Your Job Search Resume Cover Letter Do You Send It To Human Resources Or Directly To The Hiring Person ?

Resume Cover Letter Articles : Your Job Search Resume Cover Letter Do You Send It To Human Resources Or Directly To The Hiring Person ? by William Z. Piker

Your Job Employment Cover Letter: How do You Know Where to Send It

In submitting your job employment resume cover letter how do you know where to send this letter?

Some organizations do not accept unsolicited applications, resumes or cover letters.

Often applicants who address communications to the human resource (H.R.) department get a standard form letter stating that no applications are currently being accepted. So much for the successful job hunter. The task just got more challenging.

How do you know how and where to submit your employment search cover letter?

First of all find out who hires. You cannot go fishing if you do not what bait the fish like and where the fish are located. To boost your chances of getting an interview address your letter to the specific person or areas that have hiring authority for the position that you are applying for.

If possible address the letter to the supervisor / department head / manager who would directly supervise your work. It should be patently obvious that it is not wise to address your cover letter to "Whom It May Concern". This job seeking tactic will target your letter to the trash bin.

How do you get to know the right person's name? It all comes down to diligence and standard investigation and research tactics.

One method is to call the target employer and say that you are doing career research and want to address the letter of inquiry to the person who specializes in your career area. Get the person's full name and title. Verify and recheck the spelling and address to ensure that it is correct.

When you do call, introduce yourself, get the name of the person you talk with and thank that person by name for her or his help. Always say that you are a student or are doing research. The person that you speak to could possibly help you later, and using names establishes a friendly, courteous tone.

Another tact is to go directly to the human resources officer, if one exists. Ask whether there is an organizational "chart" or organizational "map" which you could use for your career planning class or personal research. This chart of map should provide you with the name of the department head to which you can address your cover letter.

If this method seems inappropriate for your job career employment search, ask members of your job search employment network to help you devise and plan a more workable approach.

Always use your creative abilities to dare to different and innovative. To be on the cutting creative edge, however always be most courteous, polite and professional.

If possible contact the department head of your target job personally to get you in the door sooner. If you send your cover letter and resume only to the human resources department, it may well be that the person or persons who head that specific department you are interested in may never see these documents.

On the other hand, if you send a letter and resume directly to the person that you would work for, then your chances of getting an interview ill be greatly increased. It is true however that the human resources department may feel sidelined and resentful at being circumvented in the organizational structure.

How do you handle this situation? I the employer is accepting applications, send one letter and resume to the Human Resources department and one letter to the department head. Indicate in your letter that you have sent similar communications to each party. At the worst both letters will wind up in the human resources department. I the employer is not officially accepting applications, send your cover letter and resume to the department only. If your resume and cover letter are persuasive and well prepared then you may well still get that interview.

About the Author
William Z. Piker Documention Counsellor http://www.ace-training.net http://www.aceemploymentservices.net

Source: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=481397

How To Write A Great Resume

Free Resume Examples Articles : How To Write A Great Resume by Pawel Reszka

Whether you're looking for a job or outlining your life, having a resume that actually gets read and acted upon is critical. A vast majority of resumes end up going from the envelope or "in-box" into the trash. Creating a resume that rises to the top of the selection pile, and stays there, requires a few key points.

Know your objective

As you go about creating your resume, understand what you are trying to accomplish. Are you trying to tell the reader what your job skills are or do you want to present your life's work. These two ideas may appear the same, but when you start to think about it they take on two differing ideas. Once you pass this idea, select those aspects of your skill-set that highlight your skills and present them as they relate to the desired end. Get to specific skills that address the end you want and remember that your space limitations.

Narrow your skill set

You may have a wide skill-set, but do all those skills apply to the position you are applying for? Narrow your skill-set down so that the skills you list apply closely to the end you are looking for. If you have a skill-set of 15 abilities, narrow the list to the top 5 or six most applicable to the position in question. The rest can wait for a personal interview. Do the same limiting exercise for the interview with the remaining skills but make sure to remember to work them into the interview conversation.

Highlight your strengths

Once you have your skill-set under control stick to those skills through the resume. In essence, these skills are the theme of your resume. The theme can change from position to position, depending upon the position, but these skills are the ideas you want to "punch" throughout the résumé.

