Resume & Cover Letter Writing: Advice

Showing posts with label Advice. Show all posts

2/21/13

Grant Writing Advice: Taking a Higher Step

1/29/13

Despite All the Available Advice Howlers Still Appear on Job Application Forms

There is plenty of guidance available to candidates on compiling CVs and filling in job applications as well as being careful about information shared on social media, yet applicants continue to include inappropriate, irrelevant or just plain daft comments.

These examples illustrate the point that it is always a good idea to proof read for spelling, grammar and repetition, or have someone else do it, before hitting the send button or mailing:

"My focus and intensity are at inordinately high levels, and my ability to complete projects on time is unspeakable". In this example perhaps the candidate should find an alternative to that final word.

"Strong maths aptitude; excellent memory; effective management skills; and very good at maths." This is a perfect example of how to not demonstrate an excellent memory.

"Thank you for your consideration. Hope to hear from you shorty." What happens if the recipient of this one is vertically challenged?

Another common blunder is to include information that the candidate has plainly not considered from the point of view of the recruiter or employer.

One recruiter recalled receiving a CV with a covering letter explaining that the applicant had used a different name rather than their real one on their CV because the fictitious name sounded better.

While the advice is to try to strike a positive note plainly some people struggle with this when giving reasons for leaving their last position and among the examples recruiters have reported receiving are that the candidate was suspected of embezzlement, that their boss had discovered that they were having an affair with his wife and that "fortunately" they were sent to prison. These are all good illustrations of the advice that while lying is not an option there are some pieces of information that it would be wiser not to volunteer.

Giving examples of skills and ability is another area that seems to cause problems. While candidates will want to demonstrate creativity and a wide range of skills it is important to offer examples that are relevant to the post being applied for and to the work of the organisation offering it.

Apparently qualifications including a licence to disturb and interfere with badgers, a U grade in religious studies or experience in puppy euthanasia have all appeared on applications.

If the employer is looking for a PA or EA they are unlikely to be impressed or find such examples relevant and clearly the message to anyone who is looking for a new position at any time, not only when the competition is as fierce as it currently is, is to think about the relevance of every piece of information they are considering including on an application preferably through the eyes of the person who is going to receive it.

Doing the research on a company, understanding its culture and ethos and the core skills required for a position should be second nature for any candidate who hopes to win an interview and eventually the position applied for.

The information candidates include in their job application form makes all the difference to securing an interview so why do so many include irrelevant or plain daft information? By Ali Withers.

Bad Resume 101: Advice From Hell on Landing an Interview

3/5/12

Resume Writing Advice for Total Beginners

Are you a total beginner in the complicated world of the job market? If you are, you may need some pieces of resume writing advice that should tell you the do's and don'ts of job hunting. At this critical point of job searching, there is a need for you to know and follow simple rules to avoid committing huge mistakes.

A list of do's

First of all, always remember that applications are usually screened by hiring managers or employers in less than a minute. As such, you need to maximize that time and opportunity to show your qualifications and competencies as a likely candidate for the job.

Make sure you placed any possible contact information that allows people to reach you during business hours. Write your qualifications summary in a simple and straightforward way, including the job title you are applying for.

Prepare a list of your jobs in reverse chronological order. List them according to its importance to the reader such as title or position, name of employer, city/state address, and dates of employment. If you are targeting a different career path, you should put more emphasis on your transferable skills.

Make your copy more meaningful by adding accomplishments, apart from enumerating your job responsibilities. If you can possibly quantify your accomplishments, that is, if you know how many customers or clients you served, or the figures of increased sales and profits, feel free to do so.

To make your document reader-friendly, consider using bullets. Apply designs that are unique and distinct, rather than just copying templates and wizards available on the Internet.

Before you submit your application, carefully proofread it to ensure that there are no spelling, grammatical, and typographical errors.

A list of don'ts

One worn-out resume writing advice is the so-called "one-page rule." Don't be pressured by having to squeeze everything in one page. Why? If you clearly have more important things to say, it is appropriate to add another page, but avoid going beyond two pages as much as possible.

There is no need for you to state your height, weight, age, date of birth, place of birth, marital status, sex, ethnicity, or social security number, or talk about your high school. Also, you don't need to explain your reasons for leaving your previous job. It can possibly stir controversy and discrimination.

