Generally Speaking, Here’s THE Problem

It’s not failing to market yourself in a job interview, writing a poor cover letter that fails to grab their attention, fear of initiating a meeting with someone in the role you want or even agonizing over your career path that is the biggest problem for most people. Interestingly however, all these are tied to the fundamental one thing which holds back being successful. That one thing? Positive self-esteem.

Again and again I interact with people who question themselves, who see their abilities and skills as needing improvement. They often show their lack of self-esteem in the words they speak and write, often without even knowing that their choice of words reveals more about them then they realize. Their non-verbal communication also gives away their lack of belief in their abilities. Yes, “Believe In Yourself” is one of the best pieces of advice a person can be given. However, it’s one thing to know you should believe in yourself and quite another to actually do it.

Take the person who, upon sitting down in an interview, starts off by saying, “Oh my gosh, I’m really nervous, I’m going to try my best but…” Or the cover letter that says, “I believe I can do the job”, and not, “I know I can do the job”. Then the body language people use, often folding into themselves in trying to become invisible, or the doubt they reflect on their face as they speak, the weak handshakes, the lack of eye contact etc.

Poor or low self-esteem is robbing employer’s of great employees, and robbing people of wonderful opportunities in the workforce. It keeps people in entry-level jobs when they do get them, and can keep people from taking chances because their fear of failure outweighs their desire for success. It’s sad. It’s more than just sad actually and it’s got to change.

Now if you feel your self-esteem is low, it’s likely you’re not to blame. If you seldom got praised or supported as a child growing up – be it from parents, extended family and teachers etc., it naturally follows that these key authority figures in your early life did you a major disservice which now as an adult has you instinctively doubtful of yourself. Now as an adult, you might not believe others when they say you’re beautiful; being overly critical of minor flaws. You might not have the courage to stand up and tell your parents – even as an adult – that what you really want to do in life is ….

Here’s the good news. Just as years and years of never being complimented, encouraged and supported can do a great deal of damage to your self-esteem, the same can be said of the reverse. In other words, you can in fact improve your self-esteem. This is not something however that’s going to correct itself overnight. Just telling yourself that you’re going to believe in yourself isn’t going to undo decades of damage. Damage by the way might seem like a strong word to use, but honestly, if you’ve been put down or never even had words of encouragement from your parents and significant people in your life, they have in fact damaged you whether it was intentional or not.

Building your self-esteem and self-respect back up is something you can do however. When someone gives you a compliment, do yourself a favour and accept their assessment instead of automatically downplaying or disagreeing with their words. What someone has recognized in you as good and worthy of noting is a good thing. The choice is yours to say a simple thank you or deflect those words with your automatic, “What? This old thing?” or “I don’t see myself that way.”

The person you are now is a product of your past, and it’s equally true that the person you become in the future will be a product of both your present and your future. Yes, it takes time, but time alone won’t change things much. You really need a combination of time, surrounding yourself with positive people who recognize and voice the good in you, and a willingness on your part to be open to seeing yourself differently; a change in your attitude.

You deserve a positive future. You are worthy of the good things in life; the very things you want such as a good job, supportive and positive relationships, feeling good about who you are as a person and seeing yourself as a person of worth.

One thing you can consider is removing yourself from the constant influence of negative people; the one’s who tell you that you’ll never amount to much; that you should just settle in life and you’ll always be flawed. You’re so much better than how they see you! When these people happen to be in your family, you might consider telling them how hurtful their words are, and that they’ve got to get behind you or get out of your way. The person you’ve been is not the person you’re going to be.

Build on small successes. Sure it starts with being open to the, “Believe in Yourself” philosophy. When others say good things about you, accept that they see something in you that you yourself may not; and they just might be right, especially if you’ve heard this from others.

Self-esteem can be rebuilt and when it does, it’s a beautifully powerful thing.

What Your Resume SHOULD Do

Let’s put the question of whether you have a good resume aside for the moment. Rather, let’s talk about what your résumé should be doing.

For starters, your résumé is a marketing document. It should lay out clearly what you offer and entice the person reading it sufficiently to meet you face-to-face. The best resumes are custom-made for the jobs they are submitted for; one unique resume made specifically for that single job. As the reader looks it over, they should be struck with how what you offer aligns with or meets their own needs. The more effective you are at making this potential match clear and the benefit they’ll receive in having a conversation with you, the more likely that is to happen.

Now let’s look at this idea of your specific resume being a marketing document. At this point, it would be an excellent idea if you pulled out your résumé so you can look it over as you read on.

Looking at your résumé, does it communicate how the organization you are applying to will benefit from bringing you on board, or does it focus more on how you want to benefit from working at a company? In reality, a good fit will ultimately benefit both you and the organization you ultimately work for, but on paper you put what you’ll bring to the company ahead of your own interests.

