Ultimate Career
Career Worth Living For!
Death by Cover-letter
Mar 5th
How have you been writing your job application letters (or “cover-letters” as most of us know it)?
A lot of job hunters do not think that a cover-letter is necessary unless it is specifically asked for in the job advertisement.
WRONG.
Even if the job advertisement asks only for your resume, it is a given that your resume will be accompanied by a cover-letter.
Well, of course, unless you are applying for a job that does not require a degree.
A cover-letter is an excellent platform to pitch and sell your value and why you are different. It also allows you to demonstrate your written communication skills.
(Now, if your writing and language skills need improvement, you better find professionals to help you write the cover-letter!)
Most of all, it shows that you are really interested in the job and would spare no effort to get in the door.
Look at it another way: 95% of job-hunters will not be writing cover-letters and so, if your application has a cover-letter, it will immediately stand out.
Now, auto generated cover-letters (like those generated by JobsDB.com) don’t count as cover-letters!! Don’t ever use them!!
Now, here’s the outdated way of structuring your cover-letter content:
Paragraph 1: How you heard about the job
Paragraph 2: Why you want the job
Paragraph 3: Your qualifications for the job
Paragraph 4: How you will follow up on the job
Hiring managers are busy people. Very busy, in fact, as with most executives. And your cover-letter and resumes will only get 3-5 seconds of initial attention.
Get this: If you can’t capture their attention within 3-5 seconds of them reading your application (i.e. your very first sentence!), you can say, “Bye Bye” to the company and “Hello” to the trash bin!
Who cares about how and where you heard about the job? And who cares about why you want the job?
As an employer, what I want to know is how you can help me solve problems, in what ways can you contribute and add value.
If you truly want the job, here’s how you must structure your cover-letter:
1. Gain and retain the reader’s Attention
You must draw the reader’s attention enough for them to continue reading your letter and resume.
This is the “hook,” if you like.
Try making a personal connection, start with how you got interested in the field, why you like the job or company, special skills or experience that you have, or a great opportunity you had which triggered your passion.
For example, applying for a teaching job, the first sentence can be,
“Inspired and motivated students. Would this be what you want to achieve for your school?”
2. Generate Interest in you
Go on to talk about the problems or issues you know of in the industry, company, or job. This will show that you have done your homework in researching the relevant information and that you know what you are in for.
Only people who are truly interested in the job will put in such effort and go the extra mile.
Guess what? It is never crowded on the extra mile.
Continuing from the example above,
“There are no lazy or incapable students. Only unmotivated ones. As such, the best thing that a school can do to encourage students to learn (and thus, towards better results and achievements) is to find ways to motivate them.”
3. Create Desire to meet you
This is where you show yourself as a solution to the problem. Here you present your features (qualifications, experience, attributes, passion and interest) and clearly outline how they will benefit the job and the company.
“With over 7 years of learner-centred learning experience couple with 5 years of education administration, I have an excellent grasp of the tertiary education sector and have mastered the art of motivating students.
“These are the reasons why I have been able to consistently achieve high levels of teaching evaluation as well as produce students who are high achievers.”
4. Call for the reader to take Action
As the reader goes on, you want him/her to do something, right?
So, get them to do it: Refer to specific highlights in your resume or your reference letters, read your blog, watch your video clip online, etc.
Remember to close strongly where you affirm your strong interest and ask for an interview. You can either ask them to call you or, more boldly, tell them you will call them to follow-up (if you have the number or email, of course!)
“I am anxious to tell you more about my qualifications and how, together, we can truly inspire students in your school towards greater heights. I plan to follow-up in a week’s time. In the mean time, feel free to contact me at 1234-5678 or abc@gmail.com
I want an iPhone 3GS
Dec 17th
My sister-in-law and her family visited my family over a weekend last month and we had a good time catching up. Her son, Ryan, is 11 years-old this year and although I have known him since his birth and have even taken care of him for a short spell 4 years ago, he is growing up to be his own man and, entering his teenage years, he now tends not to enjoy adult conversation nor company.
Ryan spent most of the entire visit glued to my laptop computer that was in the living room where everyone was. I would peek at what he was doing occasionally (mainly to ensure he was not messing up my files) and found him on the Apple Computer website.
Specifically, he was on the iPhone pages of the Apple website.
Before I knew it, he interrupted the adults who were happily chatting away over coffee.
“Mom, look! The iPhone 3GS is so thin and it’s so cool!”
Three minutes later, he shouted again, “Mom, the 3GS can take videos and upload them to YouTube! Isn’t that something?”
Another 5 minutes later, he exclaimed, “Mom, there is voice command for the 3GS! Wow!”
This time, his mother responded, “Ryan, you don’t need an iPhone. I’m not buying one for you. You already have a mobile phone.”
It turned out that Ryan had been bugging his mother over the past week to get him the latest iPhone 3GS. And when I asked him why he needed an iPhone, he said, “Everyone in school has one and it’s really cool” to which I responsed, “Ryan, the iPhone cannot make you cool. Only you can.”
Of course, Ryan didn’t understand what I meant and he also didn’t get the iPhone 3GS he coveted.
