Main Feature: No-Cost White Paper: Cover Letter Reboot: A Crowdsourced Update of Traditional Cover-letter Advice for Today's Job Search
Special Feature: Cover Letters Not Getting Read? Introducing the 5-Point Power Note
Bonus Feature: Job-Search: Breakable Rules and Outdated Beliefs
Extra Feature: 15 Quick Tips for a Winning Resume
A Quintet of Quick Questions: QuintZine's Q&A with a Career Expert: Cheryl Palmer
Quintessential Site: Featured Career Web Site of this Issue
Latest Additions: What's New on Quintessential Careers
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search and Work Life
Editor's Note: About this Issue...
Twenty-one years ago, the seeds of Quint Careers were sown with the publication of our book,
Dynamic Cover Letters, only the second cover-letter book on the market. After writing dozens of
cover-letter articles and hundreds of cover letters, we're revisiting the subject that started it all.
After researching hiring decision-maker opinions about cover letters, we've published
our first-ever white paper to update the cover-letter advice we've dispensed all these years. See below
to download the white paper or read the same material on our site.
We've published issues of QuintZine about resumes and cover letters — sometimes separately and sometimes
together. This one is especially content rich — the white paper and its ancillary components, Susan Whitcomb's
terrific article on a new twist on cover letters, my article on outdated beliefs and breakable rules (not just about
resumes and cover letters, but several job-search aspects), and another in our 15th-anniversary tips series,
this one about resumes. We also offer a Q&A with career coach/resume writer Cheryl Palmer.
Hope you get something useful out of this return to our roots.
--Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., Master Resume Writer, Credentialed Career Master,
Certified Electronic Career Coach, and editor at
kathy(at)quintcareers.com
Feature Article: Cover Letter White Paper
Cover Letter White Paper: Cover Letter Reboot: A Crowdsourced Update of Traditional Cover-letter Advice for Today's Job Search
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.
Twenty years ago, my partner and I wrote one of the first cover-letter books on the market,
and since then we've written countless articles on cover letters -- as well as cover letters
themselves. My views haven't wavered much in those two decades on the guidelines we
wrote about all those years ago.
But recently, I wondered if this advice and other guidelines we'd espoused all these years were
antiquated. I conducted e-mail interviews with hiring decision-makers -- crowdsourcing, if you will -- to find out.
Our white paper contains the crowdsourced hiring decision-maker opinions on cover-letter advice I've given over the years.
Remember that cover letters are highly subjective, and you'd be hard-pressed to develop a cover letter that
would please every employer. But these sentiments can guide your thinking toward some pretty darned effective letters.
Download our no-cost 13-page white paper — our first ever -- that provides great insight, details, and advice from hiring
managers regarding effective cover letters. Learn when it's best to include a cover letter — and how best to write it.
The white paper includes sections on cover-letter mistakes, a cover letter wishlist, and examples of cover letters that
wowed the hiring managers interviewed for the white paper.
Have Your Resume Ready in Case of Job Loss in the Current Economic Climate.
QUINTESSENTIAL RESUMES AND COVER LETTERS, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service, provides solutions
with unmatched quality in the areas of professional resume writing. In fact, in 2009, during one of
the worst recessions in history, they still achieved a 98.7% effectiveness rate!
Cover Letters Not Getting Read? Introducing the 5-Point Power Note
by Susan Britton Whitcomb, PCC, CCMC, CPCC, CJSS
My colleague Deb Dib recently forwarded me a link to an NPR report that captured the essence of where career communications
are heading. The story describes one Birmingham, AL-based company's solution to resume overwhelm, in which its CEO
requires that applicants leave a two-minute voice-mail message describing why they should be hired. Critics called the process
one-dimensional and dehumanizing. Others, including me, left more positive comments.
The reality is that employers are inundated with applicants in this job market, and they need some way to cut through
the clutter. The two-minute voice-mail pitch is just another shift toward shorter, tighter, value-infused career-communications
… which brings me to the title of this article.
We all know that hiring managers are unpredictable when it comes to cover letters. Some religiously read them. Some
religiously don't. Some read cover letters only after a scan of the resume leaves a favorable impression. It's likely that
cover letters aren't getting read because they are too long, too self-absorbed, too canned, and just too boring.