This is where many fail. So often I pick up a résumé and/or an accompanying cover letter and all I read is how the person hopes to grow or advance with the company, learn more skills or use the skills they picked up in earlier work places.  “Seeking a full-time job where I can grow with the company and develop my customer service skills” is such an example; and a bad one too.

You see, this sentence in the previous paragraph is all about what the person wants and says nothing about what they’ll contribute or add. Companies aren’t in the business of charitably developing people’s talents as their primary business. Organizations are looking for skilled workers who fill an immediate or emerging need. Rather than what can we do for you, they read your résumé asking themselves the question, “What can this person do for us?” Fail to clearly communicate this key information and your résumé will fall by the wayside.

Now, even though you’d like to think otherwise, you don’t have their full attention very long. If they look at your résumé for 8 – 20 seconds on first glance, you’re getting the typical once-over. So how do you make sure that the hour you pour into making this résumé and cover letter are going to get more than 20 seconds of their time? Better Marketing.

Think of any ad you see on television, hear on the radio or read in print. Take a car commercial as an example. Depending on the product, the company will pitch the lifestyle that goes with the car. Whether it’s being environmentally responsible by consuming less gas and emitting fewer emissions, being surrounded by laughing, happy friends or getting away from it all on open, curvy roads where yours is the only car on a scenic roadway, they pitch much more than the metal and steel you buy. Buy the car and you’ll live the experience.

This is a very different approach than asking you to buy their cars so they can stay in business and make more profit selling more cars. That pitch would fall on deaf ears. Why should you buy a car to help a big company make more money? But this is exactly what many people do on their own resumes; maybe even you. The pitch on paper is … hire me so I can develop and grow while you pay me. Again, no sale.

Your résumé, cover letter, thank you letter, emails and interview(s) should all communicate the same thing; hire me and here’s how YOU benefit. If you’re unclear after re-reading your own resume how a company would benefit from hiring you, it’s a safe bet they won’t figure it out either.

Okay still with me? So now you may be wondering how you can guarantee that what you offer will be what they want even when you do make it clear. Good question! The answer is in the job posting itself and in what you uncover from a little research. Sometimes a company will even say, “Here’s what you bring:”, or they list qualifications required and, “What you’ll do”.

One of the very BEST things you can do when preparing to send your résumé is something that very few applicants bother with, because it actually takes some initiative. What is it? Have a conversation with an employee who is doing the job you are interested in. Find out:

• What personal characteristics are most desirable to succeed?
• What are the challenges in the job?
• What qualities do people have that excel in the job?

Research takes some initiative and it separates the go-getters who want to stand out from those who aren’t really all that motivated. If you’re looking for an edge, there are few things you could do better than reach out to an employee and ask to sit down with them and hear about what they do, what they like, the job challenges etc.

A line in your cover letter could start with, “Having done extensive research before applying, including meeting with __________,”

The Online Application Address Trap

Years ago when I was building resumes, I’d routinely add the address of the applicant. Just like many people today, I never gave the matter any thought to be quite honest; it was a given.

With the passage of time, it has now become my norm to first look at where the applicant lives in relation to the potential employer, and determining the proximity of the two from one another guides whether I add the address. After all, if a person is within a few blocks of the employer, it’s a huge advantage for the employer to see how close they live and this bumps up their credibility when they claim they’ll be able to be depended on to show up for work. Conversely, living 50 – 75 km’s or more away could play into the fears of an employer that this applicant will have attendance problems due to weather, traffic, etc.

Distance isn’t the only factor; an address has the potential to set off preferences and prejudices in the mind of anyone considering an applicant. Do they live in a nice or poor part of town? Was there a bad news story of late involving people on that street and could this have involved this applicant? Unfair? Sure. Does it happen? Yep.

So now I ultimately leave the inclusion or omission of a person’s address up to them in the end after having explained potential pros and cons of each and giving them my opinion.

Once a résumé includes the address, the full disclosure should be equally presented in the cover letter, and applying online where it’s an option to include is a non-issue because it’s been consistently shared both in the cover letter and resume.

The problem comes when the preference is to withhold the street address in both the résumé and cover letter; and do be careful to omit the address in the cover letter if that’s your résumé strategy otherwise it’s rather pointless to offer it in one of two documents you send. So where’s the problem? The online application.

Yes, I’m seeing more and more that online applications have mandatory fields which applicants must complete to send their application, and one of those mandatory fields? You guessed it; street address. So your snookered. Rats! Foiled again!

