Smart Business & Career Tips

Email Job Application - Some Tips

By Milton Drepaul

Today some employers ask you to email them. Since most of us use email in a rather casual fashion it is useful to take your time and write carefully. Do not sacrifice quality because of the ease of using email. Remember that applying for a job is a serious matter and business etiquette is important.Here are some tips to help you.

Chose an email address that reflects your name instead of something which might make you look ridiculous in a business setting.It is a good idea to set up a special account for your job hunting emails.

Print out the advertisement, highlight the key requirements for the job and respond directly to them in the main part of your email.Briefly and succinctly state the experience you have which is directly relevant.

Ensure that your subject line is informative and pertinent by including the title(or Job code) of the position   you are applying for.

Create an email signature with your contact information-- home address,email ,fax and phone number.

A tightly written version of your cover letter would be your first paragraph in the email.

Your first important task is to present yourself to your future employer in the best possible way.

Resist any temptation to be clever,frivolous or even to hint at any criticism of your former employer or fellow employees.

Show that you have read their instructions carefully by following them.

if they ask you not to phone, or do follow up emails then do not do so.

Arrange your  email into carefully structured single-sentence paragraphs.

Proof your email and attached  resume extremely carefully.Employers or Human Resource personnel will react nd negatively to grammatical and spelling errors. Do not rely on software spell checking only. Use at least one other careful reader to proof read your writing.

Your resume  should be tailored for the post you are applying for, only contain relevant details, and be one page long.It's best to submit it as a PDF file(Portable Document Format) . This format  which is easily readable maintains your fonts and layout faithfully.If you cannot convert to PDF  then use MS Word or a text only version.

Many employers may not accept attachments. If they do not, paste your resume into your email message. Use a simple font. Take out any fancy formatting. Test the appearance of your message by emailing it to yourself and printing it out to do a final proofing. If all is well then send your message.

Milton Drepaul  is co-author of  CXC English and CXC English B . He is an Educator,Writer,Business Consultant and Resume Expert.

Article Source:  EzineArticles Expert Author --Milton Drepaul

How to: Apply for a job - and how not to

This is an interesting post from a journalism blog illustrating several of the errors people make when applying for jobs.I have highlighted keys points in red.

It shows that even people with writing skills can and do make critical errors in doing their resumes ( CVs in UK)and cover letters (cover emails).

The Resume Expert

Posted: 6 April 2005 By: John Thompson

Email: info@journalism.co.uk

We recently advertised for freelance reporters for this site and received 82 applications in total. Despite publishing several hundred journalism recruitment vacancies every year, we rarely recruit journalists ourselves so it has been a fascinating insight into how journalists apply for jobs and the mistakes they make.

Here is the original advert, with the key points in bold:

***

Freelance news reporters sought for occasional cover writing news about online journalism for our web site www.journalism.co.uk.

We don't do stories about reporters stuck up trees (with or without cats) and you must know your RSS from your elbow.

You will also be located in the UK and have a good track record in media, business and/or technology journalism, relevant qualifications and a very keen interest in new media.

Please apply by emailing CV, links to your work and an indication of your approximate per-story rate. Absolutely no calls or agencies.

***

All the applications, with one or two exceptions, were from experienced and qualified professional journalists. We were spoilt for choice and it would be fair to say most of them would have been capable of meeting our needs.

Somehow we had to filter down the applications and one obvious way was to examine how well the candidates had responded to the requirements stated in our advert. For the purposes of this feature, we did examine each application in detail but printing out and processing 82 applications is very time consuming, especially if you are a busy journalist or publisher without the support of a human resources department. So if you are a jobseeker making applications by email, the first golden rule is: first impressions are crucial.

Bearing that in mind, we were surprised that five applicants merely sent a CV with no covering email. Of those who did write a covering letter, six had significant spelling and/or grammatical errors and one made a mistake with my name, addressing me as 'Mr Thomas'. A busy journalist may well dismiss such applications out of hand, without bothering to read the attached CVs.

Another point to remember when applying for jobs by email is to use a relevant subject line. In our case, the application email address we gave is also used by our advertisers as a sort of post box address, so the lack of obvious subject lines in nine applications caused us some confusion. In the worst case scenario, the wrong subject line may result in your application being trashed before anyone has read it.

