1. Welcome to Isabont 2. Plan your job search campaign.
2.1. What job do you want? 2.2. What company do you want to work for? 2.3. How much time will you devote to the search? 2.4. How are you going to divide your time? 2.5. Do you need a back-up plan? 2.6. How will people contact you? 2.7. What to have scripted? 2.8. Support network.
3. Managing your job search campaign.
3.1. Avoid activity clumping. 3.2. Always set a next action. 3.3. Balancing your activities with your availability. 3.4. Do something different, even totally self indulgent. 3.5. Maintain a hobby, or exercise.
4. Dealing with Procrastination.
4.1. Break tasks down to small enough steps. 4.2. Create little successes for yourself. 4.3. Just do it, it doesn’t have to be perfect. 4.4. Practice in a safe environment. 4.5. View each risk as an experiment. Have fun with it.
5. Networking.
5.1. What is networking? 5.2. The aim of Networking. 5.3. Types of relationships. 5.4. Start networking.
6. Generating list of target companies.
6.1. Researching companies. 6.2. Finding contacts at a company.
7. Informational interviews. 8. Interviewing.
8.1. Preparing for the interview. 8.2. Phone interviews. 8.3. Pre Interview. 8.4. The interview. 8.5. After the interview.
9. Prepare your references. 10. Constructing an elevator pitch.
10.1. Using the elevator pitch in an informal setting. 10.2. Using the elevator pitch when you’re networking by phone.
11. Resumes.
11.1. Types of resumes and their use, when and why.
12. The Chronological Resume.
12.1. The Traditional Chronological. 12.2. The Technical Chronological. 12.3. The Prior Experience Chronological. 12.4. The Education Focus Chronological.
13. The Functional Resume. 14. The Hybrid Resume. 15. Resume sections.
15.1. My contact details. (Required) 15.2. Summary statement (optional). 15.3. Objective statement (optional). 15.4. Selected Achievements. (Optional) 15.5. Key Skills. (Optional) 15.6. Technical skills (optional). 15.7. Employer Section. (Required) 15.8. Position Section. (Required) 15.9. Achievement Section. (Required) 15.10. Education and training. (Required) 15.11. Prior experience. (Optional) 15.12. Membership and affiliations. (Optional) 15.13. Volunteer. (Optional) 15.14. Certificates. (Optional) 15.15. Licenses. (Optional) 15.16. Publications. (Optional)
16. Cover Letter.
16.1. Contact Information and Addressee (Required) 16.2. The opening. (Required) 16.3. The first paragraphs. (Required) 16.4. T-style (Optional) 16.5. Bullets. (Optional) 16.6. Closing Paragraphs. (Required) 16.7. The Closing. (Required) 16.8. Enclosures (Optional)
17. Marketing Letter.
17.1. How to create a Marketing letter. 17.2. The target company section.
18. Reference Letter. 19. Thank you. 20. Acceptance Letter. 21. Rejection Reply Letter. 22. Action Verbs

16. Cover Letter.

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Every resume you send should be accompanied by a Cover Letter. More and more these days employers and recruiting agencies expect a cover letter with a resume, and some employers and recruiting agencies reject resumes that don’t have one.

While the resume is a detailed account of your skills, experiences, achievements, education etc. the cover letter by contrast, is a briefer account of you. The cover letter has five main purposes;
  1. Introduces some well chosen skills and achievements that make the reader want to read the accompanying resume.
  2. Identifies the position and where you saw the advertisement, or acts as an introduction to the resume when no job has been advertised
  3. Display some of the knowledge you have about the employers’ company and/or industry
  4. Allows you some space to elaborate on a point where you can’t do this in a resume.
  5. Reveals a little about your personality and character

Like the resume, the reader is only likely to spend 10-20 seconds reading a cover letter, and if they are unable to find quickly and easily who you are and what you can do, they may not even bother to read the resume. About one page in length, and containing no more than four paragraphs the cover letter needs to be very succinct, focused and customized for each opportunity.

A simple cover letter mentioning the position and the enclosed resume is ok, but you are missing a golden opportunity to showcase some of the highlights of your resume, or demonstrate your knowledge of the company and position.

What a cover letter should be:
  • Always sent with a resume
  • Customized for each opportunity
  • Friendly, positive and not too formal
  • Clear, concise and well written
  • Include the reason for writing
  • Highlight one or two skills and experiences
  • Focus on the employer
  • Error Free
  • Addressed to a specific individual when you know their name.
  • Include an action at the end.

There isn’t one right answer to style and tone, while some people are more comfortable with a more formal or business tone, others find writing this way uncomfortable and prefer to use a less formal or friendlier tone.
If in doubt always lean towards using the more formal business tone.

Since this letter is about you, and needs to appeal to the reader with what you can do and who you are, you should always choose the words and style you feel most comfortable using. That said there are things that should never be used, such as; obscenities – even mild ones, slang, coarse humor and inappropriate remarks.

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