You’ve been smart to withhold this information on your résumé, wanting to eliminate being unfairly prejudiced from receiving an interview solely based on where you live. Of equal frustration is the fact that you can’t tell whether the online application will require your address or not when you first start the process. Sometimes the online application is to simply upload the résumé, fill in a name and phone number field and click, ‘submit’. Done.

However, if you’ve done many applications via the internet, you’ll see other applications have you fill in much more information and you can’t advance to the next page and get to the, ‘submit’ button unless you complete the mandatory fields – one of which may be your street address. There is no way now for any Employment Coach, Job Counsellor or Resume Guru to bypass this Human Resources Department guided, online application trap.

Give them credit; employers are catching up to what they see as needed information. Now taking me for example, I live in a community that is a 95 km, 1 hour commute to and from my employer. My attendance record for over 15 years has been excellent; in fact have a look at my LinkedIn profile and you’ll see I’ve included Attendance Awards as evidence of my reliability. Still, were I applying today and openly shared the distance factor, I wouldn’t even get more than a 4 second consideration with many employers. No chance to share my dependability in an interview or my online profiles; time dictates they aren’t going to invest any of theirs in looking further into my candidacy.

Now I’ve read articles and comments across social media where the discussions are to add or not the address. Some say include the city you live in or the zip/postal codes. I come down on the, ‘withhold this information’ camp. Where I live shouldn’t impact on my dependability – that’s my problem and I either have a strong work ethic and accountability standards or I don’t. Some people live 10-15 km’s from a workplace who won’t make it in on poor weather days or are consistently, ‘running late’ for other reasons. Distance isn’t the only cause that determines reliability.

I’d love to hear suggestions, advice, ideas etc. on if and how there are ways to bypass submitting addresses online when the fields are mandatory. To me, it seems to be an insurmountable obstacle.

Once you get a job offer and you’re signing on, sure that’s the time to give personal information like address, Health and Social Insurance Numbers etc. In an interview you may reveal your address if asked outright – but you got the interview without revealing it didn’t you? You can market your strengths and if reliability is one of them, prove it, making distance a non-factor in their mind.

Blind resumes; one’s that conceal name and address to end preferences and prejudices, may become more mainstream to mitigate such factors. However, someone in the organization is aware of these as they remove them for others who do the hiring. I wonder if the ones blinding the resumes don’t themselves have preferences and prejudices however.

 

No Job Interviews? Here’s Your Problem

So the assumption here is that you’re applying for jobs and you’re not getting anywhere; no interviews. Without being invited to the job interview, you’re not getting offers, and so you feel increasingly frustrated and discouraged. It would seem to make no sense at all to just keep on plugging away doing the same thing and expecting different results. To see a change in things – the result being you land interviews and do well enough to get offered a job – you’re going to need a change in how you go about things.

If you don’t like the idea of doing things differently from what you’re doing now, stop reading. So we’re clear here, a change in things means putting in the work to get the outcome you’re after. Hence, if you’re not ready to put in that effort, again, stop reading here.

To begin with, you need an independent and objective look at how you’re going about applying for jobs. If you’re mass producing a single resume and submitting it to all the jobs you apply to, the good news is we’ve quickly discovered one major thing you need to change. That was how you applied for jobs back in the 90’s when there were more jobs and fewer people to compete with for them. Today you need a résumé that differs each and every time you submit it. No more photocopying; no more mass printings.

As I’ve said time and time again, employers are generous enough to give away most if not all the job requirements in the job postings you’ll find these days. Any résumé they receive and check must therefore clearly communicate that the applicant has the qualifications, experience and soft skills they are looking for. It’s no mystery; a targeted resume (one that is made specifically for the single job you are applying to and never duplicated for another) will advance your chances.

Now are you writing a cover letter? This is something you’ll get differing perspectives on from Employment Coaches, Recruiters, Company Executives and Employment Counsellors. Some will say you should include them while others say the cover letter is dead. Unless the employer specifically asks you NOT to include one, my vote goes with including one. Why? The cover letter sets up the résumé, shows your ability to communicate effectively, tells the reader both why you are interested in the job with the organization, what you’ll bring, how enthusiastic you are about the opportunity and why you’re uniquely qualified.

Whether or not you go with the cover letter, please make sure you get your résumé and / or cover letter proofread by someone who has the skills to pick out improper spelling and poor grammar. Also, even if the grammar and spelling are correct, it might not be communicating what you really want to say. Unfortunately then, it could be doing you more harm than good; especially when applying for employment in positions where you’d be creating correspondence yourself, such as an Office Administrative professional.

