Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Cover Letter Help Is On the Way

I work at a career center where I help people in their job search. One of the most important things I've learned is that it's the cover letter, not the resume, that is the single most important factor to getting called for an interview. Therefore, I concentrate much of my effort doing everything I can to give job applicants cover letter help. Recruiters, HR personnel, and business managers all get so many resumes they have to very quickly go through the stack and make some super quick decisions to create two piles. The bigger pile consists of the discards. The smaller pile consists of the resumes that were accompanied by really GREAT cover letters that caught their attention. Notice I said great cover letters, not good cover letters, and not even very good cover letters. You must have a GREAT cover letter to compete well these days and that is nearly impossible to write on your own. Even people who are very smart and very well educated can't write a cover letter in a style that is going to motivate most hiring managers to call them in for an interview. In fact, most educated people usually write rather boring cover letters that are sure to get their resume thrown into the discard pile.

Most of the large companies have already downsized a good deal and they're looking for ways to downsize some more. The small to medium businesses really can't afford to hire more people because of how uncertain the future economy is now. They are in therefore in a holding pattern and that means they are not hiring. That means that there are way more people applying for jobs than there are open job positions. The job market has gotten so tight it is scary in fact. At the career center, I see people all the time who are used to living a very nice lifestyle not even being able to buy groceries for their children.

If you want to compete in this extremely competitive job market, you'd be a fool not to take every step you can to give yourself an advantage. You've got to be in the top 1% of the job applicants if you want to guarantee you'll get a job in this tight market.  I highly recommend obtaining a really good cover letter software package that can help you write a killer cover letter.  Click here for the package I recommend above all the others. It will give you better cover letter help than most professional job coaches. That's why I recommend it to all my clients. The reason it is so good is it was developed by a guru of marketing whose job was to write sales copy designed to maximize profit by motivating people to buy products and services. He is the king of successfully motivating people to a specific action such as buying a certain product or getting the hiring manager to call you in for an interview. He is in high demand because his sales letters perform better than any others in the industry. He just has a way with words that a powerful almost hypnotic effect on people. It's marketing magic. He has applied this extraordinary ability to his cover letter software. This software is so powerful I have seen it produce amazing results. I've worked with many people who were not getting any response at all from sending in their resumes and cover letters. Then, they get this software and use it to generate a cover letter that knocks it out of the park. Voila. All of a sudden, they start getting invited to interview for jobs. They say money can't buy happiness. Well, for $39.95 I've seen this cover letter software send people shrieking for joy. If you are job hunting, I'm sure it could provide cover letter help for you too.

Cover Letter Help - How To Find Out Who To Address It To

Another post that surprised me on a recent survey of a job board was this:

Now this guy needed cover letter help!

He had found out about a job online and was planning to submit his resume. He knew it was better to address a cover letter to a specific person, rather than the generic "To Whom It May Concern" or "Dear HR Manager." He was desperately trying to find out the name of the person by searching the website online but couldn't find it. Several other people on the board chimed in and suggested he try certain online business databases to find out who he could email.

This was quite a lengthy discussion and I was quite amused that this "tech generation" didn't see the obvious...

Pick up the phone, the old fashioned phone, and dial and make friends with the person or persons on the other end of the line. Secretaries, administrative assistants, and office managers are often the real powerhouses, the engines, of businesses and organizations. They hold the key to everything and help everything flow along smoothly. Show them the respect they deserve, be kind, have a sense of humor, be patient, and you will get all the information you need... including who to address your cover letter to. Hope this helped. Be sure to check out this incredible tool to help create a totally unique cover letter.

Good luck to you all in your job hunting.

Cover Letter Help - Should I Include a Cover Letter With My Resume?

I was reading through an online job discussion board recently and I came across a few threads I just couldn't believe. People were actually asking, "Should I include a cover letter with my resume?"

At first, I couldn't believe job seekers would actually ask a question that has what I consider to be such an obvious answer. However, the more I read I realized these poor stressed out job seekers had been reading the advice of others on the net who were actually advocating for NOT sending a cover letter with your resume.

What bone headed so called expert started this round of really bad advice, who knows!

I just want to warn you that if you see this suggestion, ignore it! The cover letter is usually the first thing most employers look at when reviewing resumes and many won't even read your resume if you don't include one of they don't like what they see in the cover letter. The cover letter is an essential part of any job application. Do not omit this important step. In fact, you should spend time customizing your cover letter for each application. The only exception would be in the employer explicitly states not to send a cover letter in the job advertisement. However, this should be very rare and the only time I can think of is if they are asking you to submit it online and they are running it through some automated software to check for keywords. Even then though, you can use the body of your email as a cover letter of sorts... just abbreviate it a little.