There is also no need to include hobbies and other trivial stuff that are totally irrelevant to your target job. However, you may share these during interview conversations, if the situation seems appropriate.

Don't mention skills and job activities that you don't want to do anymore, especially if you are targeting a managerial position or a totally different kind of job.

Personal pronouns such as I, my, and me are a no-no. Use concrete and consistent action verbs and adverbs in your work experience section and qualifications summary. Make your application accomplishments-oriented, rather than duty-oriented. Duties automatically come with any job, but accomplishments are something that expose your work attitude and performance.

As a final resume writing advice, hiring managers and employers want to know the truth about you, so don't ever tell lies.

Melinda Edwards works as a career consultant and has been invited in many forums and events on human resource management. She is also a time management expert who effectively performs her roles both as a career woman and a mother.

11/1/11

Cover Letters Produce Amazing Results, When You Take This Advice

Unbeknownst to the vast majority of people, the real job of great cover letters is to sell you and your many talents to employers. In 1482, Leonardo da Vinci, renowned the world over for genius and his many talents wrote a very effective cover letter to the Duke of Milan. Anyone can still view this letter today at the same museum where I saw it. Leonardo boldly proclaimed that he would perform dozens of essential tasks if he were hired. All the work he would do was specialized and of a high priority to his potential employer for protection, prestige or profit.

After any reader finished that irresistible sales letter there was no doubt that Leonardo da Vinci was well worth hiring, had dozens of talents and that he would return a value worth his salary many times over to the Duke of Milan. When you read a powerful and convincing cover (sales) letter, the power of the printed word to motivate people becomes instantly apparent. Advertisements from market leading products are excellent examples of this, as highly paid copywriters write all of the advertising you see in magazines, the World Wide Web and on television. You can learn a lot from studying these sales pitches.

What made Leonardo's passionate cover letter so convincing and successful in earning him employment was the fact that he customized it for the employer he targeted. He also, displayed many rare talents and capabilities that others did not have at the time. He led the reader to conclude that the return on investment was many times his salary. His letter literally compelled the Duke of Milan to hire him, before someone else did that could use Leonardo's talents against him. After all, talent like his was in very short supply in Italy or anywhere else for that matter.

Superb writing and editing skills clearly demonstrate intelligence (a key point that helps many candidates distinguish themselves in a job search). If you are without highly developed writing and editing skills that can sell with words, simply hire a Certified Professional Resume Writer to help. It was obvious to the reader that his main durable competitive advantage was he was man of many talents useful in times of peace or war. Even today over 500 years later people that have more than one specialized area of expertise are twice as useful and valuable as others. What bonus skills do you have to offer your employer that would be relevant to his industry and of value?

Finally, if you refer to accomplishments, awards and actual evidence of your outstanding performance rather than mere qualifications and the responsibilities you had in previous jobs, you will be far better off. Lawyers do this when they make their case during their final arguments to the jury. They do not rely on mere enthusiasm and eagerness, because facts and evidence will lead the jury to the right conclusions. If you want to sell your ideal employer with finesse, make it so they will come to the final decision that they have to hire you themselves.

I write High Performance Resumes, Interview Bonanza Cover Letters and Professional/Executive Profiles, >95% of my clients get hired in 90 days.

Copyright 10/8/2011 by Darrell Z. DiZoglio of http://righteousresumes.com/ Would you like to finish your job hunt in half the normal time? Did you know professionally written resumes will double your interviews? http://RighteousResumes.com/services.html You do know your resume is the sink or swim mission critical part of your job hunt right? (Free resume reviews by email too.)

9/3/11

Resume Advice For Recent Law School Graduates

If you're a recent law graduate and have had the benefit of focused advice and counseling from your law school's career services office, you are probably well-versed in the following basic resume preparation guidelines.

If you've not received resume counseling recently, you may find very worth your while to review some of the basics. Here are some key tips to ensure that you're putting your best foot forward during every step of the job-hunting process.

- Don't send the same generic resume out for every job opening. Yes, crafting a new resume can be tedious and time-consuming, especially if you're applying to a number of jobs. Yet if you're not doing so, you're not tailoring your description of your past experience to the specific needs of the hiring company - which is a key mistake.

