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Although only 8 per cent of workers admitted to stretching the truth on their résumés, nearly half of hiring managers reported that they have caught a candidate lying on his or her résumé, according to a CareerBuilder.com survey of more than 3,100 hiring managers and over 8,700 workers in the US.

If you get caught, the fib can cost you the job. More than half of the employers who had caught someone lying said they automatically dismissed the applicant. A small percentage (6 per cent) ended up hiring the applicant anyway.

The most common résumé lies included embellishing responsibilities and skills, fudging dates of employment and faking degrees and job titles. But some people got more creative, according to the hiring managers.

They cited applicants that:

• Claimed to be a member of the Kennedy family.

• Invented a school that did not exist.

• Submitted a résumé with someone else’s photo inserted into the document.

• Listed military experience dating back to before he was born.

• Included samples of work, which the interviewer actually did.

• Claimed to have been a professional baseball player.

Pretty hilarious. Unless, of course, those hiring managers just made them up.

Sources: THE WASHINGTON POST

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A resume is the first impression a prospective employer has of you. Keep an eye for some of the common blunders :-
1. The X-factor

Your resume should not be a boring list of job duties and responsibilities. Demonstrate how you made a difference to the company you worked for. When highlighting your achievements make sure you mention the following points:

How you performed the job better than the others. What were the problems or challenges faced by you? How did you overcome them? What were the results? Did you receive any awards, special recognition or promotion as a result?

2. Good read

Try to retain the interest of those who will read your resume. Statements such as “a challenging position enabled me to contribute to organisational goals” are overused and waste valuable space. If you’re on a career track, replace the objective with a tagline stating what you do or your expertise.

3. Perfect fit

Many people try to squeeze their experiences into one page, because they are under the impression that resumes shouldn’t be longer. There is no rule about appropriate resume length. When writing your resume, ask yourself, “Will this statement help me land an interview?” Every word should help in selling you, so include only the information that elicits an “yes”.

4. Short and smart

A resume is a form of business communication, so it should be concise and written in a telegraphic style. There should be no mention of “I” or “me”.

5. Point taken

Many people write about their hobbies, but they should include only those relating to the job. For example, if a candidate is applying for a position as a ski instructor, he should list cross-country skiing as a hobby.

Personal information, such as date of birth, marital status, height and weight, normally should not be on the resume unless you’re in the entertainment business.

6. Combo offer

It irks hiring managers not to see the career progression and impact you made in each position. Unless you have an emergency situation, such as virtually no work history, avoid the functional format.

The modified chronological format, or combination resume, is often the most effective. Here’s the basic layout:

Header (name, address, e-mail address, phone number). Lead with a strong profile section detailing the scope of your experience and areas of proficiency. Reverse chronological employment history emphasising achievements over the past 10 to 15 years. Education (new graduates may put this at the top).

7. Watch out

This is one of the greatest tools of a jobseeker. Candidates who have done their homework will know the skills and competencies required for the job. To create a high-impact summary statement, check out job openings to determine what’s important to employers.

8. Words worth

With so many companies using technology to store resumes, a jobseeker has to use relevant keywords to catch the attention of his prospective employer. Determine keywords by reading job descriptions that interest you, and include the words you see repeatedly in your resume.

Sources: The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)

How long should my resume be?

How can I fit all my experience on one page?

What can I eliminate and what should be highlighted?

If you are, you’re not alone. As millions of workers update their resumes, one of the top concerns is length. Not long ago, job seekers followed the resume golden rule: No resume should exceed one page. However, today’s job seekers are finding that rule no longer applies. Furthermore, there is conflicting advice from books, counsellors, hiring managers and well-meaning friends.

The solution is simple: Use common sense. If you are just graduating, have less than five years of work experience or are contemplating a complete career change, a one-page resume will probably suffice. Some technical and executive candidates require multiple-page documents. If you have more than five years of experience and a track record of accomplishments, you will need at least two pages to tell your story.

It is not an autobiography

Don’t confuse telling your story with creating your autobiography. Employers are inundated with resumes and are faced with the daunting task of weeding out the good from the bad. The first step involves quickly skimming through and eliminating candidates who are clearly not qualified. Therefore, your resume needs to pass the skim test. Ask yourself:

Can a hiring manager see my main credentials within 10 to 15 seconds?

