Career Center


			Career Center COVER LETTERS \| HOW TO WRITE A RESUME \| REFERENCES \| THANK YOU LETTER Cover Letters (back to top) The primary purpose of a cover letter is to provide a sample of your best business writing skills and not to summarize your work history. Make every effort to address your cover letter to a specific hiring manger. Try to get the correct name and title of the employer’s contact. Your cover letter should not be longer than one-half of one typed page. If you were referred to the employer, be certain to mention the name of the person referring you. This could be a current employee or a person the decision maker might know. Even if it is only word of mouth, most recruiters will be favorably impressed to know you were inquiring about the organization and that it enjoys a positive reputation. A bad cover letter, one that is too lengthy, too boastful, or too desperate, will hurt you every time. Your cover letter should briefly but firmly state your interest in the employer and the position. Highlight two or three items from your background that may catch the recruiter’s eye. Keep it short and to the point. Don’t be reluctant to sell yourself. Show your enthusiasm for the job while maintaining a business-like tone in the cover letter. Display confidence in your capabilities and in your belief that you are an ideal candidate for the position. When submitting online, make sure you upload or attach your résumé and cover letter as one file. You can easily do this by pasting your résumé below your brief cover letter. Many application-tracking systems only allow for a single document per applicant. Before submitting or sending any material, proofread your résumé and cover letter several times. Ask a friend or colleague to double-check them. Even one or two errors or typos can derail your application. Have a hard copy of your cover letter prepared to bring with you to the interview. Print the cover letter on the same high quality paper as your resume. How To Write A Résumé (back to top) The best way to write a resume and why you need a resume. A resume is a marketing piece for the goal of getting an interview. In most cases it is the first impression of you to a hiring manager. If you want them to see you it is in your best interest to make your resume a strong story. How do you go about writing a resume? Resume writing is a fine art, and something you can master. To begin, write down your technical skill sets, i.e. computer skills, technical machine skills, major responsibilities and successes. Specific training that you may have received. Write down your degrees and certifications and when and where you obtained them. Then, start with your most current job. Go through your day mentally and write down everything you do on a daily basis. Next, write everything you do on a weekly basis, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, every 6 months and every year. Some tasks are done daily and some are done to summarize or plan for future tasks. (These are tasks that do not occur daily, but are important to bring up to the hiring manager.) Be sure to include all of the software you use, the designs you are doing, technology you are working with and so on. Go through this process with every job you have performed for the last 10 years. Hiring managers are most interested in what you are doing now, not what you did 20 years ago. They want to hire someone who is current with the latest technology. For jobs greater than 10 years back, you can briefly summarize things, unless they highlight a skill that is important for the hiring manager to know. . Next, make sure you have all dates organized on the resume. Write your resume backwards, starting from the most current job and moving to the least current. Include start and end dates, including the month and year you began and ended your job. If there are any gaps in your job history, explain the gaps. Now you are ready to make your resume. Formatting your resume is important. Make sure everything is uniform. Do not throw in too many different fonts and type styles. Also, make sure the type styles are easy to read. Do not put all of your type in CAPS. Make sure you space things appropriately to make them stand out. Bold things to make them stand out, but do not bold too much or they will not stand out. Make sure you use spell checker. In addition to using spell checker, have a few friends review your resume for spelling errors and clarity of content. There is nothing that reduces your chances quicker than not knowing how to spell things or sloppy formatting. How to do resume writing is not complicated, but, it is systematic. If you take the time you should end up with a winning resume that tells the hiring manager why they should interview and hire you instead of someone else. References (back to top) Preparing your job references in advance is critical. Before you leave your job it is crucial to ask your supervisor if he/she will provide a professional reference for you. Be sure to get his/her personal email and cell phone or home phone, because if they leave the company you will no longer be able to find them. If you are not in good graces with your supervisor, than ask someone else who is at a management level above you if they will provide employment references. Putting "references available upon request" is wasted space on your resume. When we are interviewing candidates for contract or permanent placement we always ask them for professional references. We prefer three past managers they have worked for, but if they do not have three we at least want one and the other two can be someone who knows of their work on a technical basis. This can be coworkers or dotted line coworkers, customers, vendors, anyone who is familiar with the technical expertise you provide on the job. Personal references are not important in most cases. Professional references should provide information the customer cannot get during the job interview or to confirm specific duties, responsibilities and successes. Thank You Letter (back to top) Composing and forwarding a job interview thank you letter should be done immediately after your interview. Do not wait a few days as your memory of what transpired will diminish. A thank you letter after the interview can give you one more opportunity to shine. Phrasing in your job interview thank you should be short and concise. Do not go on incessantly or you can oversell yourself. Just be brief and to the point. Make a list of interview thank you notes. Jot down a few main things that you want to highlight about your interview. Be sure to get down the correct spelling of the hiring manager's first and last name. Make sure you spell everything correctly in your thank you letter. A spelling error can potentially kill the job offer so check and re-check everything you write in advance. Post interview thank you letters are not as common as you may think so taking the time to write a thank you letter after an interview shows respect for the hiring manager and a keen interest in the job. All companies are looking to hire people who are enthusiastic about the opportunity they have available. Make sure that comes across in your job interview thank you letter. One final note is to send the thank you letter by email so it arrives when you are still fresh on the hiring manager's mind. Most good decisions are made instantaneously, but if the decision maker is wavering the job interview thank you may be what is needed to win the offer.