Job Search Letters For Dummies E-Book

Joyce Lain Kennedy

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 320

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

New-style job messages that get you in the door and on your way up

From sparkling cover letters to six-word bios, a fresh bevy of job search letters has grown powerfully useful for successful career communications. Job Search Letters For Dummies delivers the quality of New Era know-how you need right now to land good jobs and thrive. Whether you’re a long-time professional or a recent college graduate — or somewhere in between — Job Search Letters For Dummies has you covered.

Job Search Letters For Dummies covers the gamut of leading-edge topics, including effective strategies for internal career communications on topics such as raises, promotions, and position changes; rules for communicating professionally with texts and networking on social media platforms such as twitter and LinkedIn; fresh and updated communication phrases to voice accomplishments and make job-fit statements; post-interview etiquette and letters such as thank-yous, "hire me" reinforcement notes, interest revival queries; and much more.

• Get hired with 40 types of job letters
• Create short messages for a smartphone world
• Network on social media sites
• Model best letters more than 200 pro samples

Whether you’re a long-time professional or a recent college graduate — or somewhere in between — Job Search Letters For Dummies has you covered.

A note to job seekers from nationally syndicated careers columnist and author or Job Search Letters For Dummies, Joyce Lain Kennedy:

Welcome aboard, job seekers! Thanks for checking out this first guide to communications-supported job search and career growth in relentlessly changing technological times.

 The right messaging — what you say, why you say it, and when you say it — is as important today to your employment goals as it has been at any time since Leonardo da Vinci wrote the first professional resume in 1482.

 Consider recent job–finding history:

• In 1986 fax machines and postal mail were the most popular ways to send resumes and cover letters.
• In the 1990s the Internet boom kicked in with new tools to connect jobs and people: e-mail, websites, cell phones, mailing lists, and online bulletin boards.
• In the 21st century the double-time march of recruiting technology skyrocketed, building a techno-swamp populated with endless ideas of how to connect work and people through smartphones, wonder tablets, apps, and social media for virtual networking.

 You’re competing in a new world of work out there. If your job search is treading water — or even drowning— there’s a better way. Make a splash! Engage hiring authorities through a communications-centered campaign with smart content.

Leseprobe

Job Search Letters For Dummies®

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2013 by Joyce Lain Kennedy

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2013938102

ISBN 978-1-118-43641-7 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-43640-0 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-43642-4 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-43643-1 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Job Search Letters For Dummies®

Visit www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/jobsearchletters to view this book's cheat sheet.

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

Foolish Assumptions

Icons Used in This Book

Beyond the Book

Where to Go from Here

Your Treasure Hunt Begins

Part I: New Tools for New Times

Chapter 1: Best Messages: Land Jobsand Leap Ahead

A Brief Kaleidoscope of Letter Types

Digital Is Destiny

Memorable Job Search Letters

Executive position letter

Alumni career fair letter

Networking letter

Why Job Letters Are the Future

Chapter 2: Mobile Meets Job Search

The FAQs of Mobile Job Search

Who Mobile Benefits Most

What Mobile Offers Everyone

Say Hello to Job Search Apps

Greet Mobile Company Job Pages

Consider These Message Tips

Check Out Sample Mobile Messages

Leading with references

Replying to job posts

Mobile message closers

Mobile Job Search in the Digital Age

Chapter 3: Newcomer Letters that Persuade

13 Messages to Outrun Rivals

Accomplishment statements

Checklist comparisons

Resume addendums

Specialty profiles

First 90-day forecasts

Introduction letters

Professional education statements

QR-coded letters

Job skills checklists

Resume letters

Job offer responses

Rejection follow-ups

Job return agreements

More Cool Job Letters Ahead

Part II: Essential Job Search Letters

Chapter 4: Job Ad Reply Letters and Notes

Watching for Smooth Moves

Magic connectors

P.S. winners

Fast starters

Praise gold

Design arts

Graph gems

Attention grabbers

Memorable storytellers

Blue standard bearers

Main points

Making Contact with Cover Notes

Getting good writing tips

Using cover notes for a fast start

Feasting Your Eyes

Chapter 5: Getting Help: Networking Letters

Zooming In on Purposeful Networking

Advance scouting

Selective aim

Finding the Best Places to Network

Networking Letters to Note

Door openers

Event connections

Self-starters

Digital circuits

Help on the Way — Samples Ahead

Chapter 6: Prospecting Letters

Pitch with Immediate Promise

Send Digital Mail or Postal Mail?

