Match your skills with their needs - a cover letter
technique
Sourced: jobdig.com. Author: Carole Martin.
The number of resumes received by employers continues to be
overwhelming as the job market begins to pick up this year. The
challenge for you, as a job seeker, is to get your cover
letter/resume noticed-to stand out from the crowd. More and more
candidates are using a cover letter/resume that demonstrates the
"match" between the employer's requirements (Your Needs) and the
skills and experience that they have to offer (My
Qualifications).
An example of this type of cover letter/resume is shown below.
For some candidates ths can be a very effective tool.
| Your Needs |
My Qualificaions |
| Marketing Experience |
- 5+ years as a marketing consultant
- Significant customer-oriented technology marketing in the
retail industry.
|
| Product Management Experience |
- Led product marketing efforts for an on-line store.
- Spearheaded product management efforts for a major retail chain
as a product manger
|
| Analyitcal Abilities |
- Excellent qualitative and quantitative marketing analysis with
high impact results
|
| Interpersonal Skills |
- Leadership qualities with the ability to lead projects and
teams to highly successful outcomes.
- Ability to communicate through presentations to all levels of
management. Strong ability to influence others.
|
The more technically able you are the more creative you can be
with boxes and grids.
Even if you decide not to use this type of document, this
exercise will help you familiarize yourself with how close a match
you are for the position you are applying for. A few steps will
make it an easy task that can serve you well in the long run.
Begin by reading the ads/postings carefully. Notice that there
are some of the same words included in every ad for your type of
job. An example would be ads for an Executive Secretary where the
word "confidentiality" appears consistently. If you were applying
for that particular position you would want to include the word
"confidential" in your resume and cover letter and show how you
have used that skill in past jobs. These words are called the "key
factors" or the "key competencies" required to do the job. (Your
Needs)
By reading job postings carefully and looking for the words that
are repeated or stand out as being the most important factors to
perform the job you will become familiar with the company or
industry jargon used and what skills are being sought for the type
of jobs you are seeking.
Practice identifying key factors in job postings or ads that are
of interest to you. Go through postings or ads and use a
highlighter to mark words as you read. What are the common words
used in almost every description? What they are looking for? What
are the qualifications listed? How do your skills match up against
their requirements? Make a list of the key words and requirements
to use in your cover letter/resume.
Next, make a template for your new cover letter/resume. On one
side of the template type in "Your Needs." On the other side type
"My Qualifications." Use this template to write an individual
document for each job you apply for matching what they are looking
for against what you have to offer. Be sure that your resume is as
close a match as possible to the posting/ad that you are responding
to.
As is the case with any cover letter or resume style it will
depend on your resume reader as to how effective this style will
be. Some resume readers like it because it "cuts to the chase."
Others don't like it because it is too simplistic. If you are not
experiencing the results that you were hoping for and need a new
angle to get "your foot in the door" this may be the ticket for
you. Who knows you just might get a surprise with a quick response?
Anything is worth trying in this very competitive market.
Link to Original Article