Enter the 5-point power note, a concept Deb Dib and I are pioneering in the G3 (Get Clear, Get Found, Get Hired!)
Coach program we're teaching. It's the antidote to "yawn bomb" cover letters.
We dispense a lot of career advice here on Quint Careers, but we also try to monitor trends in the job-search and
hiring sectors. Thus, we sometimes confront job-search "rules" and beliefs that are either misunderstood or
have changed with the times.
Find Your Career Future. Learn More About Yourself
Career Maze is designed to help every job seeker, at every level, make smarter
career choices. Individualized to reflect your unique personality and written in
"plain English," it is thorough and easy to complete.
Once completing the assessmemt, your 2-part report includes:
A specific, career-relevant discussion of your workplace personality
A list of job types compatible with your personality
Career Maze encourages you to think about tapping your full potential to find your future.
As part of the celebration of Quintessential Careers' 15th anniversary, we're presenting lists of 15 tips
on some of the most essential topics in college, job search, and career.
Yikes! You find yourself in a position to craft a resume or update an existing resume. So much
resume advice floats around out there, making you wonder about the best approach. The tips
we offer capture the most important aspects of an effective resume. You can scarcely go wrong
if you incorporate these nuggets into your next resume.
Cheryl Palmer, certified executive career coach and professional resume writer.
"LinkedIn is probably the best social-media site for job-seekers because thousands of
recruiters search for candidates every day on that site," said Cheryl Palmer in the Q&A
she did with us." An effective professional profile is essential for job-seekers who want to find
new employment via social media. Employers will be searching for candidates using keywords,
so job-seekers need to incorporate keywords into
their profiles so that they can be found," she said.
Read more of Palmer's advice, including a look at the Impact of social-media in the job search, a recommendation
for how job-seekers should be spending their time, and thoughts on the best ways to discover the right career
in our full Q&A with her.
Louise Fletcher's Blue Sky Resumes blog offers superb advice about resumes and a lot more.
Categories for the blog include Business, Career Management, Communication, Interviewing, Job Search, LinkedIn,
Networking, Online Presence, Personal branding, Personal Marketing, Reader Questions,
The Right Outlook, and The Workplace.
Find a Job, Post Your Resume -- on our Job Portal!
Even in a bad economy, there are still job postings and career opportunities!!
Go now to search for jobs, post your resume, build an online portfolio, receive career consultation,
and learn about continuing education opportunities.
AgCareers.com -- a job board
for agriculture, natural resources, and biotechnology job-seekers, where you can
browse featured job listings, search all job listings (by keyword, location, industry sector),
post your resume, subscribe to industry newsletter, and find relevant career tools.
No cost to job-seekers.
HealthCareerCenter.org -- an
extensive guide to careers in healthcare -- a clearinghouse of resources and links. The purpose of
the site is to help aspiring healthcare and medical students and job-seekers make better, more
informed career choices by providing a plethora of information. No cost to job-seekers.
StartWire -- a private place where job-seekers can leverage the
knowledge and connections of your friends for referrals (via Facebook and LinkedIn), obtain the advice and experience
of job-hunting experts, as well as manage your job-search. No cost to job-seekers.
Workforce50.com -- a career resource
for older job-seekers with a mission to arm "the older workforce with employment resources and career
information to achieve their goals." You'll find lots of age-related career content, from resume-writing
to critical job-search strategies. No cost to job-seekers.
Find even more career and job site additions to Quintessential Careers by visiting our
Latest Additions section.
We'd Love You to Link to Quintessential Careers!
If your school, organization, business or other
entity has a Website, we welcome you to link to Quintessential Careers.
If you already have a link from your site, we want you to know we
appreciate it. If you don't have a link to us, please
send a request to your site's Webmaster to establish a
link to Quintessential Careers. Thanks so much!
For more details (including sample HTML copy), see our
Link to Us page.