From this little episode, it reminded me of the way most of us try to persuade, influence and convince others of something – in other words, our “selling” strategy.
And guess what? Job-hunting is a “selling” process whether you like it or not.
Most people think that the best way to sell is to do what Ryan did – promote the features of the product or service: The iPhone is thin, it can take videos, access the internet, and issue commands via voice, etc.
In job-hunting terms, most people promote ONLY their features thinking that those will sell: Their degree(s), work experience, internship experience, special skills, awards, extra-curricular activities, community service, professional memberships, etc.
Just like Ryan’s mother, the features of the iPhone 3GS meant nothing to her. They may be cool to Ryan but they do not appeal to his mother at all. In fact, an iPhone is expensive to buy and to maintain, especially for an 11 year-old.
Remember: To an employer, you are always on the right-hand end of this simple equation:
Profit = Revenue – Cost
To make business sense, you will only be hired IF:
1. You are affordable (i.e. low cost), and
2. You can generate sufficient value (or revenue) to cover the cost of employing you (i.e. high benefits).
And so, your features may be cool to you, but they will only be cool to the employer IF and ONLY IF they can generate benefits to the employer.
In order to sell successfully to employers, you must approach from the BENEFIT angle: How exactly will the employer benefit from having you on the team? What value can you bring.
No doubt, features can be part of the selling process to provide support for the benefits but features should never be the main focus.
Remember: We don’t buy features. We buy only benefits.
When Ryan understands this, he will be in time to get an iPhone 3GS for Christmas.
Why wouldn’t they hire me? (Part 1)
Sep 3rd
Universities are such: They put a lot of people into the job-market
every year.
Recessions are such: They put EVEN more people into the job-market
and make sure they stay that way and take a lower pay.
The issue for fresh graduates in a recession is that all the good
jobs seemed to be snatched up by recently laid-off 35-year olds who
are desperate and willing to take a huge paycut. And many fresh
graduates are forced to take jobs that doesn’t even need high
school education.
I have heard this many times, “Well, this is how it is. You just
have to take what you can get in this market.”
Does your degree count for nothing??!
If you only know how to look for a job using OLD conventional,
outdated ways in this knowledge economy (or would only take jobs
based on your conventional outdated mindset), the answer is, “Yes,
your degree really counts for nothing.”
To start with, most people are looking for jobs at the wrong
places… places like Monster, JobsDB, Career Times, Job Market…
Now, here’s what you can do to recession-proof yourself:
1. Decide on what you REALLY want and the kind of work you are
interested in (Yes, work that you’ll care about) and TELL people
about it.
Yes, this means NETWORKING!
2. Do free work for the industry, company, project that you are
interested in.
No, free work is not an internship.
Free work is done remotely (i.e. off-site). This means that you can
work for people in any part of the world. To the employer, it is
called “outsourcing.”
Employers usually worry about wasting time and money when they
hire. These are the two big risks. With free work, you remove the
risks altogether. They don’t have to set up a desk for you, they
don’t have to spend too much time to train you, they don’t even
have to care that much about you.
They’d also have really low expectations of you. And that’s where
you can over-deliver!
Yes, no salary now but the objective is to secure trust with the
employer and prove your worth so that you will earn much more later
when you secure the job. BTW, having a degree does not mean you are
entitled to a job an pay-cheque.
What you need to do is this:
“I’d like to work on project ABC for you. I’ll work on it for the
next 2 weeks and give you an update on my progress every 2 days.
“What I need is some direction about the project and what
outcome/result you’d like to get with some feedback on my regular
email updates. This will make sure that I am on the right track.
“If you don’t like my work at the end of the 2 weeks, you can trash
it and we’ll move on. No lost for you and no hard feelings from me.
“But if you do like my work, I’d like to discuss doing more work
for you.”
When you do get the free work, do it professionally and speedily.
And always appreciate the opportunity that you have been given.
And by the way, you don’t have to do free work alone – Gather up a
few friends and work together!
Your Resume is Ordinary!
Apr 14th
If you are part of the 90% of the job-hunting population, your
resume is ordinary, boring, unattractive and … useless.
I say “useless” in the sense that it is not serving the purpose
that it was written for.
A resume is a personal leaflet intended to bring the potential
employer’s attention to the job-applicant’s capabilities,
competences, experiences, character and personality. It is meant to
“show-off” your features and the value that you can bring to the
company.
However, too many job-apllicants simply do not put in any effort
into crafting their resume (and, might I add, their cover-letter)
and opt to “follow the herd” without using their minds
appropriately to market and promote themselves (they search the
Internet for templates or buy resume-writting books from the
bookstore). After all, job-hunting IS a personal marketing and
promotion exercise.
How, then, do you market yourself through your resume? Here are the
top 10 resume tips you won’t get from anywhere else:
1. Keep your resume to 2 pages at most! Employers are busy and do
not have time to read (in fact, they don’t read, they skimp).
2. Give your resume a professional look. Make it look like it was
created by a professional instead of an amateur or student. Would
you read a leaflet or brochure that looks amateurish even if it was
stuffed in your face?