Does critical information jump off the page, grabbing the reader’s attention?

Do I effectively sell myself on the top quarter of the first page?

If you answered yes to all of these questions, you’re in good shape. If you answered no to any of these, read on.

The sales pitch

Because resumes are quickly skimmed during the first pass, it is crucial your resume gets right to work selling your credentials. Your key selling points need to be prominently displayed at the top of the first page. If an MBA degree is important in your career field, your education shouldn’t be buried at the end of a four-page resume.

An effective way to showcase your key qualifications is to include a career summary statement at the top of the first page. On your Monster.com resume, use the objective section to relay your top qualifications. The remainder of the resume should back up the statements made in your summary.

Use an editor’s eye

Many workers are proud of their careers and feel the information on a resume should reflect all they’ve accomplished. However, the resume shouldn’t contain every detail of your career. It should only include the information that will help you land an interview.

So be brutal. If your college days are far behind you, does it really matter that you pledged a fraternity or delivered pizza? Editing will be difficult if you are holding on to your past for emotional reasons. If this is the case, show your resume to a professional resume writer for an objective opinion.

Eight tips to keep it short

Avoid repeating information. Focus on your accomplishments in each position.

Eliminate old experience. If you have a long career history, focus on the last 10 to 15 years.

Don’t include irrelevant information. Avoid listing hobbies and personal information such as date of birth or marital status. Also eliminate outdated business skills.

Cut down on job duties. Instead, create a paragraph that briefly highlights the scope of your responsibility and then provide a bulleted list of your most impressive accomplishments.

Remove “References available upon request”.

Use a telegraphic writing style. Eliminate personal pronouns and minimise the use of articles when preparing your resume.

Edit unnecessary words.

Customise your resume for your job target. Only include information relevant to your goal. This is particularly important for career changers who need to focus on transferable skills and de-emphasise unrelated career accomplishments.

Sources: The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)

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In the last few years, the reputation of the résumé has gotten a beating. In 2001, George ’Leary wanted the plum job in collegiate sports — head coach of Notre Dame football — so badly that he included on his résumé a masters degree he did not have and letters for playing football that he never earned.

Ronald L. Zarrella, the chief executive of Bausch & Lomb, claimed to have had a masters in business administration from New York University. Shares in the company dropped three percent the day the company divulged Zarrella’s résumé-fudging.

David J. Edmondson, the chief executive of RadioShack, was fired after a newspaper investigation showed that his résumé was padded with two degrees in psychology and theology, degrees he never got from a university that was not even accredited.

Notre Dame, Bausch & Lomb and RadioShack are huge organisations, and if they got fooled, how can small businesses, cope with a cheating epidemic?

Brad Fredericks, a co-founder of ResumeDoctor.com, a company in South Burlington, Vermont, that advises clients on résumé writing, had his employees pull about a thousand of them that had been uploaded to the company website and check them for easily identifiable facts like job titles, education and dates of employment.

“What we found was shocking,” Fredericks said. “We discovered that 42.7 per cent of them had significant inaccuracies. That was unbelievable to us.”

Businesses are trying to be more vigilant. A 2005 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management said that almost half of human-resource specialists had increased the time they spent checking résumés. The survey also found that 52 per cent had started contracting a lot of the background checking.

Tom Medvec has run the Medvec Resources Group, a job placement firm in Ohio, for the last 20 years. He used to be in the machine tool business himself, and said that now that even lathe operators have résumés, it is essential to have professionals like him check them.

“Certainly, when I started, machinists did not use recruiters, so they didn’t have résumés,” Medvec said. “They filled out applications and waited to be called. Now with recruiting more prevalent and all the job dot-coms, suddenly these guys need résumés. They don’t know how to do them. Then they worry that they aren’t good enough, so more and more lying is going on.”

One easy check, the experts say, is education. Universities and instructional institutions are usually co-operative about sharing at least whether a person graduated or attended the school, and have access to databases. They too want to fight the growing tide of falsification.

The Rutgers University Career Services office, for instance, did an audit last year and found that 20 per cent of students submitting résumés had inflated their grade-point averages.

