Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters Tips Blog

“Word bullets” are a way to make your cover letter stand out. Word bullets (which can be used with regular bullets), also break up the text and are excellent for spotlighting words or phrases from the ad or job posting you’re responding to. By pulling these words out of the ad, you can focus your letter sharply on how you meet the requirements that relate to those words. See an example of a letter that uses word bullets.

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One of our favorite quotes about resumes comes from Mark Nelson, former partner of Dale Dauten of syndicated career-column fame. Describing a two-page resume with long paragraphs and tiny type, Nelson says: “This resume is like a lonely guy who can’t get a date, so he sits at home and eats and gets bigger and bigger. I meet people all the time who think employers are going to get excited by lots of detail in their resumes. No. Instead, [employers] think, ‘Here’s a guy who can’t prioritize and who doesn’t respect his reader.’” Overstuffed and text-heavy resumes are a problem for many job-seekers. A good way to avoid them is to prioritize your resume content based on how well it answers some basic questions. For example, does your resume tell:

• What you can bring to the employer to improve the company’s service and increase its profits?
• What you have done recently toward that end?
• How you can make money for the employer?
• How you can save money for the employer?
• How you can introduce and improve processes?
• How you can lead and develop people?
• How you can solve the company’s problems?

(These questions came from career columnist Sandra Pesmen and consultant Nancy Bergman of Stanley Barber & Associates)

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Consider using bullets in your cover letter to make it more reader-friendly. Bullet points can break up the text of your cover letter and draw the reader’s eye to your most compelling selling points. Be sure you don’t re-hash your resume’s bullet points. And unlike bullet points on a resume, those on a cover letter should either be in complete sentences (instead of clipped, “telegraphed” resume language) or should complete the sentence that leads into the bulleted list.

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In the Q&A she did with us professional resume writer Tracy Laswell Williams, talks about “the headless resume,” which she says is less than desirable. “It has been my experience,” Williams notes, “that many people (especially busy, overworked recruiters and hiring managers) have a hard time summarizing information on their own. Without a focused and persuasive summary at the beginning of your resume, you’re missing a great opportunity to sell yourself by leaving it to the reader to form an overall impression of your qualifications.”

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Think most hiring managers don’t read cover letters? The perception that cover letters aren’t important anymore is likely fed by the fact that some online job boards don’t have a mechanism for submitting cover letters. But a study by CareerBuilder.com of 290 hiring managers across the U.S. revealed that 66 percent prefer an appropriate cover letter with the resume. Since you don’t know which two-thirds of hiring managers like cover letters and which third don’t, you need to always include a cover letter with your resume.

Further breaking down that 66 percent, author and career guru Wendy Enelow points out that 33 percent of all recipients ALWAYS read the cover letter first; the other 33 percent glance at the cover letter after they’ve read the resume. Therefore, says Enelow, “Your letter must immediately communicate your value to an organization, for you never know which 33 percent will receive it.”

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A recent University of Washington study reveals something about job-seekers: it’s better to flatter than to brag. The study looked at job-seekers and the recruiters who interviewed them. People who flattered the interviewer received higher ratings than those who expounded on their merits.

They received those ratings because interviewers believed they shared their beliefs and attitudes, indicating a potentially good fit at the company.

Ingratiating yourself to employers through appropriate levels of flattery (nothing obvious or obnoxious, of course) may help you more than your own impressive credentials.

You can deploy flattery in a cover letter as well as in an interview. Take a paragraph of your letter to show the reader you’ve researched the employer — and based on that research, you have great admiration for the organization and its mission, values, products, services, or other aspects.

— Adapted from the Echo newsletter from Communispond

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Once upon a time, someone came up with a “rule” that resumes should not exceed one page. No one really knows who came up with the rule, but a great many job-seekers still seem to live in fear of this supposed edict. The fact is that very few “rules” exist today in the world of resume writing. Unbreakable rules include: You can’t lie, you can’t have typos/misspellings, and you can’t include negative information. Just about every other rule you’ve ever heard about resumes, however, is breakable, including rules about how many pages your resume should comprise. Read more about resume length, including lots of insight from experts, in our article The Scoop on Resume Length: How Many Pages Should Your Resume Be?

Rules aside, resume trends come and go, and the current trend is, in fact, toward shorter resumes. So, keep your resume to one page if at all possible, but not if it means sacrificing readability or leaving off relevant information.

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A Guest Blog Post by Donna Mitchell

It is every college-grad's dream to climb up the career ladder in the shortest span of time and make his or her mark in the world. He or she find a job they love, work hard at it, and in time, hope to make more money and earn more respect in the chosen industry. But what most of us don't realize is that a climb up the career ladder really worth it only when:

• It brings you mental satisfaction: You may be earning more money; you may have moved into your roomy corner office with a view to die for and a fancy nameplate on the door with your new designation; and you may be boss to many minions; but it is all worth nothing if you are constantly stressed out and never really happy with your situation. When you love your job and are able to handle all the challenges it throws at you without losing your mind, only then is your professional advancement really worth it.


• It does not ruin your personal life: No matter how successful a career you have, if you have no personal life worth mentioning, you have achieved nothing in life. The most precious assets we earn in life are the love and affection of our friends and family, so if you neglect them in the pursuit of a career, you're going to be nothing but an empty shell - the shell may be golden, but when there is no substance to it, it has no value at all.


• You haven't pushed down people to get up: If your meteoric rise in the professional world has come about because you trampled over your coworkers and others to climb up the career ladder, then you can bet your last dollar that your actions will come back to haunt you. You won't be appreciated by your colleagues, and your victory will only leave a sour taste in your mouth.


• You don't neglect your kids to do so: If you're a parent who's torn between staying home and being an ambitious careerist, you may find that professional advancement can come at a great personal cost. When you're never around for your kids, when they grow up without your involvement in their lives, you lose something you can never gain back. So weigh the pros and cons of your decision before you choose your career over your children.


• It does not offer you any advantages: Some career changes may come with a change of title and little else. You may be earning the same salary but with a fancy designation now. And you're more likely to be doing more work because of your new "promotion" and designation. In such cases, when the disadvantages of the promotion outweigh the advantages, it's not really worth the climb up the career ladder.

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Do you know the 7 Elements of a Highly Effective Cover Letter? Find out.

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We see hundreds of resumes, and we often see the same patterns over and over again. We frequently observe resume tendencies that are not necessarily mistakes, yet the job-seekers behind these resumes could have much nicer, cleaner, more readable resumes if they just tweaked a few things. And none of these tweaks are hard to accomplish. Even if your resume has other problems, you’ll see significant improvements if you make these 10 easy fixes. Check out these easy improvements in our article, Ten Easy Ways to Improve Your Resume

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