| Why Aren't I Getting Interviews? |
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- Effective Interview Skills - Tips For A Successful Interview
- Your Job Interview Is Like A Blind Date
- Answering those Nerve Racking Interview Questions
- Interview No No's
- What to Do and What Not To Do During a Job Interview
- Three Tricky Interview Styles - And How To Ace Them
- Five Tips For Your Exit Interview
- Five Tips To A Successful Interview Follow-Up Letter
- Types of Interview Questions
- 10 Things You Must Do Before That Successful Interview
- 8 Interview Mistakes You Should Avoid
- Be Ready to Answer the Top 10 Job Interview Questions
- Fear of Interview for a Job
- Common Interview Questions and how best to answer them
- Job Interview - Varieties & Types
- Got a job Offer in the USA
- Ready for Your first job?
- Want an Internship? Make the right efforts
- Silly Mistakes to Avoid on Your Resume & During The Job Interview
- Telephonic Interviews
- Importance of Self Confidence For A Successful Interview
- Job Interview - Are You Prepared For It?
- Behavioural Interview
- You and Your Interview
- Common Telephone Etiquettes To Follow During Professional Conversations
- Simple & Essential Interview Etiquettes To Follow
- Commonly Asked & Toughest Interview Questions
- Standard Interview Questions
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| Using Your Cover Letter to Turn Weaknesses into Strengths |
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| When applying for a new job, it can sometimes be difficult to explain a huge gap in employment, or lack of relevant employment, when all you have is your resume to do the talking. This is why it is recommended that you include a cover letter with your resume. |
| But what can a cover letter do for you? |
| It can give the prospective employer insight into who you are as a person, as well as why you want to work for their company. And it can also give you the opportunity to turn what may look like weaknesses on your resume into strengths. |
Let’s look at a few ways this can be accomplished. |
Focus on Your Special Skills If you don’t have a lot of jobs to list on your resume, but you do have relevant skills that you’ve acquired over the years, you can use your cover letter to explain what looks to be a lack of experience. A great way to get started is by creating a list of skills you’ve developed that match the company’s job posting, mission and culture. Next you can use the cover letter to explain how those skills can enhance the company. For example, you may be an expert typist capable of accurately typing 80 WPM, which is perfect for the data entry position you’re interested in. The only drawback is that you didn’t gain your expertise from your last 20 years as a housewife and part-time babysitter. Instead, you picked it up while volunteering as your church’s secretary over the past decade. In this case, you can use your cover letter to highlight this skill and turn around what might be perceived as a lack of job experience. |
| Hobbies Are Not Off-Limits Many people have hobbies that they spend a lot of time focusing on and eventually want to turn into careers. For example, you may love to work on computers and have expertise with both hardware and software applications, which has nothing to do with your string of jobs working in factories. You decide that you are interested in applying for a position with a small start-up company that needs an entry-level IT technician. You know you’re perfect for it but don’t know how to prove it. That is, until you remember that you keep up with all of the technology, have taken some classes at a local college, and have years of experience fixing computers in your community. By explaining all of this in your cover letter, you have a chance to showcase the experience you’ve gained. |
Keep Your Explanations Simple While you want to use your cover letter to fill in gaps in your job history, you don’t want the employer to spend too much time thinking about the possibility of you being a weak candidate. So instead of spending a lot of time explaining why your skills and hobbies are stellar, it is a good idea to instead keep this part as brief as you would in any other cover letter. Having gaps in your work history doesn’t have to define your capabilities as an employee.
So try using your cover letter to highlight your special skills. You might be surprised by the success that follows. |
| Creating Resumes for Contract and Temporary Positions |
Looking to apply for a new contract or temporary position but are unsure of how to create the right resume? You’ll be happy to know that writing resumes for these types of positions is not as difficult as you think. |
The major difference between resumes for temporary or contract work and those for permanent positions is the need to more specifically focus on your accomplishments and personality. Let’s explore some ways you can get this done. |
| "I'm a Quick Learner" When applying for a temporary or contract position, the prospective employer often expects you to arrive with some knowledge of the work they do. And if you don’t have the knowledge, they hope that you can learn it very quickly. Likewise, if you are a contract worker, you may have your own business specializing in their field, which also means that the employer probably will expect you to hit the ground running. So how can you convince them that you are the right person for the job? One way is by highlighting those responsibilities that showcase how flexible and adaptable you are. For example, if you are applying for a temporary clerical position, you might mention that in your four-week stint with Anheuser-Busch, you supported both the sales and legal departments by completing a variety of clerical tasks – then describe those tasks in detail. This information lets them know that not only are you qualified to take on a clerical position, but that you also can multitask under the pressure of two departments and complete numerous projects within a short period of time. |
| List the Companies You’ve Worked For If you’ve been temping for a while, it may feel natural to write down the names of any agencies that you’ve worked with instead of the companies they’ve introduced you to. However, it’s not a bad idea to list the companies, mainly because this is where you’ve gained the experience you’re now trying to market to the prospective employer. As a temporary worker, by telling them the companies you’ve worked for, they can better determine what types of skills you’ve acquired as well as the likelihood of you successfully completing their projects. However, as a contractor you will not have this concern if you make it a practice to approach companies on your own for work. |
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| Show Them You Can Fit In Another great way to get your foot in the door as a temp or contractor is by convincing the prospective employer that you fit into their organizational culture. Most times, this means making an effort to research their company for information that will help you understand their goals. By showing them that their goals and your skills and accomplishments are well aligned, they are likely to develop the impression that you will transition easily into their company and get the job done with minimal training. Working a temporary or contract position can provide you with a great opportunity to highlight how versatile, adaptable, and truly talented you are. So let your resume showcase this dynamic side of your personality when searching for your next short-term position. |
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| Written By :samy |