You most definitely need a cover letter, in fact you need a cover letter that is going to set you apart from other applicants. It is actually MORE important than your resume. Check out this site for a tool that will help you create a very unique and professional cover letter. It has really helped my clients get more interviews.

Amazing Cover Letter Creator - One Key Factor That Makes It Work

I forgot to mention before one key factor that makes "Amazing Cover Letter Creator" it work so well. One of the questions it asks you is what type of profession. This can be education, insurance business, office management, etc, etc... The key here is that Jim Sweeney has built into his cover letter software program the essential keywords and key phrases that are used in each industry and then he beautifully merges these keywords with his own marketing magic words which of course is the recipe for making the hiring manager go, "WOW, I've really got to get this person in here for an interview!"

Cover Letter Help - Don't Lose Sight of the Primary Goal

Working in a career center, a common problem that I see is that people get so distracted by all the things it takes to create a resume, they lose sight of the primary goal. Now, can you figure out what the primary goal is? Is it creating the best resume possible? Well, it shouldn't be. While it's true it should be a strong secondary goal, it should not be the primary goal. Is the primary goal to apply for as many jobs as possible? Well, there again, that is a great secondary goal but it should not be the primary goal. The PRIMARY GOAL should be to land the interview and ultimately the job. Everything you do, whether it be working on your resume, networking, hunting for jobs online, reading helpful articles, etc, etc... everything you do should be centered around this primary goal.

Let me explain something. Right now, you may be focused on applying for as many jobs as you can. On the surface, this may seem like the smartest thing to do. You may be thinking that the more jobs you apply to, the higher chance you have of getting a job overall. But think about it this way. Let's say for each job you apply, you have a 1% chance of actually getting the job. The more jobs you apply to, you can multiply each application you submit by 1 to get your overall percent chance of getting some kind of job. So, if you apply for a 100 jobs, you would have a 100% chance of getting a job. Hey, it's REALLY HARD to apply for 100 jobs and do it well each and every time!! What if you work smarter, not harder? What if you do something that will increase your odds for each job you apply? Let's say you could raise your odds for every application to an average of 20% instead of 1%. Think about it. You'd only have to apply for 5 jobs to arrive at a 100% chance that you'd get a job overall!! Doesn't this seem easier to do?

But wait a minute...

How are you going to increase your odds of getting a job by 20 times? That's a huge increase... but guess what, it's very doable.

I'm about to reveal to you a secret weapon you can use to increase your odds of getting a job for any job application by 20% or more. It all has to do with cover letters.  Yes, a one page document could literally change the rest of your life.

Many people just slap together a cover letter from some cover letter template they find. They just don't realize how important a cover letter is to the job application. This is a BIG mistake. Another high percentage of job hunters actually work really hard trying to craft the perfect cover letter. The problem is no matter how much they fret and sweat over it, they are just not the kind of writer that can put together the perfect magic combination of words that is going to motivate a hiring manager to pick up the phone and call them them in for an interview. The fact is that very few of us have that kind of magic.

If you fall into either of the categories of people above (more than 99% of all the job seekers I've worked with do), you need cover letter help. Now, you could go out and hire a professional cover letter writer to help you but not only would that be really expensive, it would be quite a gamble. It takes a really special talent for writing to create the kind of copy you need to motivate the hiring manager to invite you for an interview. Frankly, most professional career consultants don't have this gift. They may be good at what they do but what we are looking for here is AWESOME. In today's very competitive job market, good just doesn't work any more. You have to have an awesome cover letter.

So, what is the best solution to this problem? Read on...

The best solution to get the kind of cover letter help you need is to use software created by one of the rare few people I describe above that has that special gift for words - words that motivate people to do what you want them to do. Jimmy Sweeney is one of these exceptional people, and lucky for you, he has, with a team of programmers, injected his special marketing magic into his cover letter writing software. This software is called Amazing Cover Letter Creator - and boy does it live up to its name, it is AMAZING. I have personally reviewed multiple software packages all claiming to create great cover letters. The truth is I have found a few others that create good cover letters, i.e. cover letters that aren't so bad they'd get laughed at but not good enough to really stand out and get you chosen for the interview. I've found only one piece of software that creates AWESOME cover letters that I guarantee will get noticed and help you achieve your primary goal - to get called in for interviews and land the job. That software is Jimmy Sweeney's Amazing Cover Letter Creator, created by the marketing mastermind himself. If you are really serious about getting a job and you don't want to just spin your wheels for months, you need to get this software now and put it to good use.