How To "Doctor" Your Pharma Resume For Better Results

Read more ...

Five Tips to Writing a Better Cover Letter

A job seeker's resume is an important document. It provides the hiring company with your employment history, education and skills. However, a weak or poorly-written cover letter can minimize the impact of even the best resume. As E.M. Forster said, "Letters have to pass two tests before they can be classed as good: they must express the personality both of the writer and of the recipient."

Here are five precepts you should follow to compose an effective cover letter, even if you have already gotten lots of resume help.

The cover letter is a marketing document. It is your single most important tool to getting an interview. Therefore, you should use it as a selling tool. Briefly, here is some cover letter help:

1. Consider using a headline in your cover letter, which can quickly get the interviewer's attention. The headline will also separate you from most of the other job applications. Headlines should be centered at the top of the cover letter in bold print. Use a simple headline or one that promotes certain skills or experience. For example, say something like, "I am seeking an Interview for the position of Marketing Manager or Job Number 5432." This headline immediately tells human resources or the hiring manager your intentions. Promote yourself even more by using a skill-specific headline: "Marketing Manager with 10 years Consumer Packaged Goods Experience Seeks New Position." A skill-specific headline immediately tells the reader you are qualified for the position, especially if you match your headline to the qualifications of the job.

2. Address a specific individual by name in your cover letter, even if you are answering an ad. Do not address the recipient as "Dear P.O. Box Dude." Call the company if their name is in the ad. Talk to human resources or the hiring manager herself. Tell her you are applying for the job listed in the paper and wanted to know whom to address your cover. The same holds true if you are sending resumes out cold to companies. A reference book you are using may not contain the current person in the position. Call the company to obtain the person's name.

3. Keep your cover letter limited to four or five short paragraphs. Employers usually scan cover letters. They want to quickly find the most qualified candidates. Therefore, tell the employer for which job you are applying in the first paragraph, even if you mentioned it in the headline. Follow up with a brief synopsis of your career and education in the same paragraph.

Use the second paragraph to expand on your background. Be more specific as to the types of projects you worked on. Make sure you keep your credentials commensurate to the types of qualifications they want. Add a third paragraph that asks for the interview. For example, say something like, "In the course of an interview, I would be pleased to further discuss how my experience could be of potential benefit to the XYZ company."

4. Tell the hiring manager where she can reach you in the fourth paragraph. This includes a cell or home phone. Also, list the time frames in which you are most likely to be available. Avoid taking calls for jobs at work.

5. Lastly, thank the employer in advance for considering you for the position. You can include this section in the fourth paragraph, or create a fifth paragraph to thank the person.

For a more thorough description of cover letter development, Shimmering Resumes offers a detailed report that you can download at no cost.

Paul Freiberger is President of Shimmering Resumes, a resume-writing, interview preparation, and career counseling service based in San Mateo, California. Paul is the author of several books and the winner of the Los Angeles Times book award. He offers resume and cover letter writing services, job interview and job search campaign coaching nationwide. He can be reached at: Paul@shimmeringresumes.com, or, by phone at 877-796-9737.

Read more ...

Resume Writing Tips: Communicate Better!

Resume writing is above all a document in which you are communicating your skills and qualifications that match as closely as possible with the prospective employer's needs. You are marketing a product (you) and you are trying to motivate the buyer (employer) to buy (call you in for a job interview).

Yet many job hunters forget the goal of the resume, they overload it with irrelevant facts until it breaks under the weight of all the words. Others believe if they include all of their important responsibilities and duties that somehow it will connect with the employer and get them the job interview. Neither idea will work.

Here are some things to consider when you begin drafting a powerful resume that will effectively communicate the right message.

1. Minimize all abbreviations and acronyms. You may think it makes you sound like you are up to speed with the latest and greatest in your career, think again. If your resume looks and sounds like a secret code rewrite it. The first person in the HR department that has to read your resume will see all the abbreviations, which you used to cram as much as possible into a one page resume, their eyes will glaze over and you resume will be tossed. Never to be seen again.

The same can be said for acronyms. If you need to use an acronym, only those that are widely known and toss the rest. If you are working in an industry widely know for acronyms, like the computer industry, use them as infrequently as possible.

2. Resume writing should be concise and every word should work for you. Keep personal pronouns like I, me and my out of the resume. Your resume should focus as much as possible on the needs of the employer. "I did this...I did that..." should not be in a well written resume.

3. Everything in your resume should be positive. If you left an employer because you were fired keep it out of the resume. Your challenge is how to frame the termination if asked in the job interview. In fact anything negative should not show up in a well written resume.

If you had a boss that was a tyrant, or a previous employer that treated employees like a wicked dictatorship never mention anything about these circumstances in your resume. Again, if asked in the job interview you better have a positive answer. Employers want to hire positive, can-do people and not whiners and complainers. Be sure everything you do or say falls into the positive attitude area.

