Month: September 2006

Get to the point in your cover letter

Wendy Terwelp Leave a comment

Author Max Messmer has some excellent tips for writing a terrific cover letter, most importantly, get to the point!

Courtesy of Max Messmer in Post-Gazette.com’s Business News:

Your cover letter is an ideal opportunity to showcase your strong writing skills for prospective employers. You don’t need to craft Pulitzer Prize-winning prose to accomplish this; the key is to be focused and succinct. The following long-winded candidate took a few sentences too many to get to his point:

“On a recent elk hunt in the mountains, an unexpected intruder crossed my path. In a dense thicket no more than three feet away appeared a monstrous, nostril-steaming 1,500-pound bull moose in full rut! Fortunately for the moose, I did not have a moose tag. Fortunately for me, the moose decided I just might have a moose tag and took off for the hills. My passion for hunting elk reflects the focus of my business career.”

Your aim is way off target with this cover letter.

Read the rest of the article here.

Company image attracts good hires

Wendy Terwelp Leave a comment

Courtesy of Career Pro Weekly by Bridges

Companies rely on their corporate image to help sell the goods and services they produce.  Career experts say a growing number of employers are starting to apply the principles of market branding to their recruiting programs so they can recruit talented new workers in a
competitive labor market.

Find out more from the New York Times — Free registration required

Good candidates are hard to find, survey says

Wendy Terwelp 1 Comment

MONDAY, Sept. 11, 2006, 11:19 a.m. –
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Business Watch
By Joel Dresang 

More than half of the companies surveyed by a Brookfield-based staffing company say they’re finding it difficult to find qualified or reliable employees, according to a report released this morning by QPS Companies Inc.

QPS says 56% of the 300 companies responding say it’s hard to find the help they seek. At the same time, 49% say they’d like to add to their staff, and 57% plan on raising wages.

The survey finds that less than 70% of the respondents — which includes manufacturers, banks, printers, distributors and information technology firms in Wisconsin and northern
Illinois — rely on drug screening and criminal background checks for job candidates. Much less use job-specific skills testing or check academic credentials to help find the right workers.

QPS has a staff of 150 in 18 offices and employs about 3,600 assigned workers each week.

Blogging for business: it can change your life

Wendy Terwelp Leave a comment

Yaro Starik – for Flying Solo

I began blogging in 2004