Richard White, the director of the Rutgers office, said that this was partly an outgrowth of the Internet age. He said employers should be especially wary of résumés that come in online, since it seems applicants are more willing to fib that way.

“I think people are more loose about information than in the good old days,” White said. “It used to be that you had to submit a paper résumé every time you applied for a job. I think that it must have been that that was a tangible act. So you felt more accountable each time. Now it is pushing a button, sending a bunch of type on a computer screen off somewhere. It isn’t real.”

With little time or personnel to waste, small businesses might have to resort to effective strategies. One executive at a large machine shop, who did not want his name used to keep his methods safe, said he had resorted to the pop quiz.

“Before they walk into the shop, I give them a questionnaire,” he said. “I ask what attachments have you used on this or that machine? I ask them technical terms. I ask them a little about a machine, something only one who has worked on one will know. It saves a lot of time.”

Matt FitzGibbons, the human-resource manager for Manth Brownell, a precision-turned parts company in Kirkville, New York, said he had been cautious lately looking at résumés, particularly at dates of employment. “The economy here in upstate New York has been a bit rough in the last six years, so I see résumés, say, that are more vague in when they worked,” he said. “A ‘2004’ could mean they worked last in late 2003 and then started back in 2005, because some company closed. It’s hard to fool me, though, since I know which companies folded when.”

Résumé fraud may be cyclical. Jude M. Werra, the president of Werra & Associates, an executive search firm in Brookfield, Wisconsin, puts out what he calls the Liars Index, a survey of how many executive résumés have falsified education claims. He divides the number of people who have misrepresented their education by the total number of people whose education his company has checked. For the first half of 2006, Werra said, he found 16.07 per cent of résumés had education misrepresentations. The lowest number came in 2003, during a hiring binge and soon after the Notre Dame event.

“Small businesses can’t check everything, but they can check education easily,” Werra said.

But don’t stop checking completely. “The baby bust is coming, and small companies may stop being so vigilant as the demand for good people goes up,” Werra said. “They may think well, ‘Let’s go before he goes to someone else’. In the end, it will pay to step back, check at least the things you can. There are too many résumés out there with lies not to.”

Sources:The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)

Take your carefully prepared two-page CV, printed on top quality paper, to a recruitment agency and you will probably get this reaction: “Great! Can you e-mail it to us?”

These days more recruiters are working electronically, shunning paper documents for e-mail attachments. James Innes, general manager of the consultancy The CV Centre, says: “Applications are increasingly made by e-mail. It’s quick and reliable.”

It is all about speed, according to Greg Weido, manager at global recruiters Robert Half International. “The CV goes instantly into our database and is ready for forwarding to potential employers,” he explains.

Incoming CVs are also scanned with sophisticated technology for keywords, says Greg. “If an employer asks us for candidates, our software automatically produces a list of potential interviewees.”

No serious job hunter would want to miss such benefits, so what is the best way to e-mail that all-important document to a recruiter? Although most agree that a Word document is adequate, CVs being sent as .pdf files are on the rise. Dan Ferrandino, the managing director of the online jobsite reed.co.uk, says: “Word documents are more easily corrupted, can carry viruses and there is the danger that someone else could accidentally delete something. That said, our online site processes thousands of Word documents and we have no problems.” The plus side of the Word format, he adds, is that everyone can access it whereas not everyone can read a .pdf. “The main appeal of the .pdf is that you can incorporate images and attractive designs, and it can’t be edited,” says Dan.

Is it time, then, to bid farewell to the paper curriculum vitae? Definitely not, says James Innes, particularly if you are applying direct to an employer. “E-mailed applications can lack the impact of printed paper,” he says. “For jobs with fixed closing dates, we would recommend paper applications.”

Of course, if you want to be at the cutting edge of self-marketing, you could set up your own website CV. The latest innovation to come from America, cyber CVs offer a way of showing off your portfolio in colour. And if you lack the skills, don’t despair, as there are agencies to design your website.

“Typically they are several pages long, in colour and offer much more detail than a standard CV,” says Geoff Russell, the regional director for Career World, a management and outplacement specialist.

