5 Tips that Can Help You Become a Better Speaker

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Getting over the fear of speaking in public.


Speaking in public is one of the most common fears that people have. Just the thought of it can bring even the most pulled together of us to break out in a cold sweat. It doesn't even have to be on a stage or to a large group to make the anxiety kick in. In fact, for many people who are looking for a job, this fear hinders there ability to do things like write a great cover letter, interview without nervous mistakes or even just making a follow up phone call.


If you have this fear, it's nothing to be ashamed of. It happens to the majority of us. The thing is, speaking in public doesn't have to be a painful process. The key is to find ways to get others interested in what you are saying. Once you have an audience listening to what you have to say, the nerves disappear.


Here are 5 tips that can help you be a better speaker and get rid of anxiety:


Tell a story - Think about it. We all love a good story. Stories ignite our imagination and make us interested in finding out what happens next. Make your resume, cover letter and even interview responses tell a story about who you are and what you have to offer. Think about your story and arrange your presentation around that. This way, when an employer reads your cover letter and resume, they will see the story of you.


Respect your audience - One mistake that many people who are nervous about speaking in public make is trying to impress their audience. In an interview, coming in with the goal of impressing a hiring manger often backfires. It can come off as being arrogant. Instead of having the goal of impressing them; try to respect them and make a real connection.


Make eye contact - They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul, so use them to show that you mean what you are saying. I don't know about you, but I instinctively don't trust people who won't look me in the eye. Even if you are speaking to a group, take a moment to make eye contact with each person. When you look at them, they feel more involved and connected. Without good eye contact, anything you say feels like you are just reciting information rather than just talking.


Repeat the important points - When writing a speech or just outlining the things you want to say in an interview, keep in mind that the most effective speakers tell you what they are going to say, then they say it, then they tell you what they said. For example, you can start by saying that you are an excellent fit for the job because you have the skills, training and motivation to be the best. Then, tell them about it. After, mention that with all of the assets you bring to the table, you believe that you would make a great member of their team. It might seem a bit repetitive at first, but research has shown that people believe the things they hear more than once - even when the same person is telling them it.


Keep it simple - Our brains have limits and when it comes to remembering things, this is especially true. Try to keep your presentation down to less than 7 key points. Anything more than that and you audience will become confused and lose interest. Personally, I think that filtering it down to three or four key points works best. For example, if you say that you have the skills, training and proven track record of success for a job, touch on those three things, then summarize.


If you think that your anxiety about speaking in public is holding you back, or you want to become a better speaker, look for local classes at your public library, toastmasters group or community college.


Are you afraid of speaking in public? What things help you overcome it? Please share your thoughts in the comments.




By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for PhillyJobsBlog and Beyond.com, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.

Related articles

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• 4 Resume & Interview Tips (logisticsjobsiteblog.com)
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Put Your Job Search In High Gear

Jump start your job search with these tips.

The holidays are a tough time to be looking for a job. Many companies put off hiring until the new year, but many are accepting applications now in order to be ready when the holidays are over.

It's easy to slack off on your job hunting during the holidays. There are so many distractions that it can be hard to stay focused. The important thing is to make the most of every opportunity.

Here are a few tips to help you stand out and put your search in high gear:

• Create an elevator pitch -An elevator pitch is something that sounds hard but really isn't. The idea is to come up with a 30 second speech that says who you are and what you offer. It should be something that you can include in a cover letter, say at an interview or networking event. Take the time to make your elevator pitch compelling and use it often.

• Don't isolate yourself - When you're out of work, it's really easy to feel isolated from society. Don't let this happen to you. Especially during the holidays, don't let shame about your job situation keep you from attending family gatherings and re-connecting with friends. You never know when one of these connections might give you the opening you need to find the right job.

• Follow up, follow up - If you submit an application, send in a resume or even have an interview, be sure to follow up with the company. A quick follow up call can remind the hiring manager who you are and give them a reason to look at your resume again. Of course, if you go overboard and harass them, you'll leave a negative impression, but a reasonable follow up will make you stand out.

