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.