Simply Hired Blog

The differences between cover letters to hiring managers and headhunters

By Martin Yate CPC

A reader asks, "What are the differences between a cover letter to a recruiter and one to a hiring manager? Do you make the same points?" Good question. The simple answer is that while the overall structure and intent of the letter is the same...

• Sell to the customer's needs as you understand them
• Stick to 2-5 paragraphs
  • For a printed document never more than one page
  • For an email the same points apply, with your strongest selling points visible on the initial screen view of the page, with minimal scrolling beyond
• Legible 11 or 12 point Sans Serif font (the font has none of those touchy-feely curlicue touches that only Kindergarten teachers are authorized to use)

A hiring manager has one very specific set of needs and the better you can understand those stated needs and what is behind them, the more effectively your cover letter can speak to your ability to address them successfully. When you do this, it will establish relevance, arouse interest and build a bridge for two professionals to discuss a common interest.

Writing to a headhunter is a more complex issue. S/he represents a range of hiring managers and their interests, and is also keeping an eye out for interesting candidates for a wide range of past and potential future clients.

Many times when you will write to headhunters with no job opening in mind, but because they specialize in your profession/work. You hope they will introduce you to companies and hiring managers of whom you have never heard.

In these instances you obviously cannot sell yourself to one specific set of needs. Instead you will

• Introduce yourself as someone qualified for a certain type of job
• Address the skills and capabilities you bring to that work
• Identify the industries in which you have experience
• Identify the types of companies in which you have worked and been successful

If you are writing to a headhunter about one particular opening, you can address it in the same way as you would with a hiring manager. However, if you have a range of skills that qualify you for other openings, it would be wise in a closing sentence to reference that wider range of skills and to which jobs they might apply.

 

Martin Yate CPC, is the NY Times bestselling author of Knock em Dead The Ultimate Job Search Guide, and Secrets & Strategies For Success. As Dun & Bradstreet says, "He's really just about the best in the business." www.knockemdead.com

4 Steps to Show Off Your Personal Brand in Your Resume

What is a personal brand?

In the job search industry, you see people throwing that word around a lot. You might see, use social media for your personal brand, or, 27 ways personal branding can land you a job.

No, it has nothing to do with cows. Personal branding, much like corporate branding, is when an individual is associated with certain qualities or outcomes. Think about Donald Trump or the Kardashian family: they can slap their name on anything and you instantly develop an impression.

The job search today is a lot like sales. You are advertising yourself to employers through your resume and social media profiles in the hopes that one will pick you up and "buy" you, in a sense. Just like the Hershey’s bar in the supermarket, branding is essential in this job search "sale."

If your resume is your number one marketing document, it’s important for your personal brand to shine through. Check out these 4 steps to show off your personal brand in your resume:

Choose your words wisely

The first, and most crucial, step in establishing a personal brand anywhere is to choose specific keywords for your brand. Just like Coca-Cola is practically synonymous with "refreshing," pick certain words that are synonymous with you as a worker. To start, pick three solid words.

For bonus points, be sure to pick keywords that are in-demand. Which words resurface over and over in your research?

Write your headline

Nix your objective statement in favor of a professional headline at the top of your resume. This should be short and to the point. Include the keywords you just came up with in order to tell any reader exactly what kind of worker you are.

Connect your past

Take the words that you have so carefully chosen and connect them to your past experience. If one of your brand words is "organized," then including a bullet point about how you increased efficiency at your last job by X percent would make a lot of sense. If you're having a hard time connecting your past with your brand words, then you might be better off choosing a different word.

Tell a story

Once you've written your resume, proofread it a few times. Does it seem cohesive? Are you using your brand effectively throughout the document? Each point should gradually lead into the next building up to tell the story of you and your personal brand.

What do you think? How else can a job seeker show off their personal brand in their resume? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

 

Gerrit Hall is the CEO and co-founder of RezScore, a free web application that reads, analyzes, and grades resumes – instantly. Gerrit has successfully combined his passion for computer science and the careers space by helping job seekers write the best resume possible. You can connect with Gerrit and RezScore on Facebook and Twitter.

SimplyHired.com Releases January Employment Outlook

Today, SimplyHired.com released its January 2012 Employment Outlook highlighting national and local market outlooks, as well as industry and employer trends. According to the report, nationwide job openings fell slightly in December – down 1.9 percent month-over-month. However, December is a notoriously slow month for hiring, and job growth remained up 10.6 percent year-over-year when compared to 2010. 

On the local level, despite the overall slowdown in hiring, six of the top 50 metro areas experienced increases in job openings in the last month of the year. Raleigh & Durham posted the greatest increase, up 2.7 percent, followed by Birmingham, Norfolk & Newport News, Louisville, Sacramento and Oklahoma City.