Q TIPS:
Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search and Work Life
How Recruiters Read Resumes In 10 Seconds or Less, by Brad Remillard, a founding partner of IMPACT Hiring Solutions,
is a bit discouraging for job-seekers, given that he tells how he immediately screens out candidates who aren't
in the employer's city and industry or performing in the same function or at the same level of the vacancy. If the candidate
has relevant experience, but not recently, that job-seeker, too, is ruled out. Those without college degrees and who have had
several jobs in just a few years are also out. Career-changers and folks who want to relocate would seem to be out of luck
with Remillard. His article, however, demonstrates how important it is for a resume to truthfully show fit with the targeted job.
The lesson: Don't send your resume indiscriminately. Choose vacancies for which you are well qualified, and be sure your
resume positions you precisely for that job. Remillard also notes that he doesn't read functional resumes.
We are honoring our 15 favorite career gurus with the title of Quintessential Careers Career Mastermind.
In turn, they are honoring our readers in a number of ways throughout the rest of the year ... with articles,
tips, and a special feature in our 15th anniversary issue of QuintZine in November.
Quintessential Careers Press Announces Our Latest Book: The Quintessential Guide to
Job Search 2.0: Advancing Your Career Through Online Social Media.
The
Quintessential Guide to Job Search 2.0: Advancing Your Career Through Online Social Media,
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., and Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., provides six chapters to guide you
through the next revolution in online job search. Since job boards, vestiges of the first
revolution in online job search, should still be part of the job-seeker's toolkit, this
book helps you navigate those while also considering the future of job boards. The book
looks at building your personal brand, teaches you to make the most of social-media venues
in the job search, guides you in creating a digital presence, suggests you consider blogging,
and discusses ways to integrate multimedia elements into your job search.
Ad: Does Your Organization Have Positions to Fill?
Find Qualified Candidates Today!
The Quintessential Careers Job-Hunting Portal is a great place for organizations that have job
openings to post those openings and review job-seeker resumes.
Our national resume database contains more than 500,000 active resumes of candidates seeking employment.
Numerous job-posting packages are available.
If your organization is looking to hire, use the power behind our
portal! Learn more today!
Follow QuintCareers; Read the Latest Advice
Follow QuintCareers Latest Job Tips and Career News on Twitter
Also follow @KatCareerGal for regular career-related tweets.
QuintCareers Network of Empowering Blogs
What are QuintCareers empowering blogs?
The Career Doctor Blog:
Especially for those who miss our former regular feature, Ask the Career Doctor, this blog each day features a question and answer from The
Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD.
Need a career expert for a story or article you're working on? Searching for college,
career, and job news? Interested in learning more about Quintessential Careers?
Our Press Room
is your one-stop location for getting the information and resources you need.
QuintZine: Topics in Upcoming Issues
WATCH FOR feature articles on these topics in upcoming issues of QuintZine:
* Warning Signs You Won't Like Your Next Employer
* New Grads: Roadmap to Work and Play
* Working Night Shifts/Odd Shifts
* De-Stressing Before an Interview
* 15 Quick Tips for Acing the Job Interview
* More Cover-Letter Components
* Crafting Transferable Skills Stories
* 15 Quick Tips for Fighting Age Discrimination and the Overqualified Label
* Older Workers Struggling at Job-Search: Is It Age Discrimination?
* Empty Nest Job-seekers
* How to Stay Motivated at Work
* 15 Quick Tips for Gaining Valuable Experience in College
* Major Stress: Quiz for Choosing a Major/Career
* 15 Quick Tips for Excelling at Work
* 15 Quick Tips for Obtaining Your Next Promotion
* 15 Quick Tips for Getting Accepted into College
* Another Option After High School: Vocational/Trade Schools
* Fourth Annual Job Action Day
* 15 Quick Tips for Career Branding Success
* Career Branding Checklist
* Special Quint Careers 15th Anniversary Issue
* 15 Career Gurus
* 15 Indispensable Career Books
* 15 tips, samples, tools, and more.
* 15 Quick Tips Strengthening Your Career Network
* 15 Quick Tips for Working with Headhunters
* Quintessential Career Profiles of YOU, our readers
* Q&As with well-known career experts
* Book reviews
. . . and much, much more...
