Special Marketing Documents that Promote Careers
Create special marketing documents to focus attention on specific aspects of your professional qualities and achievements. These career marketing documents can attract extra — and positive — attention [more…]
How to Write E-Mail Cover Notes to Introduce Resumes
Use an e-mail cover note to introduce your resume when you need to quickly send out digital copies of your resume. An e-mail cover note isn't the same thing as a cover letter. E-mail cover notes are very [more…]
How to Beat Writer's Block When Writing Cover Letters
If you get writer's block when trying to write a cover letter, perhaps you haven’t thought through your career goals. Cover letters are tough to write unless you know what you want in a job and career. [more…]
Grammar Fundamentals for Cover Letters
Good grammar is essential in cover letters. Before writing cover letters during a job search, review grammar fundamentals. Many employers see language skills as an important aspect of potential job performance [more…]
Punctuation Fundamentals for Cover Letters
Proper punctuation is important in cover letters. If you're often tripped up when using punctuation, review some punctuation fundamentals before writing your cover letters or other job search materials [more…]
How to Begin a Cover Letter
If you want an employer to actually read your cover letter, pay close attention to how you begin the letter. Effective ways to start a cover letter's opening statement uses words that immediately grab [more…]
How to Use Power Phrases in Cover Letters
After an attention-grabbing opening statement in a cover letter, you should flesh out the middle of the cover letter with power phrases and intriguing lines that strongly emphasize your belief in yourself [more…]
Basic Job Skills to Include in a Cover Letter
Use skills language in your cover letter — including basic skills, people skills, thinking skills, and personal qualities — to communicate your expertise in fundamental job skills. These basic skills [more…]
Business-Related Skills to Include in a Cover Letter
Your cover letter should highlight business-related skills you have that are highly sought after by employers. These include marketable, crossover, job-related, and motivated skills. These skill groups [more…]
How to Close a Cover Letter
After you write an effective cover letter extolling the reasons you're a match for the job you’re chasing, maintain momentum with a cover letter close that brings you nearer to your goal: an interview. [more…]
Comparing Different Types of Job Letters
In today’s ultracompetitive job market, cover letters have been reinvented as aggressive marketing tools, and an entire family of job letters or career management documents has emerged. Career management [more…]
Tips for Writing a Job Ad Reply Letter
Writing a job ad reply letter that answers a print or online job ad is a nearly universal experience, but the right reply is far from universal. Use your judgment in deciding on a letter style that best [more…]
Looking at Sample Job Ad Reply Letters
Customize your letters when replying to job ads. Job ad reply letters will vary considerably depending on the position the job candidate is seeking, the job industry, and even the personality of the writer [more…]
What Are Broadcast and Prospecting Job Letters?
Broadcast and prospecting letters form a type of direct mail designed to uncover an opportunity in the hidden (unadvertised) job market; they’re high-class versions of advertising flyers. When broadcast [more…]
Sample Broadcast Job Letters
Broadcast job letters are self-marketing letters sent to a large but carefully targeted roster of potential employers. To broadcast your letter, you draw your targets from commercial mailing lists. The [more…]
What Is a Job Letter for Employment Prospecting?
Prospecting letters for a job are self-marketing letters that are sent to a small, select number of recipients, such as potential employers you've met at an event, or a member of a small professional organization [more…]
How to Make Job Networking Work for You
Consider networking to be an ongoing process if you want better job search results. You can network your way to new contacts, better business opportunities, more sales, and an attractive new job by keeping [more…]
Looking at Sample Job Networking Letters
Use job networking letters to directly ask for a job, or to request help or advice during a job search. Customize your networking letters based on the contact [more…]
What Is a Resume Letter?
A resume letter is a self-marketing hybrid document that combines a cover letter and a resume. (The resume is notseparate.) A resume letter — also called a [more…]
How to Protect Your Intellectual Property When Interviewing
You can lose your intellectual property through abuse of the job interview process. However, there are precautions you can take to protect your intellectual property and avoid interview exploitation. [more…]
How Job Interviewers Could Interpret Your Words
Understanding how interviewers interpret your words can help you get the job — or not. During an interview, always let your words project a positive image. For example, you may think you're telling the [more…]
How to Sell Yourself in a Job Interview
Preparation is key when you're ready to sell yourself during a job interview. In order to sell yourself (that is, your skills and experience) to the interviewer, thoroughly research the company and job [more…]
Matching Your Skills with Job Requirements in Interviews
Matching your skills with job requirements is essential during job interviews. A targeted job interview demonstrates that you have the qualifications that the job requires. These days, employers have an [more…]
Following a Pre-Interview Checklist
Use a pre-interview checklist to ensure that you've completed all the job-search essentials before you meet your potential employer. Use this pre-interview checklist to get yourself prepped for a show-stopping [more…]
Understanding Illegal and Inappropriate Interview Questions
You may encounter illegal or inappropriate questions during a job interview, especially if the interviewer is inexperienced or unsophisticated. These illegal or inappropriate questions that cross the line [more…]
