I volunteer/work in a job center. I am usually assigned the "problem cases." These are people who have been diligently looking for work for more than 6 months but still haven't been hired. You would think that many of these people have some kind of obvious problem as to why they aren't getting hired. But surprisingly... this often isn't true!
When I review the job applications of many of these good people who can't find a job, what I often find is a resume in perfect order and a job candidate that is very well qualified. They also perform well in mock interviews.
Also surprisingly, I find that other candidates that are less qualified often get called in for an interview over the more qualified candidates for the same job. Even though the difference in quality is sometimes extremely obvious, the best candidates often get passed over time and time again.
So what on earth is causing this?
It was a real mystery to me at first. My co-workers were just as puzzled as I. It just made no sense at all.
However, after interviewing the hiring managers for several of these jobs and re-reviewing the application materials, I finally figured out what was going on.
The difference was in cover letter that was submitted. More than 95% of all job candidates put most of their time into creating their resume. However, they pay very little attention to their cover letter other than to make sure it sounds "professional."
How do most of them produce a "professional" sounding resume?
The vast majority of people use cover letter templates and just modify it to suit their purpose. The end result is a very professional sounding cover letter but also one that looks and sounds like almost everyone else's letter. It doesn't stand out in any way at all. It isn't unique and it doesn't catch the attention of the hiring manager.
With the job market as tight as it is today, most hiring managers end up getting far too many applications for every job opening than they could possibly go through carefully. There's been a real push in the past several years to find short-cuts to going through all these applications. One of the primary ways this is accomplished is to simply ignore the resume entirely on the first round and just read the cover letters.
If you don't include a UNIQUE cover letter - one that is NOT derived from a cover letter template, your odds of getting called into for an interview go way down. In fact, you may very well be passed over entirely and someone who is less qualified than you may get called in for the interview.
Making this one very simple change in your strategy - changing your cover letter style and creating a really unique one - may increase your odds an order of magnitude or more!
Many of my clients made this one change and suddenly started getting interviews and got hired. It makes a world of difference.
Because most people don't have the skill to write a really unique cover letter without it sounding cheesy, I started looking around for some help.
I discovered a very effective tool that helps people easily write a cover letter that really pulls in the interviews - and best of all, it only takes a few minutes!
It is cover letter software that was creating by one of the most talented sales copy writers in the marketing industry. With a few clicks (literally), it produces cover letters that are sprinkled with marketing magic and tailored to specific job industries. The resulting letter is one that really grabs the attention of the hiring manager. Some of my clients have even been complimented on their cover letters!