Once you have applied for employment, what else – if anything – are you doing to stand out from the other applicants you’re up against? If your answer is nothing; that you wait by the phone for them to call if they are interested in you, well then you’ve just identified another area you need to up your game. Following through with employers indicates a sincere personal motivation to land that interview. After the interview, further follow-up is advised to again separate yourself from those who do nothing. In other words, how bad do you want it?

Recently, someone I know applied for a job and then took the steps of actually job shadowing someone in the role with a different organization so they could gain first-hand experience themselves. While this is a great idea, they failed to communicate this to the employer they were actually hoping to work for. So this initiative went unknown, as did their sincere interest in landing the job. In short, they just looked like every other applicant; applying and then sitting at home waiting.

Look, there are a lot of people who will claim to be resume experts, cover letter writers extraordinaire and so it’s difficult for the average person to know the real professionals from the pretenders. Just because someone works with a reputable organization doesn’t make them immediately credible. Some pros charge for their investment of time working on your behalf while others offer their services free of charge as their paid via the organizations they work for. You don’t always get what you pay for as I’ve seen some $500 resumes that had spelling errors and layout issues that won’t pass software designed to edit them out of the process.

Do your homework. More important than anyone you might enlist to help you out is the effort you yourself are ready to invest. If you’re happy to pay someone to do your résumé and you don’t have an interest in sitting down with them to give advice yourself and learn from the process, don’t be surprised if you still don’t get the results you want. Should you actually get an interview, with no time invested in learning how to best interview, you’ll likely fall short of actually getting the offer.

Applying for employment today takes time and effort, but the payoff is the job you want. Make the effort; put in the work.

Market Yourself Like Produce

There are some people, (perhaps you are one of them yourself) who when applying for employment take a very passive approach in marketing themselves as the most desirable candidate. They have a belief it would seem that reasons if and when an employer hires them, only then will they demonstrate how good they are. Up until that point, it would be a lot of wasted effort trying to be the best candidate because they don’t know who they are up against. “Take a chance and hire me and you won’t be disappointed”, seems to be their message.

Now if you are one who holds this kind of outlook, I would like to give you something to think about with a goal of changing your view. In perhaps changing your view, you might then change your approach, and your new actions may thusly change the results you experience.

So I need some kind of analogy that the typical reader, (in this case you) can easily visualize; something that you see the logic in that best illustrates my point. Hmmm…..got it!

Okay so you’re at the supermarket and you find yourself in the fruits and vegetables area. You’re standing in front of the apples we’ll suppose and you’ve made up your mind to purchase a few. Now apples works nicely because not all apples are the same variety and each variety has its own characteristics making some best for pies, others better for snacking on as they are, and some are just that much sweeter or tart.

But there’s more. Even once you look the assortment of varieties over and narrow what you want down to a particular variety, you aren’t likely to just put the first four you touch into your cart and move on. Having done it myself and watched others do it, you my dear reader are in all probability just like all the other shoppers. You give them a visual inspection, you test the firmness, look for bruising or cuts, assess the overall size and shape of the fruit, and based on whatever you’re looking for, you finally decide.

Somehow amongst all those 50 apples of the exact same variety, you selected the 4 which lined up with your personal preferences. Those preferences of yours are your most desired qualities in an apple on that occasion, and you passed up some for the ones you walked away with.

Now the store itself knows how people shop and they too have watched the behaviours of their customers. They regularly have employees sorting through the apples if you think about it. They too are making those apples as appealing as they can for you the buyer. They will shine them up, remove ones they deem unappealing to the eye, turn the apples so they show their best side to the customers, and they position the overhead lights to best show the gleam of the products. Nothing is left to chance and of course any apple deemed to be bruised or damaged in some way is removed, put on a cart and either discounted for quick sale or removed completely from the store floor.

In this analogy, you the shopper are the employer making your selection. The employee putting their best out there is you looking as attractive as you can.

If you agree that the food stores are going through this process in marketing their products to the  best of their abilities, then it follows that I think you should also agree that you too should be marketing yourself to be the one to pick when applying for work.

When you pick out your wardrobe in advance of the interview instead of just throwing something on the morning of for example, you are polishing up your outward appearance to be at your best. When you research the job and the company as well as those who work where you also want to be employed, your arming yourself with knowledge and that knowledge you hope will appeal to the interviewer when you share what you did to prepare.

But you might argue, you buy your produce down at the farmers market where the apples aren’t polished, they aren’t stacked in nice pyramids, and they aren’t even washed or polished. What then? I would ask you then if when standing at that vendors stall you still don’t cast a critical eye over the apples you are considering purchasing. Of course you do. You do the same when choosing the head of cauliflower, picking the pint of berries that appears to be the best.

Employers are the same and act in the same way. They advertise exactly what they are looking for in the job postings. They cast critical eyes over the applications they receive to determine who on paper best meets what they want. They meet with those they are considering selecting to confirm what they want to know and in the end they make their selection based on who comes off as the most desirable.