A covering letter should address the key requirements stated in an advert. If we take each point as highlighted in our advert above, you can see how our applicants fared:

* Freelance...
Thirteen applicants had full-time jobs, one seemed to be applying for a full-time job, and two were students. As we were looking for occasional cover, the full-timers were not suitable because they would not be available during normal working hours.

* You must know your RSS from your elbow...
An astonishing 79 applicants made no reference to their knowledge or otherwise of RSS. One admitted he did not know what it was.

* You will also be located in the UK...
Six applicants were not.

* Have a good track record in media, business and/or technology journalism, relevant qualifications and a very keen interest in new media...
Forty-eight applicants did not state, or supply evidence of, knowledge in these areas.

* Please apply by emailing CV...
Eleven applicants did not include a CV with their applications. Two CVs were in unusual and (for us) unreadable formats (see later).

* Links to your work...
Thirty-seven applicants did not provide links to their work, something we would expect for an online writing position.

* And an indication of your approximate per-story rate...
Thirty-one applicants made no mention of their rates. A handful gave specific per-story rates, while the rest quite acceptably quoted feature-length, per-word, or day shift rates.

* Absolutely no calls or agencies...
One applicant called the office.

Most of the applicants fell down on more than one of the above points and, in fact, only one applicant ticked all the right boxes. Out of the 82 applicants, we eventually shortlisted six whom we hope to trial over the coming months.

The whole process of printing out, assessing and replying to all the applications took nearly two days and destroyed our office printer. This would clearly be an impractical exercise for most employers in this field, so expect your applications to be skim-read on screen and to be assessed quickly. Think sound bites, expect stiff competition and do not expect a reply unless you meet the requirements as stated in the recruitment advert and have carefully crafted your application accordingly.

Applying for jobs by email - key points: • Read the advert carefully and respond to its key requirements in the main body of your email (do not attach covering letters), including a summary of your relevant experience. Do not try to be clever, funny or criticise your would-be employer or its employees (yes, a couple of people did do that). Follow instructions: if they ask you not to phone, don't phone! Break up your email into succinct, single-sentence paragraphs. If appropriate, suggest some story ideas. • Proof your email and CV carefully - journalists will respond negatively to grammatical and spelling errors even if they regularly make them themselves. • Ensure your CV only contains relevant details, and fits on one page. Ideally, supply it as a PDF (Portable Document Format) as this is a universally readable format - you can convert your documents for free at neevia.com. Failing that, MS Word is in common use but, if you can, supply a text-only alternative with it. • Use a pertinent subject line. • Do not presume anything. Do not expect a would-be employer to do the research on you; no matter what your profile, you still have to present yourself.

If you can, try to put yourself in the shoes of the advertiser. What volume of replies are they likely to get to their advert, what is it about you that will make you stand out from the crowd?

Also, if you are applying for a freelance position where they are asking how much you charge, try to tailor your price to suit the likely budget of the publication or web site. Do some research on the publisher, is it a multinational company or a small business with fewer than 10 employees? Compare their advertising rates with those of a publication you already work for and know the freelance rates of. Do not under-price yourself but at the same time, try not to price yourself out of the market.

Finally, if you are rejected take the news graciously. Especially if you are freelance; you might not be the right person for the immediate task but you may well be the right person for a job in the future. We left the door open for all of our rejected applicants to pitch story or feature ideas to us in the future and those that do may well earn themselves a commission if not the chance of some regular work.

More news from dotJournalism:
Budding journalists flood news site
dotJournalism relaunches
NUJ to revamp guide on freelance fees
Good job prospects for online journalists

Comments? Email me.

Career Opportunities for Those with Sociology Degrees

A degree in Sociology provides many career opportunities. Employers in business and government seek college graduates with a well-rounded, liberal arts education.

Remember however, that choosing and finding a career is a full-time job!

Examples of employment opportunities for Sociology majors are found in:

U.S.Bureau Of Prisons.  State Department Of Correction.  Human Services.   Insurance . Advertising.   Public Relations.   Management Training Programs. Census Workers.   Marketing Trainees.   Correction Officers.  Area Agencies On Aging.   Banking.   Youth Services.

Mental Health.   Computers.  Retail Trade.   News Media.  Stock Brokers.   FBI Agents.   Personnel Officers.   Sales Representatives. And much more 

For information on possible careers with a major in Sociology see the American Sociological Association website: Careers in Sociology

In addition to employment, also look for Internships.  Internships can provide experience and connections.  Over 60% of students who do Internships are hired by the employer they Intern with.

