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A resume cover letter can be just as important as your resume. In many cases, your cover letter can be the difference between getting an interview and having your resume ignored. Before you submit a resume for any job you should take the time to prepare a good cover letter.

Before you begin writing a cover letter you should be aware that are three different types. The application cover letter is used when you are responding to a job opening. The second type of cover letter, known as a prospecting cover letter, is used when you are inquiring about possible job positions. The third type, the networking cover letter, is used to request information and assistance in finding a position.

You should send the cover letter that is appropriate for the reason you are sending your resume. It is good to remember that a form cover letter is not a good idea when you are seeking employment. The best cover letters include information specific to the job you are applying for and why you are interested in gaining employment there.

Another help tip when writing a cover letter is to do a bit of research about the company you are sending your letter and resume to. Knowing about the company and the specific position demonstrate that you are highly interested because you have taken extra time and effort to learn about your prospective employer.

There are three very important areas that should be included in every cover letter. You should open the letter with a paragraph explaining why you are applying. A referral from someone that is already employed there is great and should be included in this paragraph as well. You should tell them how you found out that the position was available and include the resource name. Be sure to include the position title in this paragraph as well.

The second paragraph should be all about what you can bring to the company. Your experience and your skills that pertain to the position that is open should be explained in this paragraph. Your education and particular strong points that would be beneficial to the company should be explained in detail.

The final paragraph in the cover letter should explain what you will do to follow up about the position. You should give them a specific time frame that they should expect a follow up phone call or email from you. Be sure that the time frame that you provide them is convenient for you as well. You do not want to give a time frame and then not meet it.

You should advise the reader that you will provide references if they need them. You may want to find out the follow up policies for the company because some companies do not allow follow up phone calls or emails. They would prefer to contact you. If you are unsure of their preferences in this regards, you may want to change the last paragraph from telling them that you will call them to asking them to reach you. If you do this, be sure to include an email address or phone number that you will be available at.

Taking the time to write an effective cover letter presents an opportunity aside from your resume to sell yourself to a potential employer. A good cover letter also demonstrates your ability to communicate effectively in writing. This is a skill which is necessary for many positions. Cover letters are effective tools which can greatly increase your chances of being offered an interview and can help you to land that ideal position.

Writing a cover letter can be a tough challenge for some people. How exactly are you going to convey everything that you want? How will you make yourself rise above your competitors, which in this job market is fiercer than ever? One idea is to search for cover letter examples on the web to use as a guide. But even then, you should know what a good cover letter looks like. The good news is that you can follow some easy dos and don’ts to help you realize what should and should not be done. Going off of this kind of basic advice, you will be able to craft your own unique cover letters that will help you land the interview that gets you the career you always dreamed about.

The first “don’t” to remember when writing cover letters is don’t write an entire autobiography. A cover letter should be one page maximum, unless you were specifically told otherwise. This one page has to include all of the critical information that you want to share with this potential employer. This means relevant job histories and experiences, education, and more. Don’t try to make conversation, don’t add filler, and don’t ramble on and on. Stick to the most important points and you’ll make an impression as being direct, while also highlighting all of your best attributes.

One thing you should do is to create your cover letter as specifically as possible to the job that you’re applying to. This means that you shouldn’t have a one size fits all cover letter that you use for every job application. Your cover letter should talk specifically about individual experiences that you’ve had or lessons that you’ve learned that will apply specifically to this position. Talk about why this specific job gets you excited, and why you’d be the perfect candidate.

Still, while you don’t want to have a generic cover letter that you submit to everyone, there’s nothing wrong with crafting a couple of cover letter templates that will speed up the process when you apply to many jobs. For example, maybe you are going after three types of jobs – marketing positions, sales team positions, and entry level sales team management. You can write up a simple template of a cover letter for each of these three types of positions, which go into detail about the experiences and skills that apply to each.

Each time you apply to a specific job, you can fill in the blanks and mention specifically about why you would be a good fit for the job, why you would want it, and why you would excel. You’ll still be creating unique, highly focused cover letters, but you’ll be saving yourself a ton of time by not having to redo it from a blank page every time out.

Finally, the most critical “do” of creating cover letters is that you absolutely should talk yourself up. This is not the time to be modest. You should keep your resume “dry”, but the cover letter is the time to put in some emotion and opinion surrounding the facts. Sell yourself, and make yourself stand apart as different and desirable, or else you’re just another empty sheet of paper that will be put in the trash.

Writing a cover letter is not as an exact science. However, there are some tested and true tips that can make the process easier. Abide by dos and don’ts and you’ll be that much closer to crafting an amazing cover letter. When you do that, your dream job will finally be yours for the taking.

With a down economy and high unemployment, you should really think about where you want to live and whether or not that location is ideal for your family and future. Cost of living in a lot of areas right now is completely off par with the mean wages, not to mention these areas are showing higher than average job cuts. With both these aspects against you, it is important to really question your priorities and take an unbiased look at what you should do.

Washington has much to offer anyone looking to relocate. There are some very large companies in Washington, including Microsoft and Boeing to name a couple. The state also benefits from having a very large and active international trading port out of Seattle. Typically Washington is said to be in a bubble when recessions hit, unfortunately though this recession has had its toll even here. The plus side is that Spokane hasn’t seen nearly the amount of hardship as the rest of the nation. There are still many Spokane Jobs to be had and new companies opening their doors.