• Write a custom cover letter every time - Every time you send in a resume, take the time to write a cover letter specifically for the job you want. Your cover letter doesn't have to be long, just three paragraphs. In it, be sure to mention who you are and what your experience is. Then, let the employer know why you are the best candidate for the job and then thank them for their time. Your cover letter should mention the key job requirements and how you measure up to them. Make it easy for the hiring manager to see that you are perfect for the job by showing them in the cover letter that your resume is worth reading.

• Stay positive -When you are looking for a job, depression is a real turn-off. Look for ways to stay positive and get excited about your search.

What do you do to rev up your job search? Do you find the holiday season distracting? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for HealthcareJobsiteBlog and Beyond.com.. Along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.

Related articles

• 3 Ways To Stay Excited About Your Job Search (healthcarejobsiteblog.com)
• 4 Mistakes Frustrated Job Seekers Make (logisticsjobsiteblog.com)
• 4 Things on Your Resume That Make You Look Bad (healthcarejobsiteblog.com)

4 Things on Your Resume That Make You Look Bad

Don't be this guy,

When you are looking for a new job, especially in such a difficult job market, your resume and cover letter are the first, and sometimes only, impression a potential employer will have about you. This is why it's so important to make every word count. Not only that, but you have to be aware of the overall impression your resume makes.

You may not know it, but there are several things that can make you look bad to an employer. Some of them will rule you out completely, while others will make them think twice about hiring you.

Even if you have some things on your resume that you know might raise an eyebrow or two, being prepared can make a world of difference.

Here are 4 on your resume things that make you look bad:

• Resumes with spelling and grammar mistakes – We all make mistakes, and no one expects perfection from any employee. However, when it comes to your resume, you should be able to deliver an error free document. A great tip for better proofreading is to proof your document backwards. By starting at the bottom and working upwards, you can prevent your brain from skipping over small words and errors. Careless errors on your resume indicate that either you didn't take applying for the job very seriously or that you don't pay attention to details. Either way, they most likely won't hire you.
  
  
• Not following directions- If the job advertisement says that they need you to apply in a certain manner, make sure that you do it exactly how they say. Not following the instruction will probably rule you out for the position. Did you know that many employers put requests like “submit salary requirements with resume” mainly to weed out the people who are just sending copies of their resume to every job opening?
  
  
• Using your work email- This is always tacky. You should never, ever do this. When you send out resumes from your work email it gives the impression that you are conducting your job search on you current employer's time which is extremely unprofessional. But even if you are, don't make it obvious. Hiring managers are smart enough to know that if you will take advantage of that employer, you will take advantage of them as well. So, don't rip off your employer when you are looking for a new one.
  
  
• Employment gaps- So many of us have periods of time when we were out of work. It isn't a deal breaker, but it does raise questions. If you have several gaps, you should explain them in your cover letter. The main thing a new employer wants to find out is if you are going to be able to stay with their company long enough to make hiring you worth their investment.
  

When you know what employers are looking for, it's a little easier to be prepared. Use your own common sense when you apply for jobs. Think about who is going to be reading your resume and make sure that you present yourself in the most flattering light.

What other things do you think raise eyebrows? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for HealthcareJobsiteBlog and Beyond.com.. Along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.

Related articles

• 5 Reasons Why Your Resume Is Crucial (healthcarejobsiteblog.com)
• The Do's and Don'ts of Cover Letters (healthcarejobsiteblog.com)
• Are They Even Reading My Resume? 5 Reasons Resumes End Up In The Trash (phillyjobsblog.com)

5 Ways to Make Your Resume a Winner

How to make your resume stand out.

I've recently been amping up my job search, and with that, I had to go back and polish up my resume. I know that I write a lot about how to make your resume stand out, but it was still tricky when I was doing it myself. Of course, I know all too well how important a great resume and a killer cover letter are. I'm aware of how important it is to focus on your achievements and tailor your resume for the job you want. Still, I was struggling.

On the plus side, I managed to create a document that I was really proud of. In the process, I was able to come up with 5 ways to make the entire process a little easier:

• Write down everything - Don't make the mistake of getting a resume template and trying to just fill in the blanks. Instead, start off with some prep work. First, open a blank document and write down everything that you think might be important about your career so far. Don't worry about how long this takes, just write it all down and think back to make sure that you haven't forgotten anything. This will help you get all of the information fresh in your mind and will make it much, much easier to distill into a brief resume.