Your password-protected CV is hosted on a server and you give the URL to prospective employers or agencies. “It takes minutes to set up,” explains Geoff. “You choose from templates, selecting the colours, fonts and designs you like, then add your text.”

The fee includes the set-up, hosting and as many changes as you wish to make over 12 months. A dedicated e-mail response service means that no personal details need be placed online, but potential employers can get in touch. Most experts agree that at the moment web CVs can be a fantastic add-on but are not yet a replacement for the traditional two-page version.

“By all means, have a web CV and add the URL to the bottom of your standard CV to give employers the choice,” says Greg. “But even in this hi-tech world, bosses still like to print out CVs, make notes on them or read them on the train and the two-page CV is still the standard recruiter’s tool.”

Source: THE TIMES ,LONDON

Address the Recruiter: Start your letter with the date. Skip two lines and write the recruiter’s full name, preceded by Mr. or Ms. Then, list the recruiter’s title and the company name and address. If you don’t know the recruiter’s name, simply list the company name and address.

Say Hello: Two lines below the header, greet the recruiter with “Dear Mr.” or “Ms.”, followed by his/her last name and a colon. Don’t use the first name, even if you’ve met the recruiter before; it’s unprofessional to be immediately informal. If you don’t know the recruiter’s name, address the letter, “To Whom It May Concern.”

Introduce Yourself: State your letter’s purpose in the first paragraph. Tell the recruiter which position you’re applying for and why it interests you. Briefly list your top qualifications. If you’re responding to a job posting, mention where you saw it.

Sell Yourself: The second paragraph is the most important: It’s your sell. Summarize your credentials, but don’t reiterate your resume. List your most relevant accomplishments from previous jobs, internships or volunteer work. Emphasize your qualifications for the job by highlighting applicable skills. If you’re responding to an ad, you have an edge: You already know the job requirements. Make sure you address them.

Flatter Your Reader: The third paragraph should clarify why you want to work at this particular company. Explain why you and the company are a good fit. Show the recruiter that you’ve done your research. Mention a recent company event or express your interest in an aspect of the company that isn’t widely known. Remember, everyone loves flattery, but don’t go over the top.

Follow-Up: Your final paragraph should be only a few sentences. Thank the recruiter for reading your letter, then request an interview and provide your phone number. Or, be proactive and state that you’ll call in a week to follow-up. Then do it.

Wrap It Up: Two lines below the last paragraph, conclude with “Sincerely,”. Three lines below that, type your full name. Don’t forget your signature.

Leave a Great Impression: Three lines below the finish, type “Enclosure” (referring to your resume). You’ll look professional, detail-oriented and oh-so-savvy.

The Quick List
Do not send form letters. Tailor each letter to the company, department and, if possible, specific position. The extra effort pays off.
Recruiters read hundreds of cover letters. Brevity is key. Keep the letter to one page.

When touting your achievements, be confident but don’t exaggerate, brag or lie.

Read, edit and re-read your letter for typos. Ask a friend to read it, too.
A cover letter’s strength lies in its language and detail, so do your research and take your time. Use a professional tone, but don’t be stiff. Be yourself. Take advantage of this opportunity to show off your dynamic personality as well as your skills.

Source:http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/resume

The majority of recruiters spend less than three minutes reviewing a resume, according to a survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management.

That’s why resumes need good organization. A well-organized resume allows recruiters to quickly find what they’re looking for. Bullet points help organize information into nuggets and make resumes more manageable.

Bullet Points That Go ‘Bang’
While quite lengthy, this bullet point from the resume of an advertising industry veteran is still one of the best I’ve seen in years

Eleven days after script approval, had an abandoned runway cleared, an authentic-looking bus stop built, nine talent cast, a DC- 10 commandeered for taxi and takeoff, an off-hours pilot co-opted, and four spots transferred, edited, voiced and foleyed, all on time and under budget.

It makes sense that this bullet point comes from someone with a background in advertising; he does a fantastic job here of advertising himself.

This bullet is likable because it clearly communicates that this person is capable of completing multiple projects in a high-stress environment; it seamlessly incorporates successes with the details of the job; and it has a perfect ending: The “on time and under budget” is icing on the cake.

Use Bullets Sparingly

Often people complain that they just can’t summarize their jobs with less than five bullet points.