Spokane Washington has around 202,319 people in the city and over 462,677 residents in the Spokane county. This population makes the city a great place to live and work and the cost of living is very low compared to the amazing surroundings. Spokane has a decent sized downtown for its size and gives you that big city feel, just not with all the big city problems. The city’s motto is “Near Nature, Near Perfect” which is really a great one liner for the area. There are so many things to do in the near area, with nothing being further than forty-five minutes, that it is really an amazing fit for anyone who loves the outdoors.

The cost of living is Spokane is a lot lower than other cities it’s size. You can get a house in Spokane in a great neighborhood for close to $200,000 that would cost you well over $500,000 for something comparable in most cities its size or larger. Another great thing about the housing in this area is that it has a great track record of not depreciating, so you will not have to worry about being upside down on your loan like so many others are in today’s economy.

If you’ve just lost your job, or thinking about a new career, or just need a positive change in your life. You should really do yourself a favor and look into what Spokane has to offer by looking for some jobs in Spokane. I believe you will find it to be a great place to live, work and raise a family. You owe it to yourself to at least take a look, you never know you just might find your perfect place.

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With the rise of the Internet, searching for a job has become a predominantly online process. With that reality in mind, this article contains seven tips and secrets for making the most of your online job search.

1. Let Employers Find You (Always Post Your Resume Online)
A 2005 study by ComScore Networks found that job seekers who added their resume to an online database were twice as likely to receive a job offer as those who simply applied to specific positions. Always keep in mind that many employers never advertise their openings, preferring instead to search a pre-screened database of applicants. Employers overwhelmingly prefer this method to the alternative of advertising a position online and being flooded with hundreds of unqualified applications. If your resume is not in the database that your dream employer is searching, you’ve already lost out.
 

2. See What Employers See
Most of the major online job boards have a section of their site where potential employers can conduct a free test search of their resume database. Before you post your resume online, use this feature to search for the type of job you want.
There are at least three advantages to doing this:

You will see the Top 10 candidates for your keywords (i.e., your competitors) and you can then model your own profile and resume after these successful examples.
You will immediately see that placing keywords in the Title of your profile and body of your resume are critically important (because that’s how employers search the database).
You will learn what keywords work for your occupation and possibly discover others you hadn’t thought of.

3. Use Third-Party Job Search Engines
Jobseekers don’t realize that the search functions on most job boards are intentionally set up to show you sponsored listings first. That’s the principal reason why your search results often bear little relevance to your search terms and always seem to include so-called “business opportunities.” To circumvent this problem, use one of the new third-party job search engines like www.indeed.com or www.simplyhired.com. The big online job boards give these search engines access to their databases because they effectively pre-sort incoming traffic, allowing the job boards to show better-targeted ads. By using one of the free services, you will get more relevant search results and gain the additional advantage of searching multiple job boards at once.

4. Save Your Money
Several online job boards offer paid packages that purport to place your resume near the top of the list when employers search for candidates in your field. Don’t waste your money. First of all, you have no way to measure how much higher your resume will rank over non-paid resumes. Second, for the most competitive fields, thousands of other people have purchased the same package, defeating their purpose. Third, both CareerBuilder.com and Monster.com, the two biggest online job boards, have publicly acknowledged that simply changing one word of your profile or posted resume on a regular basis will have the same effect (essentially getting you the outcome of the paid service for free.)

5. Protect Your Identity & Privacy
Unfortunately, online resume databases have become a favorite way for scam artists to find victims. To protect your privacy and identity while still effectively making your credentials available, consider these steps:

Never list your home address on your posted resumes. Legitimate employers don’t need it in order to evaluate your credentials.
Instead of listing your full name, just put your first initial and last name. Make sure you follow this practice for both your online profile and your posted resumes.
Use a free email account (Hotmail, GMail, Yahoo, etc.) instead of one that identifies your current employer.
If you can afford it, use an inexpensive voicemail box for your phone number. The reason is that a third-party voicemail phone number cannot be reverse-searched to find your home address and other personal details.
To really protect your privacy, don’t put an email address on your posted resumes (in most cases employers can still send you email through the job board’s built-in system). The majority of job board scammers obtain target victims by using special software to “scrape” email addresses off posted resumes. Instead of listing an email address, just list your phone number. Some privacy experts suggest listing only an email (and no phone number). I think it should be the other way around. Here’s why: Legitimate employers and recruiters interested in your skills and qualifications will call you, but most scammers will not. The reason is that it is simple and convenient for scammers to send out email in bulk, but it is inconvenient, time-consuming and risky for them to place individual phone calls (and costly if they are located in another country).

Don’t be an easy target.

6. Always Complete the Online Profile (in addition to attaching your resume)
Why? Because when employers search the resume database, your profile is searched and shown before your resume. In fact, an employer won’t see your resume at all unless they first click on your profile and then scroll all they way to the bottom of the screen (which many won’t do).
 

7. Optimize Your Resume for Online Job Searches
Just like with normal web searches, when employers search online resumes databases the results are ranked based on the frequency and occurrence of certain keywords. As such, to optimize your resume for online job searches, you should do the following:

Put your keywords in the title of your resume. For example instead of naming your resume “Bob’s resume – IT version”, try “SQL Developer, ORACLE, PeopleSoft, ERP.”
Put your keywords in the fields provided for your former job titles. At several of the largest online job boards, the Title of your profile and the Title of your recent jobs are the ONLY fields that employers initially see when searching for candidates.
Make sure your keywords appear in the body of your resume multiple times.
(Tip: If they don’t naturally fit elsewhere, create a “Skills” category at the end of your resume and incorporate them there.)

Knowledge is Power. Make sure you use it in your career search.

(c) 2006 Dyson Conwell. All Rights Reserved.

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