• Get rid of the not-so-important stuff - When you go back over the big list of everything, you'll see loads of things that you just don't need to include. You can get rid of anything that isn't very impressive, that is outdated or just sounds overused. For example, if you have a career in customer service you may not need to list "answered the phone in a timely manner" on each job description.

• Steer clear of overused phrases - This is a biggie. If you want to make your resume stand out and look different from the hundreds of other resumes, you have to do something different. Your accomplishments and experience alone aren't going to be enough, because if you look like everyone else, no one is even going to read it long enough to find out. With that in mind, get rid of phrases like "strong work ethic", "Team player", "Punctual". Of course you are going to say that you are a good employee, that you like to be on time and you can play well with others. I'm sure that you can come up with something better to tell a future employer about why they should hire you.

• Show, don't tell - Let's say you worked at a coffee shop for the past few years. Instead of saying that you served coffee to a large number of customers, try saying that you "Promoted and helped increase sales by 40%" or however much your shop had grown. This takes the same information and changes it into something that a hiring manager can actually understand. Unless your coffee shop continued to lose money while you worked there, you should be able to show this information rather than just telling them.

• Use keywords - I know that I've said this before, but it's still true. When you read a job description, make sure that you add the exact keywords that the employer used. This one is huge. Most of the time, resumes are scanned for relevant keywords and the rest aren't even read. If that is how resumes are being sorted (and it definitely is) then be smart and put the keywords in.

• Proofread, proofread then proofread again - Nothing makes you look as bad as making spelling errors or using the wrong words on your resume. This is your primary marketing tool so make sure that it is spot-on perfect. If you are a poor speller, use spell check and then get a trusted (and hopefully smart) friend to proofread it to make sure that you didn't use the wrong versions of two,to,too or their and they're, your and you're etc.. Once you think that it is perfect, read it again from the bottom up, looking at every word and every bit of punctuation.

Hopefully some of these tips will help you get started and create a winning resume. Good luck!

What are you best tips for making your resume great? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for HealthcareJobsiteBlog and Beyond.com.. Along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.

Related articles

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Are They Even Reading My Resume? 5 Reasons Resumes End Up In The Trash

If you are going to take the time to apply for a job, make sure that your resume doesn't end up in the trash can.

When you are looking for a new job, one of the most frustrating things is sending in resume after resume, and not hearing anything back from any of the companies you applied with. It has happened to me more times than I care to remember. It feels like I'm emailing cover letters and resumes to a black hole, because I don't hear anything back.

With the tough job market, not only are you having to compete against a large pool of candidates but employers and recruiters are being overwhelmed by the sheer number of applicants for every job opening.

For them, the goal is to find the best qualified person at the best price. In order to achieve that goal in the most effective way, they have to sort through the stack of resumes they've received and toss out the ones that don't look promising.

It might sound cruel and while there is a chance that they could be throwing out several diamonds in the rough, the truth is that they just don't have the time to go through all of them.

In order to keep your resume from being overlooked, here are 5 of the most common reasons why a resume ends up in the trash:

1. No subject line – Especially if you are submitting your resume to a recruiter, it's important to reference the job title in the subject line of your email. Recruiters are generally very busy people and have several job searches going on at the same time. If they can't tell which job you are applying for, they can't do anything with your resume.
   
   
2. You didn't include a cover letter – Cover letters are really important. No matter what you may hear or read, they are always worth the effort. Maybe you don't have to have one, but they certainly don't hurt. They take a little bit of time, but when you are asking someone to give you a job, it's worth the extra work.
   
   
3. Your cover letter is too long – Think short and sweet here. You don't need a two page cover letter. The ideal cover letter is 3 paragraphs long. The first paragraph is a brief introduction, the second says why you think you are a good fit and touches on your qualifications and the third simply closes the letter.
   
   
4. You don't live near the job – If you don't live within a reasonable commuting distance from the job, you probably won't be considered for it. If you are planning to move to a new town and are applying for jobs before you move, include that information in your cover letter. Just a quick sentence that gives the employer an idea of when you are moving can make a huge difference. Otherwise, they probably won't even read your resume.
   
