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Message From: Strategistprashant |
Total Posts: 39 |
Join Date: |
| Rank: Executive |
Post Date: 20/06/2006 04:44:46 |
Points: 195 |
Location: India |
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Your needs = My experience
In a challenging job market, the big thing is to get your cover letter and / or resume noticed - to make it (and yourself) stand out from the crowd of applications on a recruiter's desk.
More and more candidates are using a cover letter or resume that demonstrates the match between the employer's requirements (Your Needs) and the skills and experience that they have to offer (My Qualifications).
An example of this type of cover letter / resume is shown below. For some candidates this can be a very effective tool.
Your Needs: Marketing Experience
My Qualifications:
• 5 plus years as a marketing consultant.
• Significant consumer-oriented technology marketing in the retail industry
Your Needs: Product Management Experience
My Qualifications:
• Led product marketing efforts for an online store.
• Spearheaded product management efforts for major retail chain as a product manager.
Your Needs: Interpersonal Skills
My Qualifications:
• Leadership qualities with the ability to lead projects and teams to highly successful outcomes.
• Ability to communicate through presentations to all levels of management. Strong ability to influence others.
The more technically able you are, the more creative you can be with boxes and grids.
Even if you decide not to use this type of document, this exercise will help you familiarise yourself with how close a match you are for the position you are applying for. A few steps will make it an easy task that can serve you well in the long run.
By reading job postings carefully and looking for words that are repeated or stand out as being the most important factors to do the job, you will become familiar with the company or industry jargon.
For instance, an example would be an advertisement for an 'Executive Secretary' where the word confidentiality appears consistently. If you were applying for that particular position you would want to include the word confidential in your resume and cover letter and show how you have used that skill in past jobs.
Practice identifying key factors in job postings or ads that are of interest to you. Go through postings or ads and use a highlighter to mark words as you read.
What are the common words used in almost every description? What they are looking for? What are the qualifications listed? How do your skills match up against their requirements? Make a list of the key words and requirements to use in your cover letter / resume.
Next, make a template for your new cover letter / resume. On one side of the template type in 'Your Needs'.
On the other side type 'My Qualifications'. Use this template to write an individual document for each job you apply for, matching what they are looking for against what you have to offer. Be sure that your resume is as close a match as possible to the ad that you are responding to.
As is the case with any cover letter or resume style, it will depend on your resume reader as to how effective this style will be. Some resume readers like it because it cuts to the chase.
Others don't like it because it is too simplistic. If you are not experiencing the results that you were hoping for and need a new angle to get your foot in the door, this may be the ticket for you.
Who knows, you just might get a surprise with a quick response! Anything is worth trying in this very competitive market!
Regards
Prashant Iyer
9819328994
Take Care
Remember:
people will forget what you said ...
people will forget what you did ...
but people will never forget how you made them feel ... |
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Message From: jes2explore |
Total Posts: 3 |
Join Date: |
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| Rank: Beginner |
Post Date: 08/07/2006 00:33:13 |
Points: 15 |
Location: India |
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| Hello Prashant,
The covering letter you gave as an example looks like a template to prove our strenghts and show them that our skills match their needs. this is very useful in today's world where , i am sure, many people are stryggling to write covering letters. And those who dont write covering letters, i think its time thay start doing it. as you correctly said, this is the only means by which our CV can stand out among all other CVs
Arpita |
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