Your chances go up significantly if you put in the required effort to market yourself to meeting the needs of the organizations you wish to work for. It may sound like a lot of time and effort to adapt to the needs of each employer but actually this approach is the one which will result in being hired sooner rather than later.

So are you a Granny Smith or Delicious?

Empowerment

One thing I try to do for those I help with finding, maintaining or exploring employment opportunities is give them the gift of empowerment. Whether that’s mine to give in the first place I acknowledge could be a point of irony as it turns out for some readers.

However that aside, it’s empowerment that’s up for discussion and pondering. Empowerment is less about what you can do for someone and more about what you can help them learn to do for themselves. This is usually accomplished by sharing skills, supporting the person through their first attempts and weaning yourself off as a dependency. Eventually the person gets to the point where they master the skill or skills you’ve shared and they can readily call upon them themselves with confidence and critically, competence.

Now of course, not everybody wants to be empowered. If you stop and think about this, you will possibly be able to think of situations in which you yourself would rather employ and pay for the services someone else has mastered rather than invest the time, energy and money required to gain the skill. Need help thinking of some? You may take your car in to change over your tires from All – seasons to Winter and back again rather than doing it yourself. You might call in a Plumber, an Electrician or a Painter when their services are required. For even though you could do a little research and learn how to change your tires yourself, get advice at a paint store or learn how to install that new kitchen faucet yourself, many leave the jobs to the professionals.

And how often does the Plumber or the Mechanic call you over and ask if you’d like to watch them work and they’ll tell you how to do this yourself in the future? Probably never; they’d eventually lose many of their customers and might lose their own incomes.

It seems to me however, that when it comes to job searching, writing resumes and cover letters and going to job interviews, that many people who haven’t mastered these skills tend to think they have nonetheless. I couldn’t tell you the number of times someone puts a poorly written document in my hands and does so feeling I’ll give it a passing grade.

There are really two kinds of people who I help in the end; the ones who say, “Just do it for me”, and those that are really interested in knowing the reasons behind my suggestions because they are sincerely invested in wanting to be able to produce good documents on their own. And what makes a good document? One that gets results often, not just once for every 50 handed out. That too is interesting; when someone defends with attitude the poor resume they have which got them to the interview stage once back in 2004. Sometimes it’s best to tell someone you’re available if they open themselves up to your help, do it for them and leave it for now.

So what’s in it for me personally when I’m consistently the Employment Counsellor where I work who always takes the longest when working with someone? It’s true of course. Sit the entire team down, each lending a hand to craft a resume and I’ll take the longest every time; you could win money if you bet on that; it’s just how I work. Don’t get me wrong by the way about my peers; good people and they get results too.

I derive happiness out of passing on the knowledge I have and so whenever I’m assisting someone, not only is my brain occupied in the resume construction but it’s also acutely engaged in passing on what I know to the extent the person themselves is both interested and able to take in. After all, even the most invested person can have other things on their mind and only be able to retain so much at one sitting.

My goal as stated earlier is to empower the person to the point where they can make the modifications necessary when targeting their resume to multiple jobs – jobs that may have the exact same job title by the way. As for job interviews, my goal is to help label a persons skills who may not recognize them for what they are, give them some structure to follow so their words use skill-based language and best market their strengths.

Eventually, the bittersweet moment comes when someone knows enough that they no longer need help. I mean it’s obviously the main goal and this is a moment of great personal satisfaction for me as well as them; I’m thrilled for them. Selfishly though, yes there is a part of me that thinks back and really enjoyed all those moments along the way when they internalized and mastered one skill that made learning the next possible.

Empowerment isn’t for everybody when it comes to job searching. Many remain dependent on others to do the work for them and they may get lucky at an early job interview or it may take many interviews to eventually succeed. When a person is receptive to learning, hopefully they seek out the right person to share what they know.

Now what about you? If you’re looking for work, know whether you want to be empowered or not and sharing this with whomever you approach for help is an excellent beginning.

How Do I Start A Cover Letter?

Not every employer out there wants you send them a cover letter, and some make it clear in the job posting by asking you not to send one with your resume. However, 50% of employers do read the cover letters they receive, and the ones that do take your ability to communicate effectively into consideration when deciding whether to have you in for an interview.

The trouble for many people is how to begin the actual body of the thing. “What should I say?” many wonder. My advice is to start by thinking of things from the perspective of the person who is going to receive your letter at the other end.

Whether your cover letter is going to be sent by email, as part of an online application, hand delivered or in the post, it’s going to ether start by being received by only one of two people; the right person or someone who needs to pass it on to the right person.

