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TITLE AND SUBJECT OF ARTICLE
What You Should
Know About How to Write that Cover Letter. Improve Your
Chances of Getting the Interview
Nearly all job seekers are well aware of
the importance of a resume when applying for a
professional opinion, but few realize the vital role
that an accompanying cover letter plays in the selection
process. In fact, your cover letter is just as important
to your job search as is your resume.
resume,
cover letter, employment, career, job, cv
Nearly
all job seekers are well aware of the importance of a
resume when applying for a professional opinion, but few
realize the vital role that an accompanying cover letter
plays in the selection process. In fact, your cover
letter is just as important to your job search as is
your resume.
Consider this: recruiters and
managers often receive dozens, if not hundreds, of
applicants for every one available position. With so
many applicants to review, interviewers do not have much
time to determine if you are qualified for the job. In
fact, a recruiter typically spends between one and two
minutes quickly glancing over a resume, hardly enough to
thoroughly investigate if your skills set and experience
is a good match for the position.
This is why a
cover letter is such a critical tool to the job seeking
process. The purpose of a cover letter is to clearly
express your interest in and qualifications for a
position to a prospective employer. So while the resume
is a generic advertisement, your cover letter tailors
your application to each specific job. By condensing
your resume into key points and drawing the recruiter’s
attention to the most relevant areas of your experience,
you are assisting the recruiter in matching up your
qualifications to that of the open position. And by
taking the guesswork out of your resume, you greatly
increase your chances of getting a call for an
interview.
A cover letter has to “sell” your
qualifications to a complete stranger and convince them
that you are worthy of an in-person meeting. Therefore,
as you can imagine, it is not an easy document to write.
There are several guidelines, though, that should assist
you in the cover letter development process.
Typically a cover letter is less than one page in length
and has four main sections: the introduction, a
highlight of your qualifications, a summary of why you
are interested in the position, and a concluding
follow-up. Before you start listing a litany of skills,
though, it’s important to do some research on the
company and the position for which you are applying to
give you a better understanding of the company’s
products or services, history, values, and target
customer market. This will help give you a better idea
of what recruiters are likely to be seeking in a
candidate, and allow you to tailor your cover letter to
specifically address those areas.
Part 1 - The
Introduction:
Your cover letter should be
addressed to the hiring manager, whenever possible.
Specifically mention the position(s) that you are
seeking
Let the recruiter know how you heard about
the position. If you saw the position advertised or were
referred by someone, be sure to include this
information.
Grab the reader’s attention and
stimulate their interest in you right away!!
Part
2 – Summary of your Qualifications:
Highlight
your strongest qualifications for the position you are
seeking. Be sure to limit your qualifications to only
those that are the most relevant to the position.
Show, rather than simply tell, the manager your
qualifications by including specific, credible examples
from your experience.
Quantify these qualifications
whenever possible by focusing on pertinent figures,
projects, awards, and equipment/software/tools you've
used that are relevant to the job you want. For example,
rather than highlighting your “excellent customer
service skills” indicates that you “achieved a 98%
customer satisfaction rating” or “increased department
sales by 25% in the first quarter”.
Part 3 – Why
you are Interested in the Position:
Let the
recruiter know why you want to work at their company.
What is it about the company that appeals to you?
Why
does this particular position appeal to you?
Indicate
why you are a good fit for the company. How will be an
asset to the team?
Part 4 – Conclusion and
Follow-up:
Refer employers to your enclosed
resume so that they can review your qualifications in
further detail.
Request a personal interview or
meeting with the hiring manager.
Indicate how the
recruiter should contact you. Be sure to provide a
working phone number or e-mail address.
Set a time
to follow up. For example indicate that you “will call
to follow up on Monday afternoon”.
Thank the reader
for his or her time.
One final note: your cover
letter is the first impression that recruiters will get
of you. A strong focused cover letter can convey a
powerful, positive first impression. A weak non-focused
letter, though, can kill any interest a recruiter may
have in your qualifications, regardless of how strong of
a fit you may be for the position. Be sure that you
proofread carefully for grammatical and typographical
errors before sending any correspondence.
How To Write A
Performance Appraisal
The appraiser may be any person who
observes the employee while performing a job. The
appraiser has thorough knowledge about the job content,
contents to be appraised, and standards of contents. The
appraiser should prepare reports and make judgments
without bias. Typical appraisers are supervisors, peers,
subordinates, employees themselves, users of service,
and consultants.