- Don't list simple job responsibilities. While you do want to let potential employers know what you've done in the past, stating the positions you've had and a dry rundown of what you've done will not win you any points. In many practice settings in the legal world, it's assumed that your roles include certain responsibilities. The job of your resume is to highlight what you've excelled at and what you've accomplished, not to act as a rote recitation of basic core skills.

- Don't have an endless resume. Try to keep it to one page, unless you've been working for many years. Multi-page resumes are unwieldy and easy to lose.

- Don't make the reader need a magnifying glass to read your resume. Yes, you want to have as much information as possible there, but it should also be easily readable. Going below an 11-point font could be a recipe for disaster, as you risk having your resume confused with a Uni-bomber manifesto.

- Don't use flash, graphics, or colored paper. Your background and experience should speak for itself; going with anything too cutesy or eye-catching is risky, and may backfire. That might have a better chance of working in a creative field, but not in the legal profession.

- Don't get too personal. While it's fine to include some of your hobbies and interest on your resume, don't go overboard, and steer clear of anything that might be controversial, such as political affiliation. While it's unlikely that someone reading your resume will look down on a person who plays ice hockey as a hobby, the same can not be said for a political activist who happens to be on the other side of the reader's personal politics.

While these tips are somewhat basic, it can be surprising just how many resumes flagrantly flaunt at least one of these, and how many jobs are lost because of that. Don't let your resume be one of those that works against you, rather than for you.

Once you're finished with your legal resume, create a free attorney job seeker profile on Lawmatch and find the best attorney jobs and law firms hiring on Lawmatch.

The Lawmatch Juris Job Blues Blog offers attorneys, paralegals, and other professionals seeking legal employment advice and tips on legal resume preparation, job search tips, interview tips for lawyers, and a new perspective on the latest issues graduating law students face as they search for jobs as lawyers at law firms, corporations, and small businesses.

Find attorney jobs at top law firms on Lawmatch at http://www.lawmatch.com/.

Resume Advice For Recent Law School Graduates

- Don't have an endless resume. Try to keep it to one page, unless you've been working for many years. Multi-page resumes are unwieldy and easy to lose.

Once you're finished with your legal resume, create a free attorney job seeker profile on Lawmatch and find the best attorney jobs and law firms hiring on Lawmatch.

Find attorney jobs at top law firms on Lawmatch at http://www.lawmatch.com/.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kristen_Stanek_Klawitter

9/2/11

Resume Writing: Replace Bad Advice With Good Advice!

Resume writing advice can load you down with a wide range of what is required to create the perfect resume. Every job hunter is searching for the factors that will quickly motivate every employer to rush to the phone and call them in for an interview. Too often the resume has the exact opposite effect. Dead silence, like the resume was dropped into a deep hole never to be seen again.

Many resumes are only written with the job hunter in mind. Yet to be an effective communicator you know the item has to focus on the needs of the audience. So why the misplaced emphasis on the job hunter in writing a resume? Perhaps because it's easier. Or maybe the job hunter read some advice to load their resume with all their accomplishments and responsibilities. Then they sit back and hope the reader will connect the dots and call them in for an interview.

This is definitely not the way the job hunting game works. You have a product to sell, and to market yourself you have to know the needs of your customer (employer).

Telling the prospective employer how great and impressive you are in your resume will normally not get the job done. The employer is focused on how a candidate will fill the needs of the job and whether they have the skills and qualifications to do the job. Anything in the resume beyond this is overkill, may disqualify you, might be good for your ego but will do little to get you the job interview.

Do you see where we are going? Writing a resume isn't about telling prospective employers about you and your career or how the job will improve your career prospects. Bottom line: it's about communicating information the employer is looking for. If you don't do that, your resume can be the any length, great formatting, the right font and well written and it will go no where.

If you don't meet the needs of the reader-you are simply not communicating. Don't get me wrong, a well written resume, free of errors and properly formatted should be part of the application package. But it should be done after you zero in on the needs and requirements of the employer.

One size resume will not do the job with different employers. Job hunters hate to hear this, because it's a lot more work to tailor your resume for each job applied for.

If however you write your resume like your career biography and add what you want out of a job you are in for a quick rejection or will never hear back from the employer.

