Please note: On a somewhat infrequent basis, Quintessential Careers asks noted
career experts five questions related to their expertise and publishes the interview
in the current issue of QuintZine,
our biweekly newsletter. Here is one such interview.
Norine Dagliano is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and career-management consultant.
Q:
We always advise job-seekers to make their final cover-letter
paragraphs "proactive," asking for the interview and telling
the employer that the job-seeker plans to follow up to arrange
for the interview. First, do you agree with that advice, and
secondly, with the increasing difficulty of identifying a specific
person to write to and follow up with (mostly the result of
increased Internet job hunting) does the advice still hold?
A:
Yes, I still agree with this advice. A productive job-search strategy follows
basic sales principles, as I'll discuss later in this Q&A. People who
succeed in sales first pitch the features and benefits of what they are
selling. They then follow-up with the potential buyer to find out if they
have any questions and to schedule a time they can get together to
learn more about the product and, possibly, see it in action. It makes
very little sense to go through the time and expense of creating and
submitting a cover letter and resume if you are do not follow-up to a)
confirm it was received and b) confidently explore a convenient time
for an interview.
In regards to not being able to identify a specific person to
write to, I think job-seekers are making this issue much bigger
than it really is. I find that in the vast majority of cases (even
with online postings) a little critical thinking and initiative will
produce a name to put on the letter.
If you have a company name and/or phone number, make a phone
call and ask, "To whom do I address a letter of application." If you
have an email address only, the company name normally follows
the @: go online to the company Web site, look for a contact name
or call and ask. If you are posting to a company Web site, look for
contact information that will lead you to a name before you post.
Check in business directories for contacts. Ask your professional
network. Check Hoover's or Dun & Bradstreet reports.
I have even found names when all I had was, for example, "FLC is
looking for a mental health therapist in its city, state location." I
went to the Yellow Pages under the listing for mental health; read the
names of all the mental health agencies until I found one that might
use the initials "FLC," and then called the number in the book to get
the name of whom to address the letter. BINGO!
Yes the Internet is making it harder to conduct a personal approach,
but the personal approach is still the best approach. True, posting to
a major job board like Monster prohibits making the approach personal.
Statistics indicate that only a very small percentage of people land jobs
through general posting to online job boards. For increased chances of
success, make a direct and personal approach to the company and follow up.
Q:
Also precipitated by the growth of Internet job-hunting seems to
be the notion that fewer employers are even reading cover letters.
Do you find cover letters to be less important than they used to be?
Are they on the way out? Do you have a sense for what percentage
of employers scan cover letters for keywords? Any special cover
letter advice in the age of Internet job-hunting.
A:
I believe very strongly in the power of a well-written and personalized
cover letter and encourage all of my clients to include one whenever they
send their resume (whether by "snail mail," email, fax or online posting.
Will it always gets read or will it get tossed? It is difficult to speculate,
but my philosophy is that I would rather send one, only to have it thrown
away, than not send one and make an unfavorable first impression.
I still think a personal approach in the search process is always the
best. The cover letter provides job-seekers an opportunity to "speak"
to the employer in their own words; to give the employer a little "window
into their personality;" to address the employer's needs by describing
specific contributions they are prepared to make. We don't want to
rewrite the resume for each job, but a well-constructed cover letter
can expand upon the resume and bring to the employer's attention
the key selling points to be considered.
I can't imagine that cover letters are "on their way out." No matter how
"high-tech" we become as a society, we will always appreciate the personal
touch. My hope is that the impersonal, generic and somewhat boring
cover letter ("I am replying to the advertisement in the XYZ for an ABC" . . .
and "as you can see in my enclosed resume I blah, blah, blah") is
on the way out!
There is somewhat of a misconception that the Internet has made it more
difficult to take a personal approach. Much to the contrary, I think the Internet
has in many ways made it easier. Never before have we had at our fingertips
such detailed information about companies. We can visit company Web
sites and learn about their mission, their goals for the coming year; their
products and services; their key accomplishments; their company culture
and more. Armed with this information, we can to "talk" to them in the cover
letter, not as someone who needs a job, but as someone who understands
what the company is all about and believes they have something to offer.
