Career Information Online

I was interviewing candidates for a secretarial position in my previous company a few years ago.  In the advertisement for employment I stated that attention to detail was a requirement for the successful person.  I can’t tell you how many resumes and cover letters I received that had blatant spelling errors or formatting mistakes on them.  No matter what the employment background of the candidate there was no way I would hire someone who made a spelling error on their resume, not in the age of spell check.

The argument can be made that while this might have been true in the case of a secretary, good spelling isn’t necessarily a requirement for a salesperson or a computer programmer.  I disagree.  Your resume and cover letter are the tools you need to get an interview.  They are the first impression that a potential employer is going to get of you.  You don’t want this person to think you are careless or sloppy.

Take the time and proofread your cover letter and resume before you send it anywhere.  Step away from it for an hour or so and look at it again with fresh eyes.  Print it out and ask a friend or family member to look at it for you.  If it helps, read your resume backwards so you’re looking at the actual words and not filling in the context.  No matter what use the spell check function in your email and word processing programs.  Finally, verify that you are sending the resume to the person named in the advertisement and if you use a template email for resume submissions that you change any information

In my previous life in staffing I would see individuals apply for positions they are no way qualified for.  Often you would get a note on the cover letter saying “please consider me for any open positions” but when you have 100 or 200 resumes to look through you aren’t going to take the time (at that point) to contact this individual.  And people get busy, so that resume might be put over to the side and never contacted because of that.

A better way to approach this situation might be this:  If you see a position online that you don’t qualify for (maybe because of years of experience) but sounds interesting, call the contact person listed on that posting.  Tell him/her that you saw this position online but you don’t think your skills are an exact match BUT you do have these skills and would like to be considered for a position with their company.  Ask for a direct email address and/or direct fax number to get your resume over to this person for consideration for other jobs.  You’ll show some initiative by calling the person, and that person will be happy you aren’t another unqualified candidate blasting their resume to every open position on the job boards.

It could be argued that human beings are self-serving by nature.  I don’t mean this as a criticism of the human race, merely as a strategy to employ when creating a cover letter to be used in your job search.  Instead of asking the question “what’s in it for me” ask the question “what’s in it for you” with the you being your potential new employer.

When you look at a job posting you’ll see what a company is looking for – skills they want the candidate to bring to the company so they can help the company become more successful.  In other words, what can you do for the company.  When you write your cover letter take this approach.  Utilize the keywords, skills and background described in the advertisement to “sell” yourself to the hiring manager.  Build upon your background as described in your resume and tweak it in the cover letter to better match what the company is looking for in a candidate.  Never lie or fabricate skills to better fit the requirements of a position, and don’t take verbiage from your resume and paste it in the cover letter.    Give some concrete reasons why your skill set would be worth considering based on what you can do for the company.