Meanwhile, the transportation industry continued to enjoy a seasonal boost (up more than 11 percent month-over-month) due to the increased demand for package transport, and nine other industries experienced job growth in December. The legal industry had by far the largest growth (121.9 percent), followed by non-profit, agriculture, military, government, automotive, healthcare, education and technology.

For more information, read the full report and press release.

The Big Three Career Resolutions for 2012 - Part 3

By Martin Yate CPC

Career Resolution #3 - Connectivity and the skills of professional survival

In an insecure world of work, with job security a thing of the past, you obviously want to avoid the financial dislocation that comes with the traumas of unanticipated job change. For any clear-headed professional, enlightened self-interest dictates that you learn and apply the practical career survival strategies that will give you greater control over your destiny and better tools for managing the continuity of your employment.

Connectivity increases credibility, visibility and stability

Just as your company has an inner circle, so too does your profession, and becoming part of it delivers benefits that can have an immediate positive impact on your career.  The inner circle of your profession, those most committed and best connected, know each other through social networking and membership in professional associations.

Social networking, through Linkedin.com or one of the many other networking sites, allows you to reach out into an almost limitless community of like-minded professionals, on a local or global basis. These contacts can help you grow professionally, acting as mentors and allies. They can also help you in a job search today, or one planned for the future, with introductions at their own companies or to the right people at other companies.

Begin by linking up with people you have worked with in the past, then expand your network by joining the special interest groups and connect with others who share your professional interests.

These benefits make getting connected through LinkedIn , the premier networking site for professionals, one of the easiest and smartest career strategies for professional connectivity. There are many social networking sites, and it is probably a good idea to have a presence on two of the biggest, after LinkedIn, Facebook should be your second choice. For a complete listing of networking sites by special interests, languages, sex, race, and more, go to www.wikipedia.org and key in “social networks.”

You should also become a member in the local or regional chapter of a professional association. This offers similar benefits to social networking but on a smaller scale. However, association membership puts you on a recognize-in-the street basis with the most committed and best-connected people in your profession and local area; these are the people who can most immediately impact your career.

No one has ever thought to explain to you that with job and career change constant throughout your half-century work life, the most important skills you can develop for achieving success and fulfillment, are the skills of job search and career management; and of all the career management skills you need to develop, professional connectivity and your ability to network is the most important.

Career navigation is a critical-to-happiness aspect of your life and that deserves study and management. Make 2012 you study the building blocks of job search and career management that enable you compete in a fiercely competitive job market.

Martin Yate CPC, is the NY Times bestselling author of Knock em Dead The Ultimate Job Search Guide, and Secrets & Strategies For Success. As Dun & Bradstreet says, "He's really just about the best in the business." www.knockemdead.com

The Big Three Career Resolutions for 2012 - Part 2

By Martin Yate CPC

Career Resolution #2 - Protect your job and boost your employability

Do you know why your job exists? Strip away all the window dressing and at its core, your job exists for one simple reason: to identify, prevent and solve problems within its area of responsibility, in order to help the company make money, save money or otherwise improve productivity.

Try to see yourself and your work in this light: You are a problem solver with a particular area of expertise. This will lead you to engage in your work with new priorities:

• Execute every aspect of my work in ways that anticipate, identify and reduce the occurrence of the problems that typically plague my week
• Execute my responsibilities in ways that show respect for the responsibilities of others, both within my department and elsewhere, who in turn must deal with the product of my work
• Address the problems and challenges that occur within my areas of responsibility in an efficient, professional, timely and good-natured manner
• Learn something from the problems I tackle every day, that will help me improve personal productivity by anticipating preventable problems, and lessening the impact of the unpreventable ones

Unfortunately, technology constantly changes the skills you need to do your work. If you are not consistently developing new skills, you are being paid for abilities that are rapidly becoming obsolete; a situation that can cost you this job and your ability to find another.

There are many ways to protect your job and boost your employability, but first steps should always involve self-analysis and a talk with your boss. There isn't a boss in the world who doesn't appreciate a staffer asking for guidance about ways to improve skills and performance. Implement the advice you receive, and follow-up informally every 6-8 weeks to communicate both your progress and your commitment. Informal, but consistent, follow-up keeps you on the radar of those who matter.

In every department and company there is an inner circle and an outer circle, and these are the ways you make it into the inner circle; that place where plum assignments, raises, promotions and job security all live.

 

Martin Yate CPC, is the NY Times bestselling author of Knock em Dead The Ultimate Job Search Guide, and Secrets & Strategies For Success. As Dun & Bradstreet says, "He's really just about the best in the business." www.knockemdead.com