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How to Write a Great Cover Letter and Resume

Resumes and cover letters are both important tools when searching for a new job.  Both documents are written representations of you before you are able to represent yourself in person.  When well written, they can open doors of communication, land you an interview and possibly a new job.  There are key components to a resume and a cover letter.  There is information you must include and information best left out of each document.  While you want to identify certain strengths, there are some that may be inappropriate to forward to a hiring manager or recruiter.  Grammar, spelling, flow and sentence structure are all important parts of a resume.  Resumes come in different forms and formats.  Decide on the best one for your particular history and information.


Write A Cover Letter To Your Application Introducing Yourself To The Admissions Board

When you express your interest for a certain position in a company, the first contact that you can make is by writing a cover letter. What use will the resume have if the formal communication is not passed on to the recruiting officer? The cover letter is in fact the provider of your chance to be invited to the office and be granted an interview.


Cultural Fit is Critical for New Leaders

 

The survey was conducted by Gundersen Partners among 220 senior leaders across industries.  Most respondents were line leaders in general management (51%), followed by marketing roles (35%).  Additionally, 81% of the respondents had the title of VP and above.

 

To be clear, the primary reason for securing a search firm is to identify and present high quality candidates.  These areas are the foundation for the business relationship, and far exceed other "price of entry" categories.  When asked, "What factors are important when selecting a retained executive search firm?" two areas were deemed very important at a very high level. Specifically, those areas included:  presenting quality candidates (93%) and having access to quality candidates (86%).

 

Digging more deeply, two additional characteristics broke through in the survey:  1) the desire to have the search firm understand their organizational issues; and 2) the most important organizational issue is their culture.  Importantly, 90% of the respondents desire recruiters to know their organizational issues.  This suggests that simply understanding the position specification and knowing the hiring manager and the role are "not enough". 

 

Organizational issues are broad, but the number one issue that resonated with the respondents was culture.  When asked "What factors are the most important organizational issues for your executive recruiters to understand?" culture garnered the largest response for very important (66%).  Interestingly, less than 15% indicated that they were very satisfied with their recruiters on this dimension.  This strongly suggests a gap between expectations and performance on the part of the clients and their recruiters.

 

The implications are that understanding organizational culture is the next frontier for retained executive search firms.  There are steps each stakeholder can take to improve the process:

·        Client and search firm include an on-site visit to the primary location for the role.  The client should facilitate meetings with several key stakeholders: peers, subordinates and hiring managers.

·        Culture should be explicitly discussed and captured in position specifications with the critical competencies and behaviors that characterize successful performance clearly defined.   Thus prospective candidates are exposed to a view of the culture early in the process.

·        Candidates should seek to learn about the position and the culture of the prospective employer from a variety of sources.  This learning process should continue throughout the interviewing process.  This would include reading articles, speaking to current and former employees, and also probing the subject during interviews.






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