The most effective cover letters announce the position the candidate seeks, and highlight up to three skills from the position listing that the candidate possesses... |