Feature Article: Customizable Opening Paragraphs for Job-Seeker Cover Letters
Special Feature: Surefire Cover-Letter Technique: Incorporating Stories
Bonus Feature: How to Write the Ideal Cover Letter
Extra Feature: Tapping Into the Hidden Job Market: Uncovering Unpublicized Job Leads
Recession Series Feature: Layoffs Coming? Take Action Now to Lay Foundation for Your Future
Quintet of Quick Questions: QuintZine's Q&A with a Career Expert
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
Editor's Note: About this Issue...
Hard to believe that with this issue of QuintZine, we complete our ninth year
of publication and begin our 10th. We also continue our year-old focus on giving our
readers and visitors more of what they most often seek on Quintessential Careers.
One of our most sought-after offerings is samples. To our meaty collection of cover-letter
samples, with this issue we begin adding cover-letter component samples. We start
(not surprisingly) with opening paragraphs. In the future, we'll add closing paragraphs
and middle paragraphs that show employer knowledge and your fit with the job you're targeting.
If you peruse samples of complete cover letters, you might not find one that
suits you and your situation. But if you peruse sample paragraphs that are the building blocks
of good cover letters, you can learn to construct a terrific and customized letter.
It's a little like a Chinese-restaurant menu from which you pick one form Column A and one from Column B.
And speaking of constructing a cover letter, regular contributor Deborah Brown-Volkman
offers a good structure for cover letters in this issue.
We also bring you an excerpt from my almost-released book, Tell Me About Yourself:
Storytelling to Get a Job and Propel Your Career. This excerpt shows you how to incorporate
storytelling in cover letters - and includes lots of samples.
Dr. Randall Hansen, who is a content-producing MACHINE these days, offers the latest in his
recession series -- on layoff action steps -- and an article on finding job leads in the hidden job market.
--Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., Master Resume Writer, Credentialed Career Master,
Certified Electronic Career Coach, and editor at
kathy@quintcareers.com
Feature Article: Cover Letter Openers
Customizable Opening Paragraphs for Job-Seeker Cover Letters
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.
When it comes to cover letters, have you got writer's block? Do you feel that if you could just
start the letter, you'd be OK? Writing help is here with our large collection of job-seeker cover-letter
openers for all cover-letter writing situations. That opening paragraph is the most important of your letter,
setting the tone and grabbing the reader's attention to ensure he or she will continue reading (and then
review your resume).
With this new Quint Careers tool-set, you'll find dynamic cover-letter opening paragraphs, including more than
100 customizable openers -- with accompanying sample paragraphs showing each opener in action.
Letters for Students and New Grads of Graduate and Professional Schools
Letters for Students Seeking Internships
Letters to Recruiters, Headhunters, Executive Search Firms
Referral Letters that Spring from Networking
Ad: Job-Winning Resume Writing Service
A bad economy and weak job market makes it even more essential to have a strong resume that
helps open doors to new job and career opportunities -- and prepares you in case of an
unexpected job loss.
QUINTESSENTIAL RESUMES AND COVER LETTERS provides solutions
with unmatched quality in the areas of career planning, professional resume writing, and interviewing, having
successfully helped tens of thousands of clients, from executives through individuals beginning a career,
succeed in their career goals.
Why would you went to employ storytelling in cover letters -- or indeed in any part of your job search?
Cover letters offer job-seekers great latitude to tell stories because letters are quite compatible
with the narrative form.
In a cover letter, you can engage the employer, make an emotional connection, show results, and
become instantly memorable by including at least one paragraph in the form of a powerful story. Not
all employers read cover letters (about a third don't), but those who read, do truly read the letter, unlike
the resume, which they almost always skim.
Does your cover letter convey who you are and what you want quickly, or does it confuse the reader?
A cover letter is a document that introduces you and your resume to prospective employers. It is
your opportunity to give employers a good look at yourself, your credentials, and your background.
In many cases, it is the first thing an employer sees (because it goes in front of your resume), so expect
it to make your opening impression.
Cover letters can do more than simply introduce you. They can give an employer a more in-depth view of
who you are and what you will bring to the table.
The ideal cover letter is focused, professional, and well-written. While the hiring decision-maker is reading
your cover letter, he or she is deciding if it makes sense to continue on to your resume. If you cannot
make your cover letter great, the employer has no reason to believe you will do great work for the organization either.
Tapping Into the Hidden Job Market: Uncovering Unpublicized Job Leads
by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
Have you ever conducted a job-search and thought to yourself that there must be more
job openings than the ones found through online job searches? Guess what? The answer is a
resounding yes. If you are simply searching online (regardless of whether you are using Monster,
Indeed, or Google), you are missing out on at least four times as many job leads -- job leads
that go unposted publicly.