Be clear

Remember that you are competing for the attention of the reader. The reader will spend very little time reading your resume the first time around. Don't over complicate the issue with longer words of concepts. In this respect, consider yourself an advertising copy writer. Hit them hard with a short description and move on. Generally, think about a smart person with a very short attention span.

Use grabbing techniques

Since you are trying to get noticed, you need to use ideas that will stand out from a distance. Use visual cues that might be noticed if a person is walking past a desk and glances at a pile sitting on it. But remember, just because the resume is on top of the pile doesn't mean that it will stay there for long. Ideally, you want your resume to be picked up and read by a person just sitting down or quickly thumbing through a folder that was just opened and begun to be looked at. Use %, #'s, $ or bullet points for a noticeable quick read by the person making the first "cut." Another great idea is the use of action words. Interestingly enough, action words not only say that you are a "doer" but they stand out on a page within a sentence. Visual flow is important

Give some close thought to the layout of the resume. If the reader has to think about picking up the resume to read it you have likely lost the battle right from the start. Your name, of course, needs to stand out and be right at the top of the page because that is what gets the call back made easily (if they want to call don't make it hard), but remember that you need to start the readers eye working down the page. Consider how you might use fonts to attract and move the readers' eye and attention. Remember not to muddle up the resume with to many fonts. Two at most is best with a readable size. Don't go below a 10 point font size. The big thing is that you do not want the reader to have to work at getting through the highlights of the resume.

Use "white space" to advantage

Many people believe that they need to cram as much information as possible into a resume. In reality, it is often the abundance of "white space" that gets the resume noticed. This does not suggest leaving out your strengths and theme but rather using the space you have to advantage. An extra line space here or there makes the readers eye travel toward that next relevant item on the page easier.

Know your audience

Although you may feel that you need to stick with one resume, don't, there is absolutely no reason why you cannot use more then one resume. Create several resumes using different skill-set themes and layouts for differing types of positions. The closer you can get to the skill-set that attracts that type of person associated with that type of job the better. Each person expects certain words to appear on the resume outlining the person for that job. Finding and using those "right words" is the trick.

About the Author
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Source: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=767376

Effective Resume Writing - First Step to Your Golden Career

Free Resume Examples Articles : Effective Resume Writing - First Step to Your Golden Career by Talent Onions

Your resume is the first step towards your career. This is a brief summary of your qualifications, skills, and background that represents your education and previous work experiences. The purpose of a resume is to obtain an interview, at which time you will have an opportunity to describe in person what you can contribute to the organization. Therefore, it is important for your resume to represent you in a clear, well organized, and easy-to-read style. Your resume should focus on results you have produced.

If you are applying online for a job, you can get benefit of Customized Resume Services provided by Job Portals. Talent Onions has team of expert professionals in effective Resume writing. They will guide you in making a really appealing, and beneficial resume. Talent Onions also helps you in submitting your resume to several consultants for quick results.

Getting Started with Resume

There are different opinions about format, style and layout of a resume. Gather information about yourself, write down the most significant details of your previous work experience, awards received, projects undertaken, and special skills. Emphasize your resume according to the position you are applying and delete irrelevant information for targeted job.

Identifying Sections of Resume

The most important thing before writing a resume is to identify sections which you are going to present in the resume. Categorize the collected information and then out them one by one to respective sections.

Some must have sections are:  Contact Information (with current contact details)  Objective (clearly stating position you are seeking)  Education (current degrees on top)  Experiences (current job on top, followed by others)  Additional Information  References (if asked by recruiters, generally furnished on demand only)

Remember to provide all necessary details while describing your previous work experiences, with position you are holding in organization, your job responsibilities, projects handled by you, your success stories or achievements in organization.

Guidelines for Resume Format

Before posting your resume take care of recruiters demand. Your resume format should be based according to their demand. If they are using scan technology for resume selection you must present your resume in scanner friendly version with clear text and less formatting. If they are focussing over keywords selection process, use your specialization and areas of strength as keywords in your resume.

About the Author
Talent Onions aims to be India's leading provider of Internet recruitment and job search solutions. For more details, please visit: http://www.talentonions.com