201 Killer Cover Letters

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0XE1GHJD

Sandra Podesta & Andrea Paxton

(McGraw-Hill)

"Of course, writing is tough. And writing about yourself is even tougher. Assessing your own strengths—honestly and accurately—is one of the most difficult tasks you’ll ever face. When you’re unhappy at work or out of work altogether, not feeling particularly good about yourself, it’s even harder to do. Even if you muster up some terrific talents to talk about, like most people, you may be surprisingly shy about “tooting your own horn.” You list your course work. You list your jobs. You list your job responsibilities. You list your hobbies. Finally, all you’re sending prospective employers is a list!

But employers don’t want to hire a list; they want to hire a person. They want to hire a living, breathing human being. A personality. A humorous co-worker or a serious one. A team player or a self-starter. An intuitive thinker or someone who takes direction well. Sure, they want to hire a candidate with the appropriate skills, but they’ve got to like that person (YOU) too. After all, they’ll be working together on a daily basis—and the better everyone gets along, the more productive the work will be.

What this means is that you must project your personality, or some aspect of it, from the very first ad you respond to and in the very first letter you write. The reason is that, to make a hiring decision, your next employer is looking for answers to three vital questions:

1. Do you have the skills this job requires?

2.Will you be compatible with my team?

3. Are you honest and willing to work, and do you have the right attitude?

Your resume will answer the first question. Your letters, interviews, and references will answer the other two questions. Thus, your jobhunting letters are an essential opportunity to make yourself stand out as a unique and interesting person, someone an employer would like to meet, interview, hire, and work beside.

To take advantage of this opportunity, you must write well. And to get an edge over the competition you should not only write well, you should write often. Why? Most job applicants—your competition—never follow up after an interview. Of those who do, many write letters so inadequate that they actually impair what might have been a perfectly acceptable candidacy. Furthermore, most job search letters are forgotten after a quick review. What this means is that just writing your potential employer at all can put you ahead of other candidates. Writing a strong, impressive letter can put you miles ahead. And writing frequently can give you what advertisers call “top-of-mind awareness;” it can keep you on your next employer’s mind no matter how long the hiring decision takes.

Unfortunately, for most jobhunters, facing that blank sheet of paper induces a terror matched by few other tasks. Be honest. Have you, at one time or another, ever found yourself following any of the Ten Most Common Steps to Writing?

Step 1. Panic: Your brain says, “I have to write.”

Step 2. Procrastinate: You attempt your first escape by remembering that there is some equally pressing task that must be attended to, such as walking the dog, doing the dishes, calling Aunt Bella, or sorting the recyclables.

Step 3. Divert: You belittle the custom of writing such letters, wondering, “Why can’t I just send my resume?” or “Why can’t I just call and say thank you?”

Step 4. Delegate: You attempt your next escape by trying to get someone else to do it for you. “My sister’s great at this; maybe she’ll write it for me” is a common ploy.

Step 5: Panic again: You realize that you’ve got to get that resume in the mail today, and it’s already 3:00 P.M.

Step 6, 7, 8. Shake, rattle, and roll: You stare at that cursed blank page, envision the finished product, and visualize all the heartache and strife you’ll have to go through to get to that point. Then you picture yourself not getting the job because your letter sounded simple, unimpressive, unbusinesslike (“Whatever that is,” you moan). So finally you go on a roll, recalling all the big business power jargon you’ve ever heard: “effectuate”...“implement”... “empowerment”... “strategic envisioning”...“global perspective.”

Step 9. The mad dash: You furiously type these tired clichés on your last sheet of good paper, making your first draft your final one. As a result, in the end, all you can do is...

Step 10. Mail, hope, and pray: And the greatest of these is pray.

Sound familiar? Don’t despair, there is good news! Writing effectively is not as hard as you think. You don’t have to be a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. You don’t have to use eight four-syllable words per paragraph. You don’t have to make your correspondence any longer than it needs to be; writing voluminous letters won’t guarantee you’ll get hired. You have only to make yourself understood. You need to know what you want to say, and you need to say it clearly, accurately, concisely.

And that is precisely what this book will help you achieve.