Techniques to Tap

Eye catchers

Class acts

Rave reviews

Important words

High flyers

Storylines

Business boosters

Durable styles

On with the Letters!

Chapter 7: After-Interview Letters

Great Reasons to Write After Interview

Tackling the Mechanics of Your Letter

Letters to Lift You Above the Crowd

Extra helpings

People pleasers

Crossover sellers

Matching sets

See Samples That Jell the Sell!

Part III: Creative Fresh Messages

Chapter 8: Social Media Messages

Social Media Is a Tool You Can Learn

Meet Three Big Social Players

LinkedIn

Facebook

Twitter

More sizzling social sites

Suggestions for Social Searching

Conducting a LinkedIn search

Incorporating your e-mail address book

Becoming a critic and an admirer

Sharing with Facebook friends

Including people outside your industry

Short and Sweet Social Messages

“If You Don’t Ask, You Don’t Get”

Chapter 9: Branding Statements, Bios, Profiles, and Speeches

Differing Points of View

Buttoning Down Your Brand

Ingredients for a branding message

Where to place your message

What branding statements look like

See more branding statements

Creating a Marvelous Bio

Four more bio tips

What bios look like

Aiming High with a Bio Flyer

What bio flyers look like

Perfecting an Online Profile

Online profiles vs. resumes

Ten tips to improve your profile

What professional profiles look like

Going Up in an Elevator Speech

Eight tips to enjoy the ride

What elevator speeches look like

Common Threads for Your Search

Chapter 10: Interview Leave-Behind Docs

A Leave-Behind Brings You to Mind

Reinforce your strengths

Distinguish yourself from the competition

Jumpstart your follow-up

15 Leave-Behind Topics to Remember

Writing Effective Leave-Behinds

Review Samples of Leave-Behinds

Chapter 11: References and Recommendations

Reference ABCs You Don’t Want to Miss

With the Right References, You Rock!

Reference lists

Reference commentaries

Job search letter quotes

Letters of recommendation

Personal character references

Social media references

Handle Reference Problems Skillfully

Fighting back in reference trouble spots

Tiptoeing under the radar screen

Put Time on Your Side

Chapter 12: Online Portfolios, Prezis, and Videos

Best Prospects for Telling Your Story

Rewards of Online Presentations

Attract Interest with a Work Portfolio

Electrify Employers with a Prezi

Prezi fundamentals

Prezi job seeker samples

Video: Hiring Tool or Turnoff?

Virtual Job Search is Racing Ahead

Chapter 13: Getting Ahead in the Job You Have

Messages That Grow Your Career

Asking for a pay raise

Requesting a promotion

Applying for an internal job vacancy

Asking for a lateral move

Cover Your Bases with Workplace Docs

Part IV: Best Writing Elements

Chapter 14: Writing Your Way to a Job

Zooming In on the Basics

Advantages of Stand Out Letters

Disadvantages of Stand Out Letters

Unfreezing Writer’s Block

Ugly Typos, Sloppy Letters, Few Offers

Overcoming What-If Worries

The Anatomy of a Job Search Letter

Contact information

Date line and inside address

Salutation

Introduction

Body

Conclusion

Closing, signature, and enclosure line

Get Ready to Write

Chapter 15: Language That Snap-Crackle-Pops

Refreshing Your Language

So why are you writing?

So what? How does it matter?