In either case, unless they aren’t going to look at it at all go right to the resume, either of the two people are going to ponder, “What’s this letter all about?” at first glance. So if it lands in the Receptionists mail, he or she will have to open it and read enough in order to know who to forward it to in the company based on the contents. If it first lands in the inbox of the person making up the short list of people to interview, they’ll be wondering what it’s about on first glance too, as the job you are applying to isn’t the only thing they’ get mail about.

Make the assumption these are busy people with a lot to do in a day. Time is money; that kind of thing. The time they are now spending reading your cover letter is precious time to both you and them, so you should be thinking as you write your first few words, “Get to the point right away.”

I’m going to make two essential suggestions. Once you have the date of your letter at the top and some contact information just below that, put what the letter is regarding next in bold and underline it quoting any job competition number provided. It might look like this:

RE. Senior Bookkeeper/Account #16-537 

Remember how I said your cover letter might be read by someone who has to forward it to the right person? This information clearly and boldly stated just above the content of your letter gives the person enough information right there to get your cover letter and application moving to the right person. Let’s face it, after the time you invested in writing this cover letter, you don’t really want to put your chances of a potential interview in the hands of a Receptionist, expecting him or her to really read the entire letter without this and then figure out who to pass it along to. They are too busy and you’re not helping yourself.

The second suggestion I have is to start the first sentence stating what it is you want. What do you want? An interview of course! Why so many people are uncomfortable actually asking for an interview when that is precisely what they are applying for in the first place is beyond me. It’s not aggressive, it’s not rude, it’s actually exactly what the interviewer appreciates because you save them time.

“I am requesting an interview for the Senior Bookkeeper/Account  position. Having reviewed your desired qualifications, I am confident in stating my qualifications, experience and skills are an excellent match making me an ideal candidate.”

“But I can’t say that!” at least some of you reading this are gasping! Well, other readers will be happy to hear that because they are already revising their cover letters and just improved their chances because you’re reducing yours. You want an interview right|? The point of your cover letter and motivation for writing at all is immediately clear right? The time of the person reading it is respected right? It’s all good.

You see when your letter gets into the hands of the right person, the job you are applying to may not in fact be the only job they are interviewing people for. Not to mention of course they get a lot of other correspondence; bills, invoices, requests for charitable donations, business letters etc. Again, as they open your letter they first ask themselves, “What does this person want?” You are doing them a favour.

Scared of the direct language that says essentially you’re the right person; the best person for the job? Afraid that’s boasting? It’s not and in the forthcoming interview you are asking for, aren’t you going to be making the best case you can as being the best person for the job? The one they should hire? So where’s the conflict?

Here’s the clincher; at least for me. If the cover letters you’re writing were effective, you’d be getting calls for interviews on a regular basis; assuming you are qualified in the first place. If you’re not getting those calls, don’t be timid and afraid of changing your approach in order to see if you get a different result.

You are undoubtedly good at what you do; maybe even very good at whatever it is you do. This is in my area of expertise; take it or leave it but think on it.

Do I Need A Cover Letter?

1.       The employer specifically asked you not include one.

2.       Your ability to communicate using the written word is so poor it would do more harm than good.

3.       You don’t really want the job and can’t be bothered to make a strong application.

These are 3 great reasons not to include a cover letter with your resume when you apply for a job. As far as number 3 goes, why are you wasting any amount of energy actually applying for the job; or the time of the people at the other end who will get your resume?

I often get asked about the cover letter from the people I work with on a daily basis who are looking for employment. The questions I get asked are typically:

1.       Is it necessary?

2.       What do I say?

3.       Do they really read them?

Again I’ll comment on number 3; about half the employers read the cover letter. Unless the ad for the job specifically tells you not to write a cover letter, you’ll be left wondering if the employer you’re sending your resume to falls in the half that reads the cover letter or not. As you can’t be sure, you should include one as a general practice.

Okay number 1 reminds me of the whiny child who doesn’t want to do something and says, “Do I haveta?”  Invariably, he gets an answer from his mom or dad, “Yes you have to and you might as well do it now!” Asking if it’s necessary when referring to writing cover letters is I suppose the adult version of this childhood scene.

Actually a cover letter is not absolutely necessary; but it’s such a plus when done well, and the advantage it gives you is so big over those that don’t include one that it is in my opinion necessary. After all, it’s such a competitive market out there for employment you want every advantage you can over your competition. If they are too lazy to write one, or not proficient in writing an effective one; advantage you!