4. Simple is always best in written communication. Your resume can be focused and interesting if you remember its purpose. If you have an abundance of word like a, also, an, because, the, very, many or adjectives that are undefined edit them out of your resume. Never use a term that you do not understand. You can bet you'll be asked about it in the job interview.

Keep in mind when writing your resume that you are communicating you skills and the benefits and value you will be bringing to the employer. Anything else will hinder your goal of motivating the employer to call you in for an interview.

Read more ...

Can Someone Else Write Your Resume Better Than You?

As a former Wall Street recruiter and professional writer, I am always weary of reading an article about resume writing when the author opens with something akin to your resume is one of the most important documents in your search. Your resume isn't one of the most important; it is the most important document in your search. It's the document you are going to be judged by before all else. But this doesn't mean you should run off and spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to pay a professional resume writer for their assistance. You can get everything you need, usually for under $10.

This may seem incredible that I am telling you everything you need, you can find for a fraction of what you would pay a professional for, but it's the truth. It's the old story of a woman calls a plumber because her basement is flooding. The plumber comes over, looks over the situation and turns a knob. The water stops and the woman is relieved.

The plumber then hands the woman a bill for $200. Dumbfounded, the woman asks the plumber how that could possibly cost two hundred dollars to turn the knob. The plumber replies, it wasn't. The plumber then explains it was ten dollars to turn the knob and one hundred ninety dollars to know which knob to turn.

The premise is the same with resume writing. I can show you which knob to turn for less than ten dollars, or you could hire a professional to turn the knob for you, for two hundred. The choice is yours. So before you hire a professional, consider the following.

There are no real credentials for a resume writer. There are associations out there for resume writers, but all it takes to get into those associations is a credit card. There is a line of thought that certified resume writers are different than non certified resume writers. Truth is it's just another certification that someone paid for. It doesn't make them better or worse.

Consider the price factor as well. The costs are across the board. Mostly it depends on what the writer is being paid, whether there is an office or overhead to be met. No matter what, if you are unemployed, chances are you will be offered a choice to either pay the writer or eat dinner. Regardless of how you say it, that cost is too high. You can do just as good of a job, with a little information and a computer.

Then there are those resume writers out there, that when they are done, they will send you a file as a locked PDF document. By sending you a locked document, you can't change it. This means any time you want to edit something, you have to call them back and they get a fee for their time. Ask yourself if you really want to be working with someone who isn't willing to work with you.

Back when I was an independent recruiter, the saying around the office was, if you work for yourself and you do the work yourself, at least you know the boss isn't taking advantage of you. The same is true of writing a resume. If you purchase advice, you then can choose what to do with it. But if you put your life in someone else's hands, they aren't going to work as hard for you as you would for yourself.

Finally, if you are still looking to hire a resume writer, even after all of this, consider their turnaround time on your document. Most likely they will charge extra if you are in a hurry. Then what happens if you see the perfect job out there before your resume is ready. If you had been doing it yourself, you could simply drop what you are doing, make changes and go. With a resume writer you can't do that.

So, the next time you are considering shelling out more than $10 of your hard earned money for any level of resume writing, consider the alternative. Unlike the plumber in the story, I can teach you how to turn the knob for only ten dollars. Or you can pay a 'professional' thousands of dollars to do it for you.

Either way, the water will stop flowing. The difference is up to you.

Jarred Talmadge, MBA is a professional writer and consultant. For more tips on resume writing, check out his website: http://www.superchargeyourjobsearch.com/. For more information on Jarred, check out his other informational product and articles, check out his website: http://www.jarredtalmadgemba.com/. Jarred is available for writing and consulting contracts.

Read more ...

Sample Resumes Paint Better Employment Prospects

Since the pen is often mightier than the sword, it takes a well written resume to get one's application to the top of the pile. In the event one is not blessed with the written skill, sample resumes come to the rescue of the less endowed. Depending on the circumstance, it is essential to select the right template. Otherwise, it can come back with a vengeance as news shoes to unsuspecting feet.

One can choose to copy and paste existing templates, and replace the relevant bits with information pertinent to his or her details. Since most experienced employers have come across work applications of all types, it is recommended to peruse the given examples to establish a sense of what a resume needs to convey from writer to reader, applicant to employer. The industry plays an important element. Fortunately, there are various examples ranging from the medical to business to teaching and many others to suit the occasion. By looking through the relevant sample resumes, one should rely on tried and tested methods to enhance marketability to prospective employers.

Although content plays a significant factor in any resume, the manner in which it is presented is equally significant. Since these few pieces of paper are the only mode to get one's foot in the door, employers expect to be wowed over to consider one for an interview. Formatting in terms of paragraph and line spacing, font type and size, and many more speak loud and clear on the importance one places on this prospective job. By submitting a half-baked story of their life, it may imply half-baked work in case of a hire.

By providing a guideline on contents, sample resumes help writers avoid the folly of including every significant and insignificant part of their lives. If one's work history is less than impressive, appropriate wording may also help to add shine for one's work application.

Read more ...