   
5. Your resume is hard to understand – If they have to think too hard to figure out what you are trying to say in your resume, they will probably just toss it. If you are having trouble making your resume easy to read, then get help. Professional resume writers can make a big difference.

Don't let your resume end up being deleted or thrown away without being read. Before you apply for another job, make sure that you are giving yourself the best chance to shine.

If you are a hiring manager, what other things can cause you to throw out a resume without even reading it? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for PhillyJobsBlog, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.

5 Reasons Why Your Resume Is Crucial

Believe it or not, many people still think that having a great resume isn't that important. Here are 5 reasons why your resume should be your best work.

When you are looking for a job, your resume is your first, and sometimes only, marketing tool. I have been talking with other job seekers lately, and I keep hearing them say that they don't understand why it matters so much if their resume isn't tailored to each job. I mean, they are supposed to be looking for the best employee, not just the best resume writer. Right?

Actually, that couldn't be further from the truth. When hiring managers are sorting through a pile of resumes, they are forced to make judgments about your ability as an employee bases on just this documents. If your resume and cover letter are filled with errors, are sloppy or just don't make sense, then they will assume that you have the same issues.

Here are 5 reasons why your resume is cruical:

1. Your livelihood depends on it – If you make careless errors on your resume or don't want to invest time and energy into making it perfect, you are basically telling an employer that you can't produce a document that gets results, even if your livelihood depends on it. That doesn't make you a great candidate.
   
   
2. You are demonstrating that you know how to use a computer – The process of preparing the documents and emailing them to an employer shows them that you are familiar with how to send office correspondence via a computer. Even if the job doesn't require huge computer skills, most companies will require you to at least be familiar with how to attach files and send email. Sending files that are in the wrong format or not using a subject line in your email all show that you aren't someone who can handle those tasks.
   
   
3. It shows that you can get things done, and ask for help – If you aren't a great resume writer or don't have good computer skills, get someone to help you. There will be times at any job when you are given a task that you don't feel capable of doing on your own. These are the times when you will have to ask for help. So, if you don't think that you are able to make your resume stand out on your own, hire a resume writing service or ask friends for help.
   
   
4. Your resume and work experience shows your flexibility – Your previous experience shows how capable you are at adapting to new situations. When you apply for a job, customize your resume and cover letter to the job. This way, the employer will get the most relevant information about you, but they will also see that you are able to change your presentation to match the circumstance. This is a great quality in an employee.
   
   
5. Your resume and cover letter are your first project for an employer – Every time you send in a resume and cover letter to a potential employer, you are completing a sample project for them. Of course, you want to show them that you are able to give them what they asked for without making any errors. Presenting them with a half-hearted document that isn't targeted to what they asked for just shows that you didn't read the job description, or that you didn't care enough to give them the results they wanted.

In today's job market, your resume and cover letter are more important than ever. Think of it as a sample project and do your best to deliver the information they need to make an informed decision about you as an employee.

Do you tailor your resume to each job? Have you used a resume writing service? Let me know in the comments.

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for HealthcareJobsiteBlog. Along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.

Cover Letters - Why They Are Still Important

Lately, when I talk to people who are in the job market, or read comments on various blogs across the internet, I keep hearing people say that they don't send cover letters because they don't think that they are necessary. Some people even went so far as to say that they think that cover letters are the equivalent to “brown-nosing”.

But, the even more interesting thing is that the constant feedback from hiring managers and recruiters is that the cover letter is the key to getting a feel for who the applicant is and how they will fit with the company. According to them, they look at the cover letter along with the resume.

Typically, they skim over the cover letter, then look over the resume. If the applicant's resume has the required experience and training to meet the job description, they re-read the cover letter to get an idea of who you are and why you think that you would be a good fit for the job. The cover letter is your chance to give your pitch to the person making the hiring decision. It is your time to make whatever points you think would make a difference in the decision making process. For example, if you really think that you would be great at a specific job, and you have many, but not all, of the qualifications they mentioned in the job posting, the cover letter is where you can address that. This lets the employer know that you did read their posting and gives you the opportunity to make your case.