So let’s look at what you actually say in the cover letter. First off, the point of the cover letter is what? It does a few things:

1.       Introduces you to the employer

2.       Requests in writing an interview

3.       Markets you to meet their needs

4.       Demonstrates your strong interest/professionalism

5.       Sets up the resume

When you are applying for work, your cover letter should be on a single page and in the same font (I suggest Ariel size 12) as your resume. It should include your name and contact information, the date, the name of the person you are addressing, their job title and if in the job ad, include a job competition number so the receiver can quickly sort it with the right job you are applying for.

Ask for the interview right off: “I am requesting an interview for the position of….” Employers will appreciate your assertiveness and they know the purpose of your communication immediately. Don’t dance around, fumbling for every word you can think of that comes close but doesn’t actually request an interview. It’s not pushy or aggressive; it’s considerate of their time and provides direct clarity.

In your next paragraph, get to the heart of the matter; you meet their qualifications, you’d really love to do the job and you’re going to solve their problem, fill their needs, bring whatever it is they are looking for. Be sincere and honest; why are you the best fit for the job and this company? Pull in words from the job posting, and by all accounts use their language. Don’t refer to helping their clients if the word they use isn’t clients at all but rather customers. If they have ‘must haves’ in the posting, stress you have these right up front.

Reference your resume certainly and conclude your letter by again requesting an interview to best demonstrate your strong interest and suitability for the job in question. State a contact number and when you’re done don’t go all standard and type, “Yours truly”, or “Sincerely” – BORING! Be unique and sign off, “With enthusiasm,” etc. Stand out right at the very end. Before you get all excited and hit the send button on your computer, proofread your letter more than once or get the eye of someone who is good with grammar to look it over.

If you’ve referenced the job posting several times as you are composing your cover letter, there is every chance you’ve actually marketed yourself to the very things the employer requires. Good for you if this is the case. If you wrote your cover letter without even a cursory glance at the job posting, you may have a great cover letter that’ so generic, it doesn’t resonate with the people receiving it and it doesn’t do the job it’s supposed to; fire them up to want to read your resume and extend the offer of an invitation.

Now, if by any chance you aren’t sold on writing a cover letter, I implore you to consider moving to Ontario; specifically the Durham Region area where I work as an Employment Counsellor. Yes, by all means I’d love to have those I counsel compete with you for jobs and careers out there. After all, you’d certainly improve THEIR chances of landing those precious interviews!

Cover Letter Assertiveness

Are you using language in your cover letter that is unintentionally hurting your chances of getting an interview; simply because of how you are expressing yourself?

I’m going to strongly suggest that you pause reading right here and pull out a cover letter that you have recently constructed. Now, knowing a little about human nature, most readers will have just continued on reading without doing this, and therefore, the lasting impact of what I’m going to share is going to be greatly diminished. You have to actually see what you’ve penned in order to get the full impact, and it isn’t the same as reading your cover letter later. Still, you’re the reader.

Okay so I’m hoping you’ve paused and got out a cover letter. Somewhere near the beginning, you may have said something akin to this:

“I believe I have the qualifications you are looking for.”

This simple statement when read by a representative of the employer who is considering whether you meet their criteria is left with a different impression than the one you are attempting to communicate. Remove the first two words of that sentence and the sentence reads:

“I have the qualifications you are looking for.”

All the doubt is gone from the 2nd sentence. It’s not a matter of the applicant believing they have the qualifications; they are asserting that they do. The first sentence leaves open the possibility that the person ‘believes’ or ‘thinks’ they have the qualifications but may not have them. This is not a simple matter of playing on words, but a shift in confidence on behalf of the writer, and a shift in how the reader receives the message. Now the message is received with clarity and conviction; the message is, “I meet your stated needs.”

For those of you who still might not get what I’m saying, imagine someone approached you and said, “I think I’m hungry.” You probably would say, “Well are you or aren’t you?” After all, you are or you’re not. This is a logical response – and the same response can be expected by an employer reading your letter and wondering, “Do you or don’t you have the qualifications?”

As a job applicant, you’re not just applying for a job, you are competing for a job. That’s why it’s called a job competition, not a job lottery. Never lose sight of the fact that the cover letter and resume are intended to prompt a single action from the person in receipt of both documents; extend an invitation to the next phase in the hiring process which is the job interview.

I can’t tell you how many times I’m asked to proofread a cover letter where the writer doesn’t actually ask for the interview! Writing things like, “I’d like to request a meeting” isn’t the same as saying, “I’m requesting an interview to best demonstrate in-person how my skills and experience make me the right fit with your organization.”  Look again at the first sentence.

“I’d like to request a meeting.”