3. Your resume MUST carry a CORE message – that is, how do you fit
the job? What value will you bring if hired? Instead of stating
your “Career Objective,” I’d suggest that you state your unique
job-match message. Look at it this way, employers are not
interested in what you want, they are interested in knowing what
you can do for the company.
4. State your achievements in ALL your experiences, including
education. Most people will simply state what they have done (job
responsibilities/duties) and what education they have gone through.
What’s the point of telling employers that you have done
photocopying without telling them HOW WELL you did it? This is
similar to receiving your university results transcript that gives
only the subjects you have done but without the grades you have
achieved.
5. Leave out unnecessary and irrelevant items from your resume like
whether you are married, your passport/ID number, your photograph
(unless required or you are applying for a sales position),
referees.
6. There is no need to list your referees in your resumes. There is
also no need to say “Referees available upon request.” It is a
given that you have referees ready for work verification and
experience checking.
7. List items in reversed chronological order in each section. This
means, the most recent ones should be listed first.
8. If you are a freshgraduate, your education section should come
first (after your particulars, job-match message, and brief
professional profile) followed by experience, affiliations,
awards, non-work involvements, skills.
9. If you are have work experience, exhibit your experience section
before education.
10. Make the resume content easily readable. Use active verbs and
tangible numbers and percentages (e.g. Increased the company market
share by 100%) with bullet points instead of paragraphs of
description.
Remember this: If you follow the herd, you will step on sh*t. : )
Trying your luck?
Mar 24th
Over the past week, I have placed 3 job advertisements out on Hong
Kong’s jobsdb.com seeking suitable candidates to join the Career
Architects team. Amongst the applicants, I see some names that
appeared in all three jobs (and some several times). Mind you, the
jobs are quite different in nature – trainer, program manager, and
marketing associate – and demands rather distinct skills and
experiences.
If these people applied for all three jobs, it will appear to me
that they think that they fulfill the requirements of all 3 jobs
and that they have experience working in all of these 3 jobs.
The fact is that none of these applicants can do all 3 jobs well
simultaneously. And if they really can do so, they certainly would
not be available in the open market (they would have been too
valuable to not be employed!)
And the fact that they applied for all 3 indicates to me that they
were simply trying their luck. They simply do not know that they
want.
If they applied for all 3 jobs in Career Architects, I can safely
guess that they applied for many other jobs in many other companies
as well.
Would I shortlist such applicants for an interview? No.
As an employer, the key criteria when shortlisting potential
employees is that the one selected should be one who has exhibited
the capability to help me solve my problems. This person should
have a good understanding of what my business is about, what the
job requires, what problems he/she needs to handle or solve, and
knows, to a large extent, how he/she will fit in.
You should realize by now that researching the company that you are
applying to, along with the job and people in it, is a vital step
towards a successful job-hunt. And a successful job-hunt is one
that helps solve a problem within an organization. No company or
organization will hire if they do not have a problem or issue to
resolve.
I am certainly not interested to work with people who are simply
trying their luck in their job application. With their action, they
are saying that they do not have any interest nor passion in the
work. How, then, can they contribute to the company mission and
vision?
I know that all employers will make this assumption: “The way you
look for a job will be the way you do the job.” And so, if you do
not put in effort to understand the company and job and see how you
can contribute to the company, you will likewise not put in much
effort in the job should you be hired.
With this, you’ll realise that it is actually very very easy to stand out from job-hunting crowd.
Interview like a Champion
Sep 30th
Having conducted training over the years, I have noticed a trend in the attendance of two particular workshops – Resume-writing and Interview.
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Guess which workshop will often be better attended?
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Answer: The resume-writing workshop.
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The general approach to making decisions for most students I know is often focused on the short-term. This means that they make decisions in order to fulfill a need that is visible within the next 2 weeks to 3 months.
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I call this SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS.
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The resume-writing workshop is well attended mostly because of internship or job application deadlines that are looming on the horizon. Participants just want to learn the necessary tips and tricks quickly, doll up their resume and send off their applications as fast as possible.
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This seems typical of our current “microwave” mindset – what we want we want it fast, we want it now if not yesterday.
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Let me ask you this question: Which gets you the job: The resume or the interview?
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Answer: The interview.
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NOBODY gets hired based on their resume.
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Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that you don’t need to develop your resume-writing skills. You must write an attractive resume AND, at the same time, excel in your interviews. But most people don’t think about preparing for interview until they are called for one. For too many people, it is too late.
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You see, understanding what an interview involves will actually allow you to craft your resume better. If you are well prepared for any interview, you will most definitely write an attractive resume because you will then know how to sell from the very first word in your resume.
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So, how well do you interview? Do you interview like a champion who already has the job? Or do you interview like a job beggar?
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Interviewing like a champion demands that you know what to say, what to ask, and how to act during the session. An interview is a meeting to discuss a business problem and so, you must know how to behave in a professional manner which helps solve THE problem.
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I’ve structured several issues of Jobscope to explore specific important interview questions, the first of which is here:
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“Why did you apply for this job?”
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How would you answer this question?