April 2010

The trouble with cover letters is that they need to be concise and must never be longer than a one-pager. Employers are busy professionals who have 10-20 seconds to skim your cover letter – so it’s important to state your case clearly and to the point.
 
How to cram lots of information into little space
 
It's not as difficult as it seems. Less really is more when it comes to crafting a cover letter that hits home. It's a simple matter of focusing your time and attention on the essentials, basically the items an employer is most interested in. Here's 5 ways you can do just that.
 
1. Three paragraphs
 
Start with creating three paragraphs on one page. In the first one, tell the reader what job you are applying for and why. In the second you list your skills and experience. And in the third paragraph, clearly and directly ask for the opportunity to have an interview to discuss things further.
 
2. Stay concise
 
Make sure you limit each paragraph to three or four well-written sentences, cutting out all the fluff and non-essentials. These could well be the most important sentences you write in your career, so take your time to ensure they are compelling and inspire the reader to want to see your resume and even call you for an interview today.
 
3. Layout
 
Leave generous margins so there's plenty of white space and be sure to double space between paragraphs. This will make the cover letter more pleasing on the eye and put the reader at ease.
 

After reading the book of Seth Godin, Purple Cow… Several ideas and thoughts came to my mind. In this book, Seth Godin explains that companies need to be remarkable to be successful nowadays… beforehand companies could create boring products and put a lot of ads on TV, and that was pretty much it! And it was working well!
 
Information overload
 
Now the audience is more demanding, has less time and the number of choice is bigger…so you need to be remarkable to get noticed.
 
You need to create a purple cow (because all the “normal” cows are white, black or brown but not purple…) to be remarkable.
 
You also need to be focused on a niche and not selling everything to everyone. You need to focus your money and work on a small niche of sneezers or early adopters who will spread the word.
 
CV overload
 
A CV is a 2D document made of a boring listing of duties and responsibilities. As a recruiter, I have seen hundreds of CVs, I can tell you, they are all the same. And those that are noticed are not noticed for the right reasons (fantasy font, colors, funny pictures).
 
And even if we need to follow certain rules, people forget that CVs are here to show skills and demonstrate them i.e. prove your skills. They put a job description of their current job on their CV instead of putting figures or quoting some successful case studies.
 
The good old days
 
But back in the days, you just needed to send a CV and it was working well… I do remember my father telling me he just sent a written CV by mail and got 2 interviews the following week (in the 70s). The number of educated people using CVs was quite low, the word to mouth technique was widespread. So the CV was a very efficient tool.
 
The cut-throat situation of today
 

Job interviews are stressful and preparing for them can be tough as you typically have no idea what to expect. There are a few classic questions that tend to come up and a huge one is about your weaknesses. It will sometimes be asked along with your greatest strengths, sometimes on its own.
 

Here are three pieces of advice for your job interview: put your best foot forward, make a good first impression, look your interviewer in the eye.
 
Pretty standard fare, you might be thinking. You've heard these tips numerous times. But have you considered what they mean and how important they really are? If not, here are some reasons to do so for each one.