Technical versus nontechnical language

Concise but thorough

Active versus passive voice

Past versus present tense

Tune Up Grammar and Punctuation

Sentence fragments

Run-on sentences

Dangling participles

Misplaced modifiers

Semicolons

Punctuation in parenthetical expressions

Hyphens

Abbreviations

Numbers

Commas

Capitalization

Getting Your Grammar Guide On

Organizing Your Information

Reading for Smoothness

Chapter 16: Great Lines for Success

Great Starts for Your Letter

Dropping names

Defining your wants

Telling a story

A Sampling of Grand Openers

Leadoff Losers

Salutation Snoozers

Power Phrases to Use Anywhere

An Action Close to Keep Control

Action close

Action close plus

No-action close

Examples of the Action Closes

P.S. A Final Important Point

Great Lines to Woo Reluctant Readers

Chapter 17: Job Seeker’s Skills Finder

Decoding the Skills Lineup

Foundation skills

Where there’s a skill, there’s a way

Speaking Out about Your Skills

Foundation skills checklist

Crossover skills checklist

Showcasing Popular Skills that Employers Want

Identifying Personal Qualities That Employers Want

Giving Serious Thought to Certifications

Crash course on certification

What’s certification worth?

Good Luck on the Great Skills Search

Part V: The Part of Tens

Chapter 18: Remember Ten Social Forget-Me-Not Tips

Going Social on the Job Front

Spread job search news with caution

Establish yourself as an expert

Find role models and mirror them

Send thank-you notes to new connections

Sleuth for useful company research

Regularly check your social sites

Tweet for quality, not quantity

Use common sense to avoid rejection

Match social media to your type of job

Don’t assume that social is all you need

What’s Next in Social Search

Chapter 19: Top Ten Google Tips forJackpot Job Search

Welcome to the Wide World of Google

Learn Google ground rules

Search for bingo! answers

Search many faces of job titles

Monitor your good name

Uncover hidden jobs

Pinpoint recruiters and hiring managers

Think like a detective for interview prep

Avoid layoffs and sidestep bad jobs

Use alerts to stay alert

Explore the Google universe

New Game: “Hide and Seek and Find”

Appendix: Directory of Job Letter Writers

Getting to know you

Getting to your writer

Industry awareness

Out-the-door price

Delivery dates

About the Author

Cheat Sheet

Introduction

Right now, you hold in your hands a key to today’s successful job search. Hint: Your challenge isn’t like it was even five years ago.

Communications and technology are two gigantic change factors that are rapidly transforming both the materials and the methods of finding and nailing down a job. The two factors are connected.

Communications. Joining resumes as staples of employment tools, an explosion of job search messaging is emerging to benefit job seekers everywhere in any career field or industry.

For brevity, I use the term “job search letters” in this work to mean all messaging that promotes job finding and career health. I identify many categories of job search letters that you can write to get what you want. Key messaging formats include the following:

Letters

E-mails

Profiles

Memos

Text messages

Bios

Multimedia

Reports

Prezis

Video

Checklists

Mobile messages

Technology. An almost unimaginable amount of technological innovation is reshaping how messaging moves in the marketplace of jobs.

Most of it is digital, ranging from social media networking and public profile posting, to mobile job app responses and information intended to automatically match jobs and candidates.

Despite mind-blowing change now and tomorrow, bear in mind that technology does not and cannot replace human interaction at every turn of the employment process. For that reason, a number of the sample job search letters in these pages are intended to be passed by hand, depending on the circumstances.

About This Book

This guide to modern job search communications wouldn’t have been possible without the outstanding collaboration of 42 top-shelf professional career messaging writers who provided the message samples throughout its pages.

The professional writer’s name is credited beneath each sample. Find the writer’s contact information in the Directory of Job Letter Writers, which is printed in the appendix of this book.

Job Search Letters For Dummies replaces three editions of Cover Letters For Dummies.

Foolish Assumptions

I assume that you chose this book because your job search is on your mind, perhaps as a new graduate fresh from college with scant working experience, or as a career changer seeking to make a leap into a different field, or as a seasoned worker wondering how to get ready for the next future challenge.