In regards to the percentage of employers who scan cover letters for
keywords, it depends on what is meant by "scan." Many large companies
have turned toward using scanners and electronic databases to review
and store resumes and cover letters. Even in the days "pre-scanners," cover
letters and resumes were still "scanned" by human readers, seeking to find
words (skills and experience) in these documents that matched-up with
words use in the job description. Since small companies still provide the
most job opportunities overall, my sense is that the percentage of
employers using scanning technology is still quite small. With or without
technology, keywords are still important. Editor's note: See also our article,
Tapping
the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume's Effectiveness, which
also applies to cover letters.
My cover letter advice in the age of Internet job hunting is as follows:
Whenever possible, use a personal approach. Post on the company
Web site rather than a major job board. Do your homework, and find out
whom to address the letter to.
When using a cover letter online, do not forego business communication
etiquette. Always use a greeting (Dear ...). Use proper spelling, grammar,
and punctuation. If you are responding to a particular job advertisement,
be sure to mention the job title as well as the job number in your cover
letter. If you have done your homework and are writing to a named
person, use a proactive wrap up ("I will phone or email you ... to see
if we can arrange a meeting to discuss this opportunity"). Always
include a closing (Sincerely, or something similar) and your signature
(name, phone number and email, at the very least). If sending it via
email, don't waste the subject line. Create a powerful statement that
will make your resume standout from the competition in the readers
in-box: "Master's-Level Therapist offering 13 years of counseling
experience."
The more "cold" your resume is coming, the shorter the cover letter
should be. In response to an online job advertisement or to a company
Web site as a cold call, use one power paragraph that opens with a
bang and closes quickly. The longer cover letter is made up of one to
three power paragraphs, plus a power closing (a maximum of one screen long).
These are typically used for higher-level job advertisements, and also work
well when responding to a request made by a recruiter or an employer
who has contacted you in advance and requested your resume.
In all cases, the cover letter used online should be saved as an ASCII or
Text Only document (the same as your resume). The letter should be
pasted in the body of the email message (or in the space provided on the
employment website) and should be followed by the electronic resume,
as opposed to attached.
What is the one job-hunting secret you share with clients but that may not be widely known?
A:
It's all about sales.
I would not go so far as to say that this is a "secret
that is not widely known," but it is a reality that seems to
elude most job-seekers. Almost every job-seeker approaches
the process as if it is something very foreign to them…something
they have never done (or have done infrequently). They think
there are all these mysterious rules and expectations that will
certainly trip them up. They fail to realize that implementing basic
sales principles is what lands jobs.
I have yet to meet a job-seeker who has never sold anything in
his/her life (even Girl Scout cookies, school fund-raisers, a used
car qualifies). Once I explore with them what tools and information
they needed and what steps they took to make the sale, they begin
to realize that job seeking is not such a mystery.
I was working with a client recently who had a dynamic sales
background with very impressive results. His job was eliminated
and he came to me defeated and unsure of himself. After we talked
about his career and how he managed to break all sales records,
he asked me: "What is the best way to get a job."
I answered, "You are a salesman and you are good at what you do. You
knew your product well -- not only its features, but its benefits and value.
You sold products you believed in. You approached each customer with
an attitude that you had something that would save them time and make
them money. Further, you didn't sit back and wait until someone placed
an advertisement that they were in the market for your product. Not
at all! Instead, you scoped-out the territory. You identified companies
that could benefit from your product. You made cold calls and set up
appointments to assess their needs and explore solutions to their
problems (not yours). You networked, and used your established
network to build a bigger network. You gave outstanding sales presentations
and built the kind of rapport that convinced the buyer that you were
someone they wanted to do business with. And, on those rare
occasions that you did not make the sale, you never took it as a
personal rejection. You never let it rob your self-confidence or used
it as an excuse to settle for less than you wanted."
What is the best way to get a job? It is no secret. It's just rediscovering
what you already know.
Q:
Thinking "outside the box," what is the best way for job-seekers to figure
out what career will give them the greatest happiness?