How to Write a Performance
Appraisal, Job Performance Appraisals, Performance
Appraisal Software, Performance Appraisal Systems
The appraiser may be any person who observes the
employee while performing a job. The appraiser has
thorough knowledge about the job content, contents to be
appraised, and standards of contents. The appraiser
should prepare reports and make judgments without bias.
Typical appraisers are supervisors, peers, subordinates,
employees themselves, users of service, and consultants.
Supervisors include superiors of the employee, other
superiors having knowledge about the work of the
employee, and department heads or managers. General
practice is that immediate superiors appraise the
performance, which in turn is reviewed by the
departmental head manager. This is because supervisors
are responsible for managing their subordinates and they
have the opportunity to observe, direct and control the
subordinate continuously. Moreover, they are accountable
for the successful performance of their subordinates. On
the negative side, immediate supervisors, may emphasis
certain aspects of employee performance to the neglect
of others. Also, managers have been known to manipulate
evaluations to justify their decisions on pay increases
and promotions.
Peer appraisal may be reliable if
the work group is stable over a reasonably long period
of time and performs tasks that require interaction.
However, little research has been conducted to determine
how peers establish standards for evaluating others or
the overall effect of peer appraisal on the group’s
attitude. The concept of having superiors rated
subordinates is being used in most organizations today,
especially in developed countries. For instance in most
US universities students evaluate a professor’s
performance in the classroom. Such a novel method can be
useful in other organizational settings too, provided
the relationships between superiors and subordinates are
cordial.
If individuals understand the objectives
they are expected to achieve and the standards by which
they are to be evaluated, they are to a great extent in
the best position to appraise their own performance.
Employee performance in service organizations relating
to behaviors, promptness, speed in doing the job and
accuracy, can be better judged by the customers or users
of services.
How To Write
Reviews That Webmasters Will Link To
Product reviews are an exceptional tool to
drive traffic to your own, or any other website. They
are inherently valuable and provide benefit, which is
exactly what readers and webmasters are looking for.
When content provides a benefit, people will read it,
forward it, and link to it. As an online marketer or
website owner, product reviews in particular are a great
way to drive traffic to your website via linking,
reprints, and click-throughs.
Saying that, in
order for a p...
reviews,article reviews,product
review,writing reviews
Product reviews are an
exceptional tool to drive traffic to your own, or any
other website. They are inherently valuable and provide
benefit, which is exactly what readers and webmasters
are looking for. When content provides a benefit, people
will read it, forward it, and link to it. As an online
marketer or website owner, product reviews in particular
are a great way to drive traffic to your website via
linking, reprints, and click-throughs.
Saying
that, in order for a product review to be an effective
traffic generation tool, it must also be believable.
This means that if at all possible, consider actually
purchasing or trying out the product. It's pretty much
the only way to be completely knowledgeable about a
product or service.
You also need to think
creatively when reviewing. For example, a great product
review for a hair removal system might actually have a
series of reviews based on the ability of the product to
remove or reduce hair over time. This type of review
will most likely be linked to by many people because it
is a real and demonstrative review of the product.
Here are a few things you should consider when
you're writing a review for a product or service.
1. Take the time to be thorough in your review.
Every review must answer these questions:
* What
does the product promise?
* How well does it achieve
those goals?
* Is it a good value?
* What are the
drawbacks of the product?
* Is the product easy to
use?
* How does the product compare to others on the
market?
* Would you buy or recommend the product? If
yes, why? If no, why not?
2. Compare multiple
products for more effect. Sometimes it's easier to
compare products than to simply evaluate one single
product. When comparing products, it is important to
remember a few things:
* Compare the same types
of products.
* Compare similar attributes and
features.
* Be honest about any preferences you have
for one or the other.
3. Demonstrate information
in a variety of ways. Can you incorporate graphics,
pictures, or statistical data in your review? The more
comparative information you can provide your reader, the
better. Often, statistics are more easily understood
when they're conveyed in a graph, a chart or a simple
photo.
Put yourself in your reader's shoes. What
would you want to know about the product or service?
While it is important to be diplomatic in your reviews,
it is also important to be tactfully honest. If your
reviews are all positive all of the time, you're going
to loses a bit of credibility. People want the drawbacks
pointed out to them too. They want both sides of the
coin.
Write your reviews conversationally. This
means using language most people understand. Skip the
jargon and tech talk. Use language that is friendly.
Break the review up into easily digested sections.
Keep to one point per paragraph and keep the
paragraphs short and easy to read. Taking the time to
write your review for online reading makes it easier to
read, and thus easier to print, publish, and link to.