Resume package cover letters

When choosing resume paper, make sure you see and feel a sample of the paper stock prior to purchasing a sealed package of that paper. Finally, when printing your resumes and cover letters on a laser or high-quality ink-jet printer, make sure the paper you choose was designed for this equipment. 

Every cover letter should highlight things about you that are of direct interest to the recipient. Before sending a resume and cover letter to an employer, you must first develop an overall message and package to market yourself. This package should be synergistic. 

Another valuable piece of your overall resume package, which will be submitted to an employer during a job interview or upon request after submitting your resume and cover letter, is your list of personal and professional references. Most companies will simply ask you to fill in this information on the company s standard job application, or the hiring manager or someone in the HR department may contact... 

Although it is generally agreed that a thank-you note should be short, opinions differ as to whether it should be handwritten or typed. It is safe to say, however, that if a company is conservative, the best bet would be to write your thanks by hand on a small, plain, good-quality note card (5" x 3/ "). On the other hand, you can type your thanks on good-quality, standard size (8/ " x 11") stationery. Some job candidates use the same paper and style of heading they used for their resumes and cover letters. (In this instance, the thank-you note is considered the final addition to the resume package they ve already submitted.) The format is less important than the time frame, however. A thank-you note should be mailed no later than a day after an interview. 

Now that you understand what a resume is, it s also important to understand what it s not. Your resume is just one of the tools used to land a new job. This document often provides you with your initial introduction to a potential employer (if you submit a resume in response to an ad, for example). When combined with a well-written cover letter, your resume package can help a potential employer make an educated judgment about whether or not it s worth the time to invite you for an interview to learn more about your skills, experience, and qualifications. 

A resume package consists of your resume, cover letter, envelope, and any additional documents you eventually supply to a potential employer, such as a list of references or a thank-you note, in hopes of landing an interview. This chapter emphasizes that using matching papers, envelopes, ink colors, typestyles, and fonts for each document in your resume package is essential for many reasons. 

A friend, former business associate, or network contact who currently works for (or is associated with) the company for which you want to work. If this person isn t responsible for the company s actually hiring, your cover letter should ask him or her to forward your resume package on your behalf to the appropriate person, along with their recommendation. 

This section of your cover letter should contain a request for the reader to take action and invite you for an interview. Remember, the person to whom you are writing is probably busy, so follow up with a telephone call and mention you will do so in your letter. Don t simply send out your resume package and then sit by the telephone waiting for a response. 

Several of the resume-creation software packages also have built-in tutorials designed to help you prepare for your interviews, do company research, create your resume, and write cover letters. Thus, in addition to using the Internet as a powerful job-search tool, your computer can help you create highly professional printed and electronic resumes. 

WinWay Resume Deluxe 11.0 features easy-to-use mail merge capabilities, so the information within your contact manager can be easily incorporated into your cover letter, and other parts of your resume package. Using the e-mail features, sending electronic versions of your resume is a snap, since the Contact Management module allows you to store e-mail addresses as well as fax numbers and mailing addresses. 

Creating and Suhmitting Your Resume Package from Cover Letters to Thank-You Notes... 

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