A:
I use several techniques when helping clients through the
decision-making process. I normally begin with a series of questions:
"When you were younger, what did you think you might want to
be when you grew up?"
"Tell me some of things you are doing when you loose track of time
because you get so involved."
"If money, education, experience and job location were not an issue,
describe to me your ideal job."
I also recommend career assessments. It is important that clients
assess not only their abilities, but also assess their interests and
values (and look at all three in tandem). Some of the tools I like best
are the CAPS/COPS/COPES (produced by EdITS - Educational
and Industrial Testing Services), the Myers-Briggs, the MAAP, and
the Keirsey Temperament Sorter. I think the online tests are a good
resource to start with and frequently refer clients to the
Quintessential Careers Assessment
Reviuew for links to some of these tests (the MAPP and Keirsey, for
example). Clients who have never completed any career assessments
before find these online assessments very revealing. Even though the free
reports are not very detailed, they start the thinking process and pique
clients’ curiosity and interest in learning more.
I also recommend that clients read job descriptions/job postings and,
using index cards, a scrapbook or a three-ring binder, begin to assemble
copies of job descriptions/job postings that intrigue them, and then look
for patterns. A good place to start is with the jobs classified section of
a local weekend newspaper. My four favorite on-line sources for career
profiles are: Quintessential Careers Career Exploration;
WetFeet,
O*Net Online, and the
Occupational Outlook Handbook.
One final thing I recommend is informational interviewing. Talk to people
who are doing the things they might like to do. There is an excellent
Informational
Interviewing Tutorial on the Quintessential Careers site that I direct clients
to. We discuss this technique and brainstorm a list of places to go/people
to talk to and then we role-play the initial contact to set up the interview.
I also encourage them to use these sessions to solicit opportunities to
do volunteer work and get some real hands-on exposure.
Q:
What is the biggest mistake that job-seekers make that your advice could correct or prevent?
A:
I see job-seekers consistently making one really big mistake: They spend the
majority of their time looking for "openings."
By concentrating on openings (or "who's hiring") job-seekers are
taking a reactive versus a proactive approach to managing their
careers. Not only may they be overlooking as many as 90 percent of
the available opportunities, but they are also positioning themselves
where they can expect the competition to be the highest. What further
compounds this less-than-effective approach is that job-seekers
read job postings and right away start screening themselves out
("the job does not pay enough; the employer is too far away; they
are looking for someone with a degree," etc.) So what started
out as a very small pool of opportunities has just gotten even
smaller. In no time at all, the job-seeker begins to feel defeated
and further believe the media hype that implies that there are
no jobs available.
I advise job-seekers to be more proactive in their search and to
stop thinking about their needs and start thinking about the
employers' needs. I ask them to first define their target market
(companies that meet their industry, geographic location, size
and industry culture parameters). Then, using the phone book,
business directories, networking contacts, newspapers, online
resources, etc., create a target list of 40 to 50 companies that
fall within that target market.
Next, I have them research each company and try to determine
what that company might need that they have to offer. Finally,
we discuss strategies and devise a plan on how to approach
each company, with the company needs in mind. Once a contact
has been established, the job-seeker, acting with a "consultant
mentality," can explore with the company what his or her needs
are and contributions he or she might make in meeting those needs.
One statistic I read recently stated "43.3 percent of unadvertised
positions are created for the applicant, often at the time of the
interview." Starting with 50 companies on the target list ensures
the job-seeker will always be busy and always making contacts.
Before he or she knows what happens, the dilemma becomes
which offer to accept!
Norine Dagliano is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and
career-management consultant, working under the business name, ekm
Inspirations. Norine has 19 + years of experience in job-search training,
career counseling, resume writing, and outplacement. In addition to her
private business, Norine is a Certified Associate of Lee Hecht Harrison
(a global outplacement firm) and has supported career transition services
for major employers throughout Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Examples of Norine's resumes and cover letters have been published
in four books. Contact her at ekm Inspirations, 14 North Potomac Street,
Hagerstown, MD 21740. Phone: 301-766-2032; fax 301-745-5700;
email ndagliano@yahoo.com.
(Web site under construction:
http://www.ekminspirations.com).
