24 May 10 How to Write an Effective Cover Letter?
A cover letter accompanies resume to be mailed to the employer. It shouldn’t duplicate the resume, but complement it. It should be factual, informative, data oriented yet personal. Cover letter is your first opportunity to impress the recruiter, thus, writing an effective cover letter is of great importance. Writing a cover letter for the purpose of job often seems like a tedious task. But if certain steps and tips are followed it’s quite an easy. There are mainly 3 types of cover letters – the application letter (in response to a known job vacancy), prospecting letter (enquiring about prospective vacancy) and networking letter (requesting information and assistance in job search).
An ideal cover letter has 4 parts –
Salutation
Letter should address the person you wish to communicate with. This person may hire you. Spell the full name correctly.
Opening
Opening paragraph of the letter is very important, as it’s the first step to appeal to the reader. If you are applying in response to an advertisement, mention that.
Body
This is the most descriptive part of the letter. It should reflect your educational qualification as per your resume, your job experience. You have to sell yourself in most attractive package in this part.
Closing
End has to be interesting, humble and effective. At the end, request for an interview/appointment. Leave a thank note. Use standard complimentary notes like – ‘Sincerely yours’ or ‘Your faithfully’. Leave some space for your signature and below that type your full name.
How to craft the letter?
- Customize the cover letter, as per the employer. Do research concerning the employer before writing the letter. Specifically relate your skills and aptitude with the job you are applying for.
- Mention the source, from where you came to know about the given position. Don’t forget to mention title of the position you are applying for.
- Mention reasons of your interest in the organization. To write in detail, do your homework about the company, its success stories, recent projects, and upcoming projects.
- Only display relevant skills and experience. Don’t include unrelated ones.
- Emphasize on your matching educational qualification, abilities, strengths, and achievements.
Remember certain important points while writing
- Be brief and hit on the point
- Don’t make mistake
- Use word processor and spell check
- Avoid clumsy fonts and colors
Don’t let the chances of casting a good impression go waste with a poor cover letter. Follow the guidelines and craft a brief effective cover letter. Attach it with your CV and send across. Cross your fingers and wait for the interview call. Good luck!
Tags: Advertisement, Application Letter, Aptitude, Attractive Package, Cover Letters, Educational Qualification, Enquiring, Informative Data, Interview Appointment, Job Letter, Job Search, Job Vacancy, Networking Information, Networking Letter, Paragraph, Recruiter, Salutation Letter, Signature, Tedious Task, Writing A Cover Letter
20 Apr 10 Best-Kept Secret Twitter Tips for Job Search (Part 9)
Social media is all about catching attention followed by engaging in conversation, which in turn will help you build trust that will result in a job for you. This is how we operate in the social scene. It may look a lot of work, and in the beginning it is a lot of work, but once you get hang of it, social media participation becomes a second nature — and it cease to appear as work.
Since last couple of posts in the series on building rapport with prospective employers, I have been talking about twitter etiquette, which I will continue in this post as well. A sound knowledge of particulars of etiquettes related to twitter is necessary to make it big in here.
Check your language for appropriateness
Seeing the informal nature of twitter, it is easy for us to give in to the temptation of using informal language (read slang), wrong spelling, and misplaced grammar when tweeting. You should avoid doing this. It can spell doom for your twitter job-search dream.
Advice when asked
Many a time, people sends out a tweet to anyone and everyone asking for advice on certain topic. Seize this opportunity and make big of it. Participate in the conversation and hang in there until the discussion is devoid of all its juices.
Use shortening services
Use URL shortening service when posting a link in your tweets. Shortening services like Bit.ly, Tiny URL, etc., will not only help you keep your URL short, but it will also help you track the clicks. You should also use these services to post pictures and videos on twitter. It will also help you keep your tweets clutter free.
With these tips, our discussion on twitter job-search etiquette comes to an end. You will get desired result, if you apply the tips I have shared so far. Each one of them is very valuable.
Tags: Appropriateness, Building Rapport, Clutter, Dream Advice, Etiquettes, Grammar, Informal Language, Informal Nature, Job Search, Juices, Many A Time, Particulars, Prospective Employers, Second Nature, Slang, Sound Knowledge, Tiny Url, Tweet, Tweets, Twitter