The employee of the company reading your cover letter is thinking, “Well, if you’d like to, why don’t you?” Again this kind of passive language betrays a lack of confidence; doubt; it’s almost as if the word, ‘but’ is going to follow the word, ‘meeting’ and read,

“I’d like to request a meeting but…”

Surely this is the last thing you intend to communicate, but there it is. Oh and if you wrote something like, “I’m requesting the favour of an interview…” think about that for a moment. The employer is the one with a need; they have a position to fill and are advertising that need in the hopes of attracting people who have what they are looking for. So, who is doing who a favour when you apply? If anything, you’re doing them a favour by putting forth your name as a candidate.

Now you might be one of those people that is worried about coming off too aggressively, being too pushy; you’re thinking, “I can’t say that!” The suggestions I’m putting forth here are not aggressive, they are assertive. Look, you’re marketing yourself in your cover letter and resume; showcasing your skills, experience and education (in short, your qualifications) so that you come across as attractive to the employer. Keep this in mind.

Finally, check and see how you both began and ended your letter. If we agree that assertive language is preferable, and that the intention and purpose of the letter is to generate a positive response leading to an interview offer, why not begin and end your letter by requesting the interview?

 

 

Cover Letters And Awkward School Dances

Do you write cover letters when you are applying for jobs? If you don’t, I think you should in order to improve your chances; unless of course the employer specifically asks you not to. However, even if you do write cover letters, I wonder if yours are effective as they could be.

When you make a decision to craft a cover letter, a logical place to begin is to know what the purpose of the cover letter is in the first place. Well it does a number of things when done properly; it introduces you to the employer, sets up your resume, and describes your motivation for the position. That’s all great of course, but there’s one other key thing that a cover letter should do in its design and that is to express your desire for an interview.

When I read cover letters composed by job applicants, a great deal of the time I find myself drawing a similarity between these letters and all those movies depicting a high school dance scene. Stay with me, it’s going to become crystal clear and you can learn perhaps from this analogy.

Go back in time with me and picture the scene at the high school dance. (If you never went to one, surely you can envision the scene if you’ve ever watched a movie where a dance occurred.) You’re on one side of the gymnasium standing there somewhat awkwardly with your best friend. Across the dance floor is the girl or guy you find dreamy and you’re trying to work up the nerve to walk on over and ask them to dance. You’re nervous, trying to compose the right words that just don’t seem to come, and the pressure is all because it means a lot to you and you don’t want to blow it.

You make sure you do everything in your power to make just the right impression. So you check your hair, your breath, dry your sweaty hands the best you can and ask your friend for their advice on what to say. Finally, you work up the nerve and ask yourself, “What’s the worst that could happen?” Of course you quickly answer your own question with, “They might reject me and then what?!”

Now meanwhile on the other side of the room, the person you are all stressed out about meeting you; the one who looks so attractive and is just waiting to meet you is doing their best to send out the right signals and cues that they are approachable. Maybe it’s a smile or a wave.

Just as you decide it’s better to do something than nothing and are about to take your big first step in their direction, somebody pushes past you and walks right over and starts a conversation with your intended target. They make it look so easy and comfortable. Soon, they’re on the dance floor and the chance is gone. The worst part is you know the two of you would be perfect for each other.

Sound familiar? Or maybe you were the one back in high school that just picked out your target and walked on over realizing there was more to gain than to lose by asking someone to dance. You were the one the rest of the wallflowers said was so confident and self-assured. You were the one everybody else wanted to emulate but couldn’t due to a lack of confidence.

Okay so back to cover letters. Pull out one that you’ve recently put together and read it over. Did you actually ask for an interview in the cover letter or just hint and infer you’d like one? Surprisingly, many people don’t just come right out and request an interview. Like that awkward high school dance scene, many people are afraid of asking for an interview because they are intimidated and don’t want to appear aggressive and risk the chance the employer will say, “No.” However, the employer at their end is eagerly anticipating being approached by job applicants and is sending out all the right cues in the job postings as to what they’ll find attractive and who’d they’d like to meet.

Why not start your cover letter with an opening such as, “I am requesting an interview for the position of __________.”

Why you can even make it a stand-alone statement and begin a new paragraph just as I’ve done in this blog. I know this is my own strategy, and I also start my concluding paragraph in the cover letter repeating this request. My final paragraph usually begins, “As I stated earlier, I am requesting an interview at a time of your convenience….” So now I’ve told them right up front what I’m writing them about and it’s also the last thing they read which hopefully prompts a response.

A job interview is what you want isn’t it? Sure it is. So then take this advice and try it even if it seems bold. It’s assertive but not aggressive. Aggressive demands an interview, assertive simply states what it is you want; and believe me, employers tell me it’s what they want too.

You may wish you’d gone up to that person in the gym years ago and wondered to this day what might have been; but you can change how you approach employers here and now in 2016. Go on, give it a shot.