To make matters even worse for you as a job-seeker, the job leads you actually discover
online may be so old that the position has long been filled or closed.
To track down the most job leads -- leading to the most interview and job offer opportunities --
job-seekers must go beyond online job boards and search engines and attack the hidden job
market. As much as 80 percent of all job openings are filled through (direct and indirect) referrals,
not through job postings.
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.
Layoffs Coming? Take Action Now to Lay Foundation for Your Future
by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
Is your employer hurting? Is your industry dying? Are the rumors of widespread layoffs or plant
closures getting increasingly more prevalent? Have the layoffs and pink slips already started?
Teena Rose of Resume to Referral is a
resume writer, book author, and career expert..
"Maintaining consistency in the development, layout, and visual presentation of a job-seeker's
cover letter, resume, bio, online portfolio, and so on, aids in reflecting a person's
overall brand -- even if on a basic level," advises Teena Rose in the Q&A interview we conducted with her.
Read more of Teena's advice, including the ineffectiveness of blasting your resume, ways to stand out in today's
tough job market, the value of social networking, how to follow up when job-hunting online, and how to
uncover job leads in
our full Q&A with her.
CareerLab is a career strategy and leadership-development firm that offers
on its Website numerous career resources, such as articles and sample online career portfolios.
DrillingSite.com -- a petroleum industry
job board for job-seekers looking for employment in the oil, and gas market. Job-seekers can search job postings
(by keyword, position, location, job category), as well as post your resume. No cost to job-seekers.
Glassdoor.com --
an amazing research tool for job-seekers, where you can find employee generated content
(salaries and company reviews) for more than 20,000 companies in almost 100 countries. You must join
the community and share reviews, ratings, and salary details of your current employer before
you can read full information on other potential employers. No cost to job-seekers.
JobShouts.com -- a job board where job-seekers can
get matched job postings via Twitter. Job-seeker create a profile (selecting a job category and location),
and when a job is posted that matches your criteria you will be notified by DM (Direct Message) on Twitter.
No cost to job-seekers.
TaxJobs.biz -- a job board for CPAs, accountants and tax
professionals, where job-seekers can search job postings (by occupation or job type), as well as
register for job alerts via email alerts or RSS Feed. No cost to job-seekers.
Find even more career and job site additions to Quintessential Careers by visiting our
Latest Additions section.
Q TIPS:
Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search and Work Life
The Career Management Alliance, through its parent company Kennedy Information, is offering
a series of Career Cafe Webinars for job-seekers. These convenient, low-cost webinars provide
the hottest tips and tricks -- from an expert perspective -- to finding a job. Participants
can ask questions, too. They're held on Mondays at noon (Eastern) at a cost of $47.
Learn more at the Career Cafe site.
Next up (March 16) is "Stand Out from the Competition: Interview Prep Tips and Key
Non-Verbal Behaviors," presented by QuintCareers' own Kathy Hansen.
(See details here.)
How is your industry looking in this recession? The job-search aggregator Indeed.com is now
showing industry trends, in terms of numbers of job postings in each industry, and how those
have changed since a year ago. All industries are currently down over last year except for
education (up 22 percent) and healthcare (up 4 percent). See the figures here:
Major Industries: Indeed.com.
In 2008, employers were under great pressure to reduce hires (and associated costs) attributed
to third-party recruiters, newspapers, and traditional job boards. That was the most visible hiring trend
in the annual Source of Hire Study: What Happened in 2008 and What It Means for 2009 released by
CareerXroads.
This no-cost, public, 8th annual report, is intended as a detailed description about how one group of
corporations fills its open positions in the US/North America.
Other highlights from the study include:
Internal transfers and promotions comprised 38.8 percent of ALL the full-time positions a company fills.
Referrals (employee, alumni, vendor, etc.) make up 27.3 percent of all external hires and is arguably the No. 1
external source.
For 2009, respondents predict another 15.7 percent drop in hires, and not a single firm predicted it would
hire more this year than last.
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.
Follow QuintCareers; Read the Latest Advice
Follow QuintCareers Latest Job Tips and Career News on Twitter
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.
If your school, organization, business or other
entity has a Web site, 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.
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:
* How Job Search is Like Online Dating
* The Confidence Factor
* Green Jobs
* 10 Deadly Sins of Job Interviewing
* Body Language in the Job Interview
* De-Stressing Before an Interview
* More Cover-Letter Components
* The Interview as Presentation
* Finding Your First Real Job
* Empty Nest Job-seekers
* Getting in to Prep School/Boarding School
* Top Presentation Tips
* Quiz: What Kind of Co-Worker Are You?
* How to Stay Motivated at Work
* Quintessential Career Profiles of YOU, our readers
* Q&As with well-known career experts
* Book reviews
. . . and much, much more...
