EmploymentDigest.net

“Sales Letter” Or Resume?

Posted on 12. Aug, 2009 posted by Bill in Cover Letters, Interviewing

The truth is, resumes just aren’t that helpful in getting interviews!

With stacks of resume`s hitting human resources and personnel departments daily, they’re more often used to screen you out than to screen you in. Your resume` gets about a six to 10-second look because the company is searching for an exact match on specific criteria; if one little piece (you have four years experience in the industry, they want five; you’re not local; they think you’re too old because you included the dates you got your degrees, etc.), the document you spent so much time getting “just right” goes into the company’s file 13.

What can greatly improve your chances is to send a “sales letter” (also called “resume letter”) rather than a resume`. This is a letter written to a specific person in a company-the person you think would be the one to hire you. And it requires research on the company you’re prospecting because you want to be able to tell that company just how you’re going to fulfill a specific need.

You’ll want your letter to be brief (no more than a page). After stating up-front that you are the perfect person to work in their company based on whatever their need is, list five or six bullets stating your accomplishments in quantifiable terms. Not “I’ve have 11 years experience as a corporate trainer” but “I have trained over 13,000 managers in the past 11 years”; not “I significantly increased the profitability of x company” but “I developed an initiative that resulted in a 38% profit at x company.”

Finally, ask directly for the person to give you a call (not “I’ll give you a call within the next week”). You want to capitalize on the momentum of your letter and move your reader into action. Then follow-up by phone in a few days if you don’t get a response.

Does that mean you shouldn’t update your resume`? Not at all! You need that resume` for one person-you! By having everything you’ve ever done in writing, you can create the perfect “sales letter” for a particular job and also craft a specific (not generic) resume` when and if you are required to provide one.

Article by Judi Craig, Ph.D., MCC Executive Coach & Clinical Psychologist (210) 824-3391 http://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=fFapttuZ_h0 http://www.lost-my-job.com

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