It’s human nature to be selfish. We care about ourselves first and foremost.

And, since hiring managers (the ones I’ve met, anyway) are human, they care more about themselves and their problems than about you and yours.

With that in mind, you should know that approximately 98% of the cover letters I read could be instantly improved by making one, simple change: Turn all the mentions of “I, me, mine” into “you, You, YOU.”

Example — don’t write this: “I’m applying for a job where my skills will be rewarded with the opportunity for advancement …”

Peh.

Write something like this: “You will benefit from my 11 years of experience, which will help me make a rapid contribution for you.”

For validation, we turn to the world of classical advertising, back when ads used to be written by salesmen (as opposed to today, when ads are  almost universally written by “creative,” funny people … who couldn’t sell cheeseburgers to Michael Moore).

Worth recounting is the story of Max Hart (of Hart, Schaffner and Marx) and his advertising manager, the late and great George L. Dyer. They were arguing about long copy. To clinch the argument Mr. Dyer said, “I’ll bet you $10 I can write a newspaper page of solid types and you’d read every word of it.” Mr. Hart scoffed at the idea. “I don’t have to write a line of it to prove my point,” Mr. Dyer responded. “I’ll only tell you the headline: “This page is all about Max Hart!”
 

Did you get that?

To test whether your cover letter is any good, ask yourself, “Is this about me, or the reader?” If the reader thinks, “Hey, this is all about me!” you’ve got their attention, and most likely, a job interview, too.

If not, you don’t.

While this advice applies specifically to the cover letters you write and send, it should also shape every contact you make with employers. If you can convince them that you’re “all about them,” they will be happy to listen to whatever you say … and the job offers will follow.

Because your competition will still be sending cover letters chock full o’ crap like, “My skills include, but are not limited to …”

But not you, right?

My speech at yesterday’s Star Tribune Career Expo was a lot of fun. It was my 20th keynote address for them since 2000. We had a standing-room-only crowd of 100+ people spilling out the front door — I love when that happens.

By the way, I’m available to speak almost anywhere in North America — if you have a speaker’s budget, call me at 952-946-7952

Here’s a small taste of my 60-minute talk, on the topic of …

(more…)

According to a Feb. 28 2008 survey by Accountemps:

Prepping for the job interview is much more common today than a decade ago …. 79 percent of executives polled said candidates they meet with display at least some knowledge of the company or its industry, up from 59 percent in a 1997 survey on the topic.

Despite this trend, would-be employees still may be missing an opportunity to demonstrate that they’ve done their homework in their cover letters: Only 44 percent of those polled said it’s common for applicants to use their cover letter to show they’ve researched the job, up slightly from 37 percent in the previous survey.

So, are you in the smart 44% of applicants or the lazy 56%?

Which group do you think will get the attention of employers — and get hired — faster?

With tools like Hoovers.com, Linkedin.com and Google Alerts to ferret out data on companies and managers you’d like to work for, there’s no excuse for not customizing your resumes and cover letters.

I’ve drunk too much coffee this morning, so I’ll skip the introduction and just get to the job search tips …

1) Email
If you’re emailing your resume don’t neglect the subject line — along with the from: portion of your message, it’s the first thing employers see when your email arrives.

An article in The Tampa Tribune urges you to take the time to write a subject that gives a “compelling reason for the reader to open your e-mail.”

The article continues:

Unfortunately, most job seekers make the mistake of writing “John Smith — résumé” or worst (sic) yet just “résumé attached.” You must give the reader something of interest, ideally some glimpse into your specific expertise. Examples include:

- Nonprofit executive director with multimillion dollar fund raising experience

- Retail sales manager in Tampa

- Malcom Baldridge (sic) award-winning chief process engineer

Stay clear of non-descript (sic) subject lines such as: “Your perfect employee” or “Please read this.” Even avoid using an exclamation point, since many spam filters will redirect or automatically delete e-mails with this character.

2) Snail Mail
I spoke at the Minneapolis Star Tribune Career Fair two days ago and urged folks (as I’ll urge you) to use plain old paper mail, with a stamp, in addition to emailing your resume to employers. Although you make it easy for hiring managers to scan your resume into their tracking system when you email it, you also make it easy for them to delete and forget you.

But snail mail is different.

All employers were once children, and all children look forward to letters in the mail. Almost all adults still do, whether they realize it or not. That means, until you screw it up by writing a dull cover letter or resume, the hiring manager who gets yours in the mail will start reading with at least a tiny feeling of excitement and expectation. So you have that going for you, which is nice. Score one for snail mail.

More on how to use snail mail to get hired faster in the free Simple Job Search Manifesto.