Although networking is the best place to begin a career, you will need a solid resume,an eye catching cover letter and clarity about your skills and work experience.   The Resume Expert provides you with expert professional  career services to give you the edge in the marketplace..

To contact The Resume Expert   Call 1.888.811.4236  Fax 416.352.5872  or email TheResumeXpert 

Monster gets a little competition

PagesBites.com  offers users a free  account which allows users to post jobs and resumes. Each posting will be available to the public in the user's public PageBites directory at http://www.pagebites.com/u/USERNAME/.

The postings will be automatically indexed and will appear in their search results. The major search engines  will be able to crawl your postings. So your job/resume posting will appear on the search results of Google, Yahoo, MSN etc.

Users can use a rich text editor to create their posts. This is easier to handle than filling out several text boxes. It also gives greater control over your formating.

One really big advantage over other similar services is that your posting remains online until either you delete it or PageBites feels it is not in line with their fair use guidelines.

Check out this new service. Also they are actively asking for your input to make it better for all.

*******

For Resumes and Cover Letters guaranteed to get you interviewed get in touch with The Resume Expert by calling 1.888.811.4236 (416.2387994 in Toronto Canada) or email Resumes

Our fax is 416.352.5872.

Contact The Resume Expert

Milton Drepaul

The Resume Expert

43018 RPO Parkway West

Mississauga Ontario L5B 4A7

Tel:1.888.811.4236

Voicemail: 607.235.7729 or 416.352.5872

Fax:416.352.5872

Email: The resumexpert

Avoiding cliched resumes

   - Dave Murphy
Saturday, July 10, 2004

 

Everyone wants highly motivated team players  --  people with communication skills and organizational skills who are self-motivated, results- oriented problem-solvers. And if that sentence doesn't make your head hurt, check your resume.

Resume Doctor.com recently surveyed more than 160,000 resumes and found that nearly half used one or more vague phrases to describe the applicant's skills. As the Web site explains, using cliches is wasting space. It's much better to give examples that show how you're a team player rather than just saying that you are.

The most common cliches were "communication skills," found on 12.6 percent of resumes; "team player," 7.2 percent; and "organizational skills," 5. 5 percent.

Part of the problem, I'm sure, is that companies use those cliches in want ads, and job applicants have gotten used to mimicking those phrases when they reply to ads. But the ads are intentionally vague to draw a wide range of applicants. Your resume and cover letter need to be precise. If you do that effectively, you'll be demonstrating your communication skills and making the world a little more buzzword-free..

Bold and brainy: There's an intriguing want ad in this month's edition of the Mensa Bulletin from Google Labs, the people who come up with innovations for the Mountain View Internet company. The Bulletin is for members of American Mensa, people with IQs in the top 2 percent of the population.

The ad shows a vending machine with more than two dozen snacks, with a number instead of a price under each snack. To the right are 21 buttons with different numbers, with the idea being that you have to push five buttons in the right sequence  --  based on a mathematical formula given in the ad  --  to order each snack. You have to identify which snack is impossible to order.

"Are you a compulsive problem solver?" the ad reads. "You should join us here at Google Labs, where a whole bunch of people who love challenges have come together to change the way the world organizes information. It's a big job. We may need your big, high-performance brain to help us out."

The other great part of the ad is in the bottom, right corner, in upside- down type: "If you were expecting to find the answer here, sorry. That's way too easy. But send us the right answer and your resume goes to the front of the line."

This is the reason that Google has gotten to be, well, Google. It's a smart ad aimed at a particularly smart audience, with a chance at reaching people who aren't the least bit desperate to look for a job. And the responses will be from people who put the time and effort into answering a tough problem. That doesn't ensure they'll be great employees, but it's a good pool to dive into.

My math background isn't extensive enough to say whether some sophisticated formula could help people solve the problem, but anyone with decent math skills, a pocket calculator and patience could answer it. I did. It's just simple multiplication, addition and subtraction.

But you need to like challenges and to be a little compulsive. Sometimes that's what it takes to get the job done.

On the Fringe runs Saturdays. E-mail Dave Murphy at dmurphy@sfchronicle.com.

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