Do the necessary research on the needs of the employer and incorporate this information into your resume. Pull the accomplishments from your draft resume and move them up to match the requirements of the employer. Use the same keywords used by the employer in the job announcement. You may have to change a job title to match the title used by the employer.

Now you have a narrowly focused resume that closely meets the needs of the employer and offers them a solution, just what they are looking for. Combined with a resume cover letter to introduce the resume and you have a winning combination.

1/21/11

Free Attorney Resume Advice - Attorney Sample Resume Help From a Nationally Certified Resume Writer

Writing a Resume for Attorneys is nothing like writing a resume for many other fields. Sure, on a first glance they are similar in appearance - Profile, Education, Achievements, & Activities, but this is where the similarities end. Unlike most other professions (excluding Doctors and CPAs) becoming a lawyer is a feat in and of itself. It requires several years of studying, not to mention 2-3 days of taking the Bar Exam. As a successful attorney and nationally renowned career counselor, I can help. While I always recommend that you hire a CPRW that is also an Attorney to prepare this career tool for you, I understand that times are tough. Therefore, if you are adamant to attempt writing this on your own, here are some important tips!

1. OBJECTIVE - NO! When you draft a motion, do you repeat the caption title in the body of the P's and As'? Not unless you want a verbal lashing from the judge. If you are submitting for a job posting, or even blindly to a company, then your OBJECTIVE is to GET the JOB, and they know that already.

2. PROFILE/INTRODUCTION: This is a very important and too often overlooked portion of the resume. It is the introduction. It tells the reader - Is your writing clear, concise, and to the point. Here is Example of an introduction Profile opening sentence: "Proven success in litigating a diverse range of complex business litigation matters, with several defense verdicts on high-exposure matters."

4. CORE COMPETENCIES: When it comes to content/layout, think concise. You will be lucky if the potential employer takes 15 seconds to scan the resume. Why not highlight your strengths? Core Competencies are "keywords" that help your resume pass the first level of review, especially since employers are currently inundated with hundreds of applications for each open position.

4. EDUCATION: If you graduated in the first 5 years, put this near the top, otherwise, it should be the final section. I have seen several attorneys who are afraid to list their education proudly, either because they did not do well in school, or did not go to Harvard. Think of it this way, if you're going bald, do you wear a comb over -- I hope not. Say it proud. What's the old adage: A-students become teachers, B-Students become judges, C-students make MONEY. Look up some of your favorite attorneys and most of the great ones went to lower tier law schools. Always, and I mean ALWAYS be confident in yourself - even on paper it will come through.

6. PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: Show them what you're made of, BUT remember confident not cocky! If you facilitated a large merger, or defended a multi-million dollar case, let them know. Caution: Be sure your achievement is an achievement (translation: just because you do your job really well, that is not an accomplishment). You would be amazed at what I see listed as an accomplishments (e.g. well spoken, good with clients, etc.)

7. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: This is the most important section that employers care about. Do NOT spend too much time on semantics - lawyers are intelligent people. Be confident in your writing, but make sure it accurately reflects what you are do. While there are several different types of resume style, font and substance, but you can NEVER go wrong if you keep it in chronological order.

These are some helpful hints. Good Luck in your job search. And, if the task of doing this yourself and describing yourself on paper becomes too much for you, consider hiring an Attorney Certified Resume Writer.

1/8/11

Resume Advice - Targeting Is Key

As a recruiter and professional resume writer I see hundreds of resumes on a weekly basis. I must be honest and say that most of them are pretty awful. Even the resumes that are decent and look good are often missing the key ingredient of an outstanding resume. I am going to make this article very simple and present one resume tip that will have a profound effect on your ability to get interviews and land a job.

The key is to make sure your resume matches the job description of the job you are applying for. In my opinion, there should be no such thing as a "one size fits all" type of resume. Every single time you send a resume it should be tailored for the specific job. Use the job description to discover the keywords that will make the most impact. Keep in mind that the recruiter who views your resume will be trying to match what your resume says versus what the job description says. The more words that match the better your chance of getting a call. I realize that creating customized resumes will take a lot of time but it will pay off in the long run. You can save yourself some time by only applying to jobs that you are qualified for and match your background and experience.

With this one simple tip you will find yourself ahead 90% of the other job seekers that are sending in resume. Best of luck in your job search.

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Article Submitted On: January 07, 2011