Because the cover letter is your chance to make your pitch to an employer, you should be sure to write one specifically for each job you are apply for. Form letters are easy to spot and it gives the impression that you are just going down the list and applying for every job opening.

Some of the arguments against cover letters just don't make much sense. Someone said that writing individual cover letters is a waste of time and seems to be less productive than sending just a resume. They figured that in the amount of time it took to write and edit a cover letter, they could have applied to many more jobs thus increasing their applications per hour rate, and somehow lessening their chances at finding a job. And, while I can sort of understand the reasoning, it is an argument that just doesn't hold up. The idea of applying to as many jobs as possible and sending resumes to every job opening may have been a workable strategy back when the job market was in good shape and employers were desperate to find qualified applicants. These days, they have more applicants than openings and job seekers have to work a bit harder to stand out.

In this job market, it isn't the quantity that counts. Selecting a few openings that you know you are qualified for and sending in a cover letter telling the company what your experience is and why you would be an asset to their company, along with your resume is the best way to land an interview. It shows the employer that you are interested in working for them, not just interested in finding a place that will give you a paycheck.

Keep in mind that the application process is your first interaction with a company and it is their first impression of who you are as a person and as an employee. In fact, sending in your resume is probably the first task you will have to complete for the company. How you accomplish it will tell them a great deal about what sort of employee you are. Are you someone who looks for short cuts and just really wants any job that they can get, or are you someone who doesn't cut corners and does their research to find companies that are right for them and sends a personal letter to them along with a list of their qualifications? And which one of those people would you want to hire?

What do you think about cover letters? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Are you looking for a job in the Philadelphia area? Check out PhillyJobs.

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.

The Laid-Off Life: My Baby She Wrote Me a Cover Letter

"The speaker who hops to the platform, skips the introduction, and jumps to the conclusion is roundly applauded." – Unknown

Dear Sir or Madam: My name is Michael, and I really really wanna work for you. I’m good, and you’re good, so let’s be good together. So, when do I start? Résumé attached. Love, Michael.


I have been hearing a lot of chatter lately in the Laid-Off Life world about cover letters, or 'CL's. (Seriously people, do we have to have abbreviations and acronyms for everything?) It seems a lot of people in the world of human resources are starting to disseminate the idea that cover letters are now passé, like 4:3 televisions and skinny ties. 4PhillyJobs’ posted an article on Twitter recently by Perry Newman, who is a "nationally recognized executive resume writer, career coach, and certified recruiter", who stated in his article 'Cover Letters: To Send or Not to Send, This is the Question':

[Recruiters] do not have the time or inclination to read or receive a cover letter. To them it is another piece of useless clutter on their desk or inbox. The odds of reading your cover letter and sending it up the line are slim. [My] opinion is if a cover letter is not specifically required, it can do more harm than good.

Wow. That really goes against everything we were taught in job-finding school (which apparently I went to in the 1800s). Doesn’t it seem rude to just shove a résumé in a hiring manager’s face without introduction? Now, in Mr. Newman’s defense (and I love his popcorn), he was giving both sides of a pro-and-con argument, but he is not the first one I’ve seen sounding the death knell of the cover letter. I can understand the uselessness of a cover letter in the world in which we now live where recruiters, hiring managers, and HR professionals rarely read job submissions and applications thanks to the proliferation of HR keyword software. How many cover letters are read by a human now? 25% 10%? Less? Ok, so here’s the dilemma: cover letters are irrelevant, but you need to keyword-blanket your cover letter? Seems as if you need a cover letter that sounds something like: Dear Sir or Madam: Hard-working, HTML knowledge, team player, five-years’ experience, leadership qualities. Thank you, Michael. If that gets you the job, I just need to give up and go stock shelves at Costco.


The old rules used to say a good cover letter needs to highlight your best qualities, summarize your experience, and explain why Buy’N’Large Company can’t live without you. They should be specific to the company and position you’re applying to. And they should be limited to one page. I guess, even as a writer looking for a job as a writer, my cover letter may have been too long? Too specific? Too good? I’ll tell you, my cover letters are killer. But that’s not what an HR person, or a keyword extractor program is looking for.