But, when it is found this resume for a cytotechnologist, It couldn’t help but wonder: “If he can summarize his job in four bullet points, can’t you do the same?”

Year-Year Anonymous Medical Center Anytown, USA

Cytotechnologist/Histotechnologist

Responsible for the day-to-day operation of the cytopathology section of the laboratory.

Conducted highly complex cytopathological testing of clinical specimens, quality control, and quality assurance in all aspects of anatomic pathology.

Cross-trained as a histotechnologist and perfected special staining techniques to assist with the day-to-day operation of the histology section.

Promoted hospital’s FNAB service substantially increasing departmental revenues and visibility.

A cytotechnologist, by the way, studies human cells for signs of cancer or other diseases. And, this one seems to also be a good writer of resume bullet points.

Put Success Before the Rest
Prioritizing the order of your bullets is critical.

Why? It’s called “the primacy effect” — whatever people see first, they remember best. So for your resume to be truly memorable, your strongest qualifications and achievements should go in the top bullets.

Don’t bury your best as this job seeker did:
Department Store, Anytown, USA Sales Clerk, March — June, Year

Assisted customers
Put out inventory
In charge of planogram/floor changes
Recipient of “Top Twenty Salesperson of the Month” Award

The first thing one would do is to move the award to the top of the list — it’s this candidate’s most impressive (and unique) achievement.

Then, one would work on the other bullets, focusing more on specific achievements than day-to-day responsibilities. “Assisted customers” is not terribly informative. A sentence on how the job seeker “boosted sales 10 percent” — or some other tangible example of success — would be better.

The final result: A stronger resume.

Department Store, Anytown, USA Sales Clerk, March — June, Year

Recipient of “Top Twenty Salesperson of the Month” Award
Boosted sales 10 percent within three months
Coordinated and maintained 30 planograms/floor changes, all while continuing with daily customer assistance and presentation duties

Avoid Repetition
It can be hard to avoid repeating words in bullets, but consider what would happen if you didn’t:

Writing GUI-based documentation
Writing conceptual, procedural and reference documents
Writing Quick Reference Guides
Writing documents for end users
Writing documents for administrators

The resume writer sampled above could have condensed these into one bullet:
Write GUI-based documentation; Quick Reference Guides; and conceptual, procedural and reference documents.

Or used words other than “writing.”

Write GUI-based documentation
Develop conceptual, procedural and reference documents
Create and implement Quick Reference Guides
Produce documents for end users and administrators

If you’re having a hard time finding alternative words, use a thesaurus, but carefully. Never use words that you cannot define.

Source:http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/resume

Now, think of a potential employer as a customer and yourself as the salesperson — and the product.

In order to successfully sell yourself, you have to face a tough decision: How to advertise your qualifications in the most effective way possible. It may involve a chronological resume or a functional resume … or perhaps no resume at all.

Here are your basic options:
Chronological Resume
Chrono” is Greek for “time,” so it’s no surprise that a chronological resume is organized by your employment timeline.

Chronological resumes are the most common choice for job seekers — and for good reason:

They’re easy to write. The organization is predetermined, so it’s one less thing to stress over.

Recruiters prefer them. A recent HotJobs survey revealed that 84 percent of recruiters prefer chronological resumes.

So unless you have a good reason, you should generally stick to the chronological resume format.

To create a chronological resume, begin with your most recent experience and work your way back. For each job, list the name of the company, your title, where the job was located, your dates of employment and a few bullet points discussing your major achievements and responsibilities.

Functional Resume
Chronological resumes are great if your career path has been sure and steady. But there are circumstances where a chronological resume may not be the best choice. For instance, maybe you have …

*a major time gap on your resume,
*a hodgepodge of experience without an overall focus,
*or a desire to change career fields.

In these situations, a functional resume might prove more useful than a chronological one.

Functional resumes highlight your skills instead of the companies you worked for. Functional resumes also downplay time gaps and career missteps.

A functional resume generally splits your work history into two sections. In the first section, list the skills and experience you have that relate to the job you’re applying for. In the second section, provide a list of the places you have worked, as well as the dates you worked there.

