Cover Letter guide

Here's a down-and-dirty way of making an achievement resume: Start with a functional resume template. Delete the skill headings under the Experience section. Reduce the number of achievement statements. You can have as few as 3 statements; I recommend no more than 10. Rename the Experience heading to "Achievements" or something that's highly relevant to your job objective. For example, a Civil Engineer's achievement resume might use a heading like "Civil Engineering Projects." When to use the Achievement Resume Format This stripped-down resume format might be good if all of the following are true for you: Neither the chronological nor combination format work for you. You have a very checkered work history. You have at least three achievements that show you have experience in your field or where you have shown you have the skills required for your job objective. If you can get either the chronological or combination resume format to work, u...

As a career counselor, I can't tell you how many tens of thousands of cover letters I've read, reviewed, and edited in over 30 years in the field. There's certainly a lot of good advice out there on how to write a cover letter, but here's what I think is wrong with most of the actual cover letters I've seen: 1. Ineffective salutation. What I typically see are salutations such as, "Dear Sir or Madam," or "To Whom It May Concern," or (worst of all) "Dear Hiring Manager." Do you know of ANY company that has a position called "Hiring Manager"? Maybe there are one or two (usually the size of Microsoft), but there can't possibly be many. If you don't know the name or title, it's hard to go wrong if you just say, "Dear Manager." Obviously, the best thing is to use the person's name, IF you know it: "Dear Ms. Smith." Include their job title if appropriate: "Dear Principal Jones." Or, if...