Cabernet and the Cover Letter

I hope you are all seeing my theme here. I love wine so I am trying to weave my love of wine into my job search.  The past couple of evenings Jim and I have been sipping some nice light Cabernet, as it is still warm out I am not into the  heavy reds yet. On Sunday I opened a bottle of Raven's Wood 2011 Cabernet.  This wine has a very nice aroma and has hints of blackberry in it and it is very reasonably priced.

Okay, on to the job search. I will share some of my stats (remember I am anal and track everything!) Today I am 2 Months unemployed.  I have applied to 20 positions of which I have had no response from 13 of them, to be fair some of them I have applied to  recently.  I have been contacted by 7 recruiters for positions and 4 of them are still very active.

To date I have discussed the resume and how to use LinkedIn.  Today I will discuss the cover letter and what my research has told me is successful.  If you look up "cover letters" on the internet you will find lots of resources, so many in fact that it can be overwhelming.  I was looking for help in writing a cover letter that showed I was sincere in my job search and that I had researched the company and wanted the job.  Why those things? Because that is what I looked for when I was hiring staff members.  The resume tells a hiring manager about the person's experience, but the cover letter tells them why they are applying.

Based  on what site you go on and what type of position you are applying for you will find all kinds of variation in what the cover letter should say and what it should look like.  The best advice I have received from a recruiter was to not sell myself in the cover letter but to offer solutions to how I can help the company achieve their goals.  Not an easy task and when you write it the first time it kind of sounds like you are selling yourself.  The difference lies in how you phrase the sentences.  Remember, your resume outlines everything you have done, you don't have to say it again in the cover letter.

Here are some examples:
Selling yourself:

• I have 25 years in the healthcare industry
• I have managed 10 direct reports
• I reduced supply expenses by $10  million

Offering solutions:

• I can help XYZ company become a leader in the industry by using my network to bring talented staff in
• I will work to reduce your expenses by implementing successful strategies I have used in the past. For example, if you currently use xyz strategy, then I would work to covert it to ABC, which has been discussed recently in the news as the most cost effective way to manage this strategy. 
• I will mentor my direct reports in XYZ  company to become skilled in ABC which makes the company stronger.

Before you write your cover do some research and find out about the company you are applying to.  This is where you get to be a detective!  You want to find out the hiring managers name if possible.  One way to find this out is to see if the job description says who the position reports to.  If so, then go to the company website and look for a page that lists the leaders in the company.  I have actually found organizational charts on company websites.  If you get lucky that way, find out the name and address your cover letter directly to them.  Also, see if you can figure out the email address of the hiring manager and send them your cover letter and resume directly.  If you do this, you should also apply the way the company specifies, but state in the cover letter that you are sending this to them as well as through the website (or however you will be applying) so you are sure that they see your qualifications.  

If you can't find out who the hiring manager is, go to LinkedIn and search for the company.  See if there is anyone in your network that works for that company and ask them about the position and who the hiring manager is.  You can also find the email address this way.  If you can send your cover letter and resume directly to the hiring manager you have a better chance of it being seen!

I have actually been called directly by the  hiring manager using this technique.

So now that you have some resources for cover letters make sure you do your homework. Never send a resume in without a cover letter. Even if you apply online and there is no way to upload a cover letter use this trick.  If it appears that you can only upload one file here's what to do:

1. Create your cover letter
2. Open up your resume file and paste the cover letter at the beginning of the resume
3. Make sure there is a page break between your cover letter and resume
4. Name this new file: Yourlastname_companyname_combo.doc.  That way you know that this is a customized cover letter resume for that company.

Enough for today on cover letters.  A quick update on my job search.  I have 4 positions that I am actively involved with, all of them are from recruiters who have called me!  I hope to have something finalized in the next couple of weeks.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Restless but had a nice glass of Zinfandel

Once again another restless night,  but I did have a wonderful glass of Zinfandel.  2009 Zen of Zin old vine California  - yummy!  Nice and rich.  I don't dream about wine, not sure why but  I did think about how I am putting my new found extended vacation to use.

First, I am rediscovering the art of canning.  I used to can way back when the kids were little. We would go out and pick strawberries then make tons of jam.  My cupboards are now full of bread and butter pickles, relish, sweet pickle chips, corn relish, pickled beets, strawberry jam, blueberry jam. and peach jam.  My next adventure starts when I get my pressure canner and I can can Boston Baked Beans!

