Summary and Tips

Cover Letter Summary and Tips

• Make sure your cover letter is as concise and relevant as possible, remember, you may only have a 30 second window of opportunity to sell yourself
• There are three basic things you need to communicate clearly and concisely to a potential employer in your cover letter:
  • The position you are applying for
  • The skills you bring to the company that satisfy the requirements of that position
  • The action you would like to happen next
• It can reflect badly on you if you express yourself poorly or you don't get to the point
• Don’t state information in the cover letter which can be found in your resume, but use this as an opportunity to highlight key attributes or areas of experience
• When writing a cover letter, make sure you customise a resume for every position you apply for
• Write a new cover letter for every job application
• Make sure the contact name, position, company and address is correct
• Keep the letter to a single page
• Unless a handwritten response is specifically asked for, type your letter
• After your resume, your cover letter is generally your most important employment tool, so the better it reads when applying for a job, the better your chances are of landing an interview
• Every potential employer expects to hear about your achievements, but presenting the ones that best represent your relevant experience or transferable skills is critical

Resume Summary and Tips

• If your resume has a typo or grammatical error, it will probably jump off the page to an employer, and this is one way to weed you out of the candidate pool
• Your resume may be the only chance you get to make an impression, so make it a good one
• You no longer have to include details under headings such as gender, age, marital status, religion, ethnicity or health - it can make your resume look dated and this personal information is not relevant to your ability to do the job
• If you do include a career objective make sure you rewrite it, even slightly, to match each job you apply for
• Make sure you maintain a consistent style to allow for quick scanning and comprehension of your resume
• Don't just describe your duties and responsibilities, emphasise your achievements and show how you contributed to your employer's business
• As a general guide, the less recent your qualification, the less information you provide
• Choose your referees carefully; it’s a good idea to gain someone's agreement before listing them as a referee
• It is courtesy to advise referees that they may be contacted
• The claims you make in your resume about your accomplishments and achievements are strengthened and have more credibility if you can provide good examples
• A well laid out document that is easy on the eye and leads the reader smoothly through the information is more effective than something crammed full of information that makes it impossible to decipher it
• Tailor your resume for each application you submit. Every job is different and requires a different mix of skills and experience
• Try not to focus your resume on what you want. Instead, understand the needs and problems facing the employer
• Presentation/Layout Do’s –
  • Use good quality white or off-white paper
  • Use a common and easily read font
  • Make best use of available space
  • Use page numbers
  • Check and recheck spelling and grammar
• Presentation/Layout Don’ts –
  • Use tiny font size or lines of italic
  • Use clip art
  • Include a photograph of yourself
  • Waste paper on a cover sheet
  • Use coloured paper (it doesn’t fax or photocopy clearly)
  • Trust your computers spell check

Interview Summary and Tips

• Always be on time! - This means not only don't be late, but don't be too early
• Never arrive with "baggage". If you walk in carrying unnecessary items, you may give the wrong first impression
• Smile
• Make eye contact and give a firm handshake
• Interviewers frequently use "small talk" to break the ice. Follow the interviewers lead on this, but don't initiate a lot of small talk yourself. This could set the wrong tone
• Verbalising your nervousness often reduces it and interviewers are usually empathetic
• Don't initiate any discussion about remuneration at the first interview. However be open and honest if the interviewer asks
• Common traps
  • Being too friendly
  • Not listening to questions carefully
  • Saying "we" instead of referring to your own achievements
  • Making very general statements which lack substance
  • Being over enthusiastic
  • Being poorly prepared
  • Slouching, mumbling, speaking slowly
  • Knowing nothing about the company to whom you are talking
  • Making derogatory remarks about your present or former employers