Cover letters serve as an introduction to your resume. While a great cover letter can help you make a good first impression on an employer, a bad cover letter could result in an employer discarding your resume without reading further. Follow the tips below while writing your cover letters and you will be sure to impress every hiring manager you send them to.
Tag: Resume Writing
Someone told you to fix up your resume. You haven’t looked at it in months. So, you spend hours revising it – you shift items around, fight with your computer for space, and try to keep your eyes from crossing. You proofread it and have someone else look over it. There are no errors. It looks clean. You’re done. Don’t have to do anything with it for another year or two. Right?
Wrong.
A resume is a work in progress. It is a living and breathing textual representation of your experience and capabilities, both of which are constantly evolving. It’s best to come to terms with the fact that you will always be tweaking and adjusting your resume.
If your life were an autobiography, what would the dust jacket say about you? The cover letter is the dust jacket of your resume, and the recruiter’s first introduction to your voice.
Most cover letters are read last. But, before you stop reading this article, remember that any materials that make it as far as a “hold” pile will be read, from cover letter to references. It is then that cover letters matter most, as they have the power to distinguish intriguing possibilities from average, everyday candidates. Laura Gassner Otting suggests the following:
Continue reading “Judging a Book by its Cover: How to Write a Cover Letter”
Last week, we posted a tip on how to read job ads and suggested tailoring your resume to be job-specific. Well now, we found a service that will tailor your resume for you! It’s called Resunate and here’s how it works.
Continue reading “Make Your Resume Resonate with Resunate.com”
There is no universal resume format and there are plenty of different options for you to choose when composing your resume. However, there are some good guidelines you should follow. Your resume is often the first thing a potential employer sees. It should look professional and be easy to read.
Incorporating an objective into a resume can sometimes limit job opportunities for several reasons. An employer may view an objective statement as inflexibility within a potential employee. It may also be that the company has several job openings in various areas and the objective limits the individual to just one of the positions. Although an objective is a great goal to keep in mind and work towards, it is not always necessary to put it on a resume.
Your cover letter is an opportunity to fully explain why you are the best candidate for a job, so don’t neglect it! Even if an employer does not require a cover letter, it is always a good idea to send one. Here are a few basic rules to follow that will make your cover letter shine:
