One of the most beneficial things you can do with your career
journal is to use it to help you craft a cover letter that gets read and
produces results. You don't have to be a literary genius to create a
compelling cover letter. However, you do need to use the information
contained in your career journal strategically in order to create the
greatest impact for your reader. Your cover letter should include a
benefit statement in the introductory paragraph, address the challenges
that the company or industry is facing and detail how your unique blend
of skills, education and experience have prepared you to meet those
challenges.
The first thing you should do when writing your cover letter is to use a benefit statement in the opening paragraph. You don't want your prospective employer to have to try and figure out what it is that you have to offer. You want to make the benefits that you can bring to the company explicit. However, you don't want to parrot your resume. This is why it is important to take time to review the information in your career journal and come up with a benefit statement that compliments your resume but does not repeat the same information listed in it.
The second thing you need to do is to address the specific challenges that the company or the industry is facing. This is important because you want the employer to know that you understand their needs and can identify with them. The employer may want to give you an opportunity. However, at the end of the day they are primarily concerned with meeting their own bottom line. If you can demonstrate to them that you understand their bottom line and the special challenges that they face you can position yourself as a both peer leader and industry insider. By focusing on your target company's needs and what is important to them you will separate yourself from 99 percent of your competition.
The third and final thing that you will want to address in your cover letter is how your unique blend of skills, education and experience positions you to meet the challenges facing the company or industry. Give relevant examples of how you were able to achieve results for your previous employers. Talk about the process that was involved in creating these results. Let the employer know that you can duplicate the same process at their company and generate comparable results for them as well. Quantify the examples that you use and let them know whether these results were achieved while working individually or as part of a team. You may also want to include information about the time frame it took you to achieve these results.
Finally, as you can see, a career journal can be a very powerful tool. By using the information you have collected you can craft a compelling cover letter that get read and produces results. The most important elements of writing your cover letter involve creating a benefit statement in the introductory paragraph, addressing the specific challenges that the company or industry is facing and detailing how your unique blend of skills, education and experience have prepared you to meet those challenges. By covering these few things in your cover letter you are almost guaranteed to make a memorable impression on your reader and significantly increase your chances of getting called in for an interview.
The first thing you should do when writing your cover letter is to use a benefit statement in the opening paragraph. You don't want your prospective employer to have to try and figure out what it is that you have to offer. You want to make the benefits that you can bring to the company explicit. However, you don't want to parrot your resume. This is why it is important to take time to review the information in your career journal and come up with a benefit statement that compliments your resume but does not repeat the same information listed in it.
The second thing you need to do is to address the specific challenges that the company or the industry is facing. This is important because you want the employer to know that you understand their needs and can identify with them. The employer may want to give you an opportunity. However, at the end of the day they are primarily concerned with meeting their own bottom line. If you can demonstrate to them that you understand their bottom line and the special challenges that they face you can position yourself as a both peer leader and industry insider. By focusing on your target company's needs and what is important to them you will separate yourself from 99 percent of your competition.
The third and final thing that you will want to address in your cover letter is how your unique blend of skills, education and experience positions you to meet the challenges facing the company or industry. Give relevant examples of how you were able to achieve results for your previous employers. Talk about the process that was involved in creating these results. Let the employer know that you can duplicate the same process at their company and generate comparable results for them as well. Quantify the examples that you use and let them know whether these results were achieved while working individually or as part of a team. You may also want to include information about the time frame it took you to achieve these results.
Finally, as you can see, a career journal can be a very powerful tool. By using the information you have collected you can craft a compelling cover letter that get read and produces results. The most important elements of writing your cover letter involve creating a benefit statement in the introductory paragraph, addressing the specific challenges that the company or industry is facing and detailing how your unique blend of skills, education and experience have prepared you to meet those challenges. By covering these few things in your cover letter you are almost guaranteed to make a memorable impression on your reader and significantly increase your chances of getting called in for an interview.
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For the past 13 years, Sheila Savage has worked with ex-offenders to help them find suitable employment. To get more information about ex-offender employment and job searching please visit http://www.lifebydesignconsultants.com
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http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Sheila_Savage/857989
For the past 13 years, Sheila Savage has worked with ex-offenders to help them find suitable employment. To get more information about ex-offender employment and job searching please visit http://www.lifebydesignconsultants.com