There are of course, many many pitfalls to cover letter writing. Just like your résumé, you’re dead-in-the-water if your CL is a boilerplate form letter. Jessica Holbrook, a fellow Beyond.com/PhillyJobs.com contributor and résumé expert explained it well, saying:

I was amazed—or should I say appalled—at the blanket responses we received from job seekers. Potential candidates sent us cover letters describing experience they possessed that was completely irrelevant to our opening; it was the same as someone having a degree in veterinary medicine but seeking employment as an IT director. Did these job seekers really think that going on and on for paragraphs about irrelevant experience was going to make me want to read their resume—or even more so—interview them?

Exactly. And that’s the problem: a cover letter can do much more damage than help you if you’re not doing it right. "[Job seekers] are sending out countless job applications as quickly as humanly possible," she continues, "probably exasperated by the sheer volume of applications they feel pressured to submit." Which is problem number two. I don’t want to think about the number of jobs I’ve applied to since I’ve been looking. The number would scare you and send you running under the covers. But the game remains the same: no matter how many résumés you’re sending out, and no matter how many résumés a company is receiving, it comes down to the company wanting to feel as if you are interested in them more than anyone else. You found their company, their job opening, and it’s the one place in the world you wish to work. Therefore, your cover letter has to be tailored to that company, and as importantly, that person. The job listing you found doesn’t have a recruiter’s name attached? You better find it. Can’t find it? You’re not trying hard enough.

Go to the company’s website and look for names in the 'about us' and 'contact' sections. Find the hiring manager, a relevant department head, and/or the human resources manager, and his-or-her email address. Not there? Go find the company on LinkedIn, and find the applicable person’s name. Go to Google, and search "Lindsay Fünke" and "@BluthCompany.com" (or whatever the domain). I bet dirhams-to-donuts that something relevant shows up. Those tricky managers can run, but they cannot hide from a search engine expert like you.

Can’t find an email address? Find any email from the company online so you know the naming convention. And take your best shot. Found gbluth@bluthcompany.com? Good guess that your target will be lfunke@bluthcompany.com. Send your email to this person. Direct your cover letter to this person. Address your cover letter to this person. And if you feel comfortable doing do (and a lot of people aren't), just call the company and ask the receptionist for names and email addresses (if you can get a human on the phone, and even if you do, they may not give out that kind of information). And don’t forget, your résumé needs to be molded to your recipient too to underscore how you fit them.

What about those blind listings that don’t even tell you what company it’s listed for? If you find nothing after Google’ing the keywords (ha!) in the posting, you won’t have a choice but to generalize your cover letter. But fret none: the odds are that if they’re that hard to find, chances are that a) they know you can’t find it, and b) no human will be looking at it anyway.

So, back to the point about cover letter vs. no cover letter. I think most experts would agree that a cover letter is still germane, but it’s not a rehash of your résumé, a place to oversell yourself, nor an autobiography. So, as always, content is key. Make it short. Make it applicable to the job and company you’re sending to. Make sure you have a good mix of keywords lifted directly from the job posting. Don’t rehash your résumé. Explain anything you find it necessary to. Follow any directions (like if they want you to confirm the number of years’ experience you have or what your salary history is). And keep. It. Brief.

So think of your cover letter more like an introduction to your résumé, and to you, and less like a prose version of your résumé. Save that for your interview. And if you’re a writer like me, or any kind of creative type, or anyone applying for a job where communication skills are vital, or where image is important, or, well, anyone, that cover letter better look good (and, do I even need to say, free of spelling and grammar errors) because that’s your first impression you won’t be getting back. As Mr. Newman summarizes, "Just explain what job you are applying for, that the résumé will show why you are a good fit, and offer to include contact information and availability for an interview."

Which is all well-and-good if anyone bothers to read it.



Michael Hochman
LaidOffLife@yahoo.com ◙ Laid-Off Life on Twitter ◙ Laid-Off Life on Facebook

Michael is a Copywriter, Creative Marketer, and Broadcasting Professional still in search of full-time employment after 14 months of full-time job hunting, thanks to an "involuntary career sabbatical". A Philly native and Syracuse graduate, Michael will gladly accept any job offer you may have for him. Any. Really. Please give me a job??

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"Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called everybody, and they meet at the bar." - Drew Carey