More specifically, I’m also making these assumptions:

You may feel as though good things never seem to happen in your job world. Have you considered the possibility that you don’t market your abilities robustly enough in a tight economy?

The arsenal of messaging samples in these pages offers new ideas about how to communicate your true worth.

You’re job hunting, but you’ve never written any kind of job search letter that landed you an interview. (Putting recruiters to sleep, are you?)

Now you’re ready to step up your game and learn from samples of how today’s writing pros do it. You sense that this is the right guidebook to help you pick up the know-how to look job perfect to employers stuck in hiring paralysis.

You’re employed but concerned about or dissatisfied with your current work situation. You’re looking for escape routes if push comes to shove — but you need the right message tools to look vibrant in modern times.

You’re ready to move up in rank and money, but all is quiet on the management front. You’ve heard a story about an audacious soul who won a nice promotion by writing a request justifying it, and of another individual who fired up her keyboard to ask for a pay bump, and the money flowed. You’re ready to learn how to write letters like that.

Icons Used in This Book

For Dummies signature icons are the little round pictures you see in the margins of the book. I use them to call your attention to key bits of information. Here’s a list of the icons you find in this book and what they mean.

This icon signals situations in which you may find trouble if you don’t make a good decision.

Some points in these pages are so useful that I hope you’ll keep them in mind as you read. I make a big deal out of these ideas with this icon.

This icon directs your full attention to compelling messages that make you stand out from the crowd.

Here I flag advice and information that can spark a difference in the outcome of your career message.

Beyond the Book

In addition to the goodies contained in this book, Job Search Letters For Dummies comes with some access-anywherematerial on the web. Check out the free Cheat Sheet at http://www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/jobsearchletters for additional helpful letter-writing suggestions.

Where to Go from Here

If you’re in a tight spot and don’t have the time to start with Chapter 1 and read this book cover to cover, please allow me to make a few suggestions to get you off to a good launch.

When you need to dive into specific information, the Table of Contents is your guide to grab the immediate info you need. The Index is another place to cherry-pick the answers you want.

Additionally, here are several targeted call-outs:

When you aren’t up on the framework of mobile search and social media, read Chapters 2 and 8. I’ve tried not to go overboard on the techie talk, but offer only enough to get you onboard today’s job search functions.

When you’ve just spotted an advertised job opening you want, cut to the chase: Immediately read Chapter 4.

When you need to make a move fairly quickly, but you have no advertised jobs you want to claim, head straight for Chapters 1, 2, 5, 6, and 8 through 12.

Your Treasure Hunt Begins

Within this guide’s pages you’ll find more than 40 valuable new types of documents to send your career soaring. Seek and find samples of these kinds of job search letters:

accomplishment statement, checklist comparison, resume addendum, specialty profile, first 90-day forecast, introduction letter, skills checklist, resume letter, job offer response, rejection follow-up, job return agreement, job ad reply, networking letter, prospecting letter, after-interview letter, social media message, mini-message text, branding statement, bio, bio flyer, professional profile, elevator speech, leadership initiatives summary, occupational highlights, cultural fit statement, industry experience statement, job training snapshot, project plan review, certifications list, performance snapshot, strengths summary, education achievements report, best work portfolio, sales skills index report, qualifications-job ad requirements display, reference list, reference compendium, recommendation letter, online work portfolio, prezi, and videoclip message.

Treasure hunts are great fun but this isn’t a kid’s game. A rewarding career is your grand prize in a changed job market where you need all the clues you can get.

Part I

New Tools for New Times

In this part . . .

Do you know what kind of power a well-crafted marketing message can bring to your search for a good job? Rather than allow a job search letter to merely introduce your resume, give it the wings to make your image soar! In this part, you find out how a job search letter can bring the right kind of attention your way.

Chapter 1 discusses all that job search letters can be and all that they can do for you. Chapter 2 leads you down the dynamic mobile path. Discover the new age of job search letters. Finally, Chapter 3 contains newcomers to the job search letter arena that not only give you extra help to get hired, but illustrates how a wise addition of collateral documents can add lift-off to your career future.