Recruiters tend to be wary of functional resumes, but if you suspect that a chronological resume won’t get you through the door, a functional resume is a good second choice.

Curriculum Vita
When most job postings ask for a resume, the implication is that they want a chronological or functional resume — one page long, work experience, all that jazz.

But some jobs out there — especially in the education and research fields — require a curriculum vita (CV).

CVs are not resumes. Commonly used among academics in the U.S., CVs are much more comprehensive than resumes. A CV lists almost every work-related accomplishment you’ve ever had, from papers published to presentations given to classes taught to awards won. In short, they’re long. Some CVs extend over 30 pages.

CVs for non-education related fields are sometimes used in other countries. In Europe, for example, CVs are generally accepted for everyday jobs. In the U.S., however, you should never send a CV unless the job ad specifically asks for one.

Candidate Profile: The Anti-Resume

You may be surprised (and relieved) to learn that there is some movement away from evaluating job seekers only by their resumes.

Some employers, faced with a stack of resumes, are using an alternative: Candidate profiles.

Candidate profiles ask online applicants to rank themselves on job related characteristics, including the ability to manage stressful situations, creativity and problem-solving ability, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Employers use the results to find qualified candidates and reserve traditional resumes for later in the selection process.

While candidate profiles probably won’t mean the death of the resume, it may take some of the pressure off having a perfect one.

As you decide which organization works best for you — chronological resume, functional resume, curriculum vita or candidate profile — keep in mind that employers don’t hire pieces of paper. They hire people. So do your best to let the real you shine through.

Source:http://hotjobs.yahoo.com

Sure, a resume lists all of your achievements, but a resume can’t capture your personality, passion or desire for a particular job. A cover letter is the perfect place to let potential employers know you as a person: What you’ve done, what you can offer and how you express yourself. And there’s an added bonus: You can write in full sentences instead of fragments or bullet points.

Many job seekers spend hours crafting each item on their resume. Then they whip out a quick-and-dirty cover letter full of mistakes — not realizing that a cover letter is just as important as a resume.

One common cover letter goof: Typos and spelling errors. To avoid spelling errors and typos, write your cover letter using a word processing program, such as Microsoft Word. Next, spell-check the document. Then read the document out loud — you may catch spelling errors the computer missed (such as accidentally writing “jog” instead of “job”). Only after you have double-checked your cover letter should you attach it to your resume and send it off.

Here are some other all-too-common cover letter blunders and how to fix them.

Name That Job
What’s one of the first things you should do after greeting the reader of a cover letter?

State exactly which job you’re applying for. Include the exact name of the position. If the ad provided a job ID number, then include that too. It’s also a good idea to mention where you heard about the opening.

There’s a good reason for being so specific: Many recruiters handle hundreds of job openings, so they won’t automatically know which one you’re gunning for. By reminding them of the specific opening for which you’re applying, you’ll make it more likely that your resume will be read by the right person. And besides, anything you can do to make a recruiter’s job easier will put you on their good side.

The Danger of Form Cover Letters
Do you send the exact same cover letter to every employer, only changing the name of the person to whom you’re sending it?

Big mistake.
The point of a cover letter is to make a personal connection with the reader. So to write a successful cover letter, you should tailor it specifically to each company you send it to. For instance, display a knowledge of the company history or write about recent events or projects the company has undertaken. This will show that you have taken the time to research the company before sending in your resume — and prove that you really want the job.

Don’t Repeat Yourself
A common trap that many job seekers fall into when writing a cover letter is to simply regurgitate everything that’s in their resume.

But if it’s already in your resume, then you’re just wasting your breath … and a chance at the job.

A cover letter should not be a rehash of your resume; instead, it should offer deeper insights into what your resume does NOT say. Provide an in-depth explanation of some of your key achievements at your last job, for instance, and how those accomplishments could help the company. Or tell a story about a tough problem you solved. The point is: The recruiter already has your resume; the cover letter should add to it, not repeat it.

So when writing a cover letter, make sure it elaborates on what’s already in your resume or provides some new information.

What Can You Do for Me?
When writing a cover letter, many people discuss why they need the job ...

*”I need the money.”
*”I find the position interesting.”
*”I’ve wanted to work for you since I was a kid.”
*”I need more experience in the industry.”
*”Since your company is the best in the industry, a job there would help my career.”