Secondly, I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason - sometimes we don't get to find out the reason, sometimes we lay awake at night trying to figure it out!  My other nugget is that I always learn from every experience.  So what have I learned so far from losing my job?

1. Life is too short to be stressed out.  I have been stressed for years now climbing up the corporate ladder.  What I have discovered is that success does not equal stress! You can be very successful but deal with the stress in a positive way.  My leadership coach has taught me that.  (Shout out to Dave Stoddard from Leaders Legacy, my coach)
2. You can't change how other people act, but you can change how you act towards them.
3. Life is an ever changing sport, there are winners and there are losers.  How you prepare for the race determines how you will do at the finish line.  However, you need to lose some races to figure out what you have to do to win.  I really should have compared this to football, my favorite sport. Okay, rephrase:  Life is an ever running football game......you need to prepare for each and every game. When you lose a game look at it as a learning experience, what do I need to do next time to come out on top?
4. Finding a job is hard work!  But I have done a lot of research on how to go about it. I will share some of what I have learned each day.

Ok, expanding on number 4, finding a  job is hard and there are things that you should be doing TODAY even when you are employed that will make it easier.  "Why should I be doing anything about finding a job when I am still employed?" you ask. Here's why:

• Companies don't have a sense of loyalty to their employees like they did 25 years ago and employees don't feel loyal to their companies either.  There is a great article by Jeremy Kingsly, in "The Conference Room" published March 11, 2013 regarding the issue. See link below.

By Jeremy Kingsley

The Conference Room

Published March 11, 2013

FOXBusiness

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/2013/03/11/is-loyalty-just-thing-past/#ixzz2c8hYUzl9

• If you are ready and the perfect opportunity arises then you can act quickly.

So what should you do now to prepare  yourself? The first thing to do is get your resume ready!

• If you already have a resume, update it with current information.
• If you don't have a resume create one. There are lots of sites online that you refer to for starting templates. 
• I have several versions of my resume -
• I have a long resume that lists every job I have had since 1990.  
• I  have my short resume that only goes back 10 years.  Most want to only see 10 years and sooner of experience; however I have been asked for a complete resume so it is easy to give when I already have it done.
• I also have resumes that I have customized for particular jobs I am applying for.  Example, if a company highlights several times in an ad that they are looking for a specific skill I make sure that I have it listed in my resume. I also pull keywords from the ad and make sure I reference those in my resume. That way when the hiring manager is reviewing my resume they can clearly see that I have the experience that they are looking for (that is if they ever get to read it).
• Tip - how to name your resume so you know what it is. First create a folder called "Resumes".  Always save your resume starting with your last name, that way employers always know whose it is. I can't tell you how many times people have sent me resumes and their name is not in the file name and I have to open it to figure out who it is.  You want to make it easy for an employer to hire you.  
• Here are examples of how I name my resume:
• SheridanResume-2013long
• SheridanResume-2013short
• SheridanResume-project management
• SheridanResume-consulting
• What do you put on your resume, what order, how much etc?
• Most sites recommend only a 2 page resume so that means you have to be very concise with your words.  Again, I have a long resume that has all my jobs back to 1990.  I can cut and paste from my long resume when I need to customize a resume to a job. That  way all the information is consistent.  (As I get older I forget a lot of the details.  Do it once and you don't have to remember it)
• Do not put your graduation dates from college.  Just list where you went and what your major was.   A lot of companies wean out applicants by the graduation dates on resumes. They can't legally not hire you because of your age but they can wean you out from the process to begin with.  Not putting the dates on gives them one less reason to drop you from the pile.
• Don't put a lot of fancy formatting on your resume (unless you are an artist, graphic designer, etc and that is part of the application).  Most employers load your resume into a database and search from this database. If you have a lot of fancy formatting it can mess up how it gets loaded into a database.  You want to make sure that everyone can find you.   

Well, enough for today.  I am waiting for the vet to call me when Smokey comes out of surgery.  The little thing  has eye cancer and is having her eye removed today to prevent the spread of the cancer, poor baby.  Mama is going to give her lots of loving tonight.