Here’s a newsflash: Companies don’t really care about your needs. They’re not hiring you to enrich your life or provide you with an income. They’re hiring you because they need a job done.

That means your cover letter should focus on the company’s needs and how you can fulfill them, not what the company can do for you.

A good way to start: Look at the requirements for the position in the job ad. Then, in your cover letter, discuss point by point how you meet (or even exceed) those requirements. By using the job ad as a guide, you’ll show the company how hiring you benefits them and not just you.

One last note: Try to be both confident and humble when discussing what you can offer the company. While you certainly want to appear competent, arrogance can turn off a recruiter. Show enthusiasm and keep a positive attitude, and your cover letter will take you far.

Source:http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/resume

Doing a cover letter poorly, however, is worse than not doing one at all. A whopping 76 percent of recruiters surveyed said they would not consider applicants who had errors in their cover letters.

How can you make sure your cover letter helps more than hurts. Follow these basic tips.

Customize Your Cover Letter
Contrary to popular thought, your cover letter is less about you than how you match up with the job being advertised.Before you sit down to write your cover letter, get a copy of the job description you’re applying for.
If you found the job online, the job description is usually the job ad itself.

If you found the job in a newspaper, it’s unlikely that the job ad contains the full job description, so you’ll either have to go with the information you have in the brief ad or write to the employer and request a job description.

Read the job description carefully a couple of times. Then, note parallels between your own skills and those required for the position.
Many job descriptions also mention software that applicants should be familiar with. Be sure to take an inventory of your own software skills and note which of these match up with the job description.

These notes will make up the body of your cover letter.
The Outline and Header

You may find that you have a lot to include in your cover letter. That, by the way, is a good sign that you’re a strong candidate for the job.
Pick out the strongest parallels using the job description as your guide. Ask yourself: What does the job description prioritize as the primary responsibilities?

Once you’ve decided what to include, decide the order in which you’ll address the parallels by laying them out in a brief outline.

It is important to feature only the strongest points in your cover letter, as the letter should be no longer than one page. Almost one quarter of recruiters surveyed by the Society for Human Resources Management said they would not consider applicants who submitted cover letters that exceeded a page.

The Header
Here’s the basic format for the header of a cover letter:

March 11, 2002 Mr. John Smith 1313 Mockingbird Lane Somewhere, NY 55555

Dear Mr. Smith:
It includes the date, the recipient’s name and address and a brief salutation.

The Body
Begin the body of the letter by expressing your interest in the position, the title of the position (and any identifying code listed in the job ad) and where you saw the position advertised.

The last point is very important. Many job ads insist on this information — and for good reason. Recruiters want to know which advertising vehicles are showing good returns, so they can optimize their spending.

After this brief intro, begin a new paragraph and spell out in clear, simple and brief sentences how your experience parallels that of the job description. As you’re doing this, be sure to refer to your resume.

Here’s a fictional example illustrating you where we are in the process:
March 11, 2002 Mr. John Smith 1313 Mockingbird Lane Somewhere, NY 55555
Dear Mr. Smith:
I am writing to express my interest in the editorial position (reference code RIP13) as advertised on your homepage.
As my attached resume notes, I have six years of editorial experience. …

The Closing

Closing the body of your letter is pretty standard fare.

Give your phone number, including the area code, and thank the recruiter for his time. Adding this information, the cover letter looks like this:

March 11, 2002 Mr. John Smith 1313 Mockingbird Lane Somewhere, NY 55555

Dear Mr. Smith:
I am writing to express my interest in the editorial position (reference code RIP13) as advertised on your homepage.

As my attached resume notes, I have six years of editorial experience. …

If you have any questions or would like to schedule an
interview, I can be reached at (555) 555-5555.

Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Chris Jones

Your cover letter, of course, would have a couple more paragraphs relating your experience to the requirements of the job.

Some parting thoughts: Always have a friend or family member (not a coworker) read your resume for typos and grammatical errors. If you’re stuck on a grammatical point, consult a grammar guide. I’ve never found one that matches the simplicity and authority of The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr., which can be found here: http://www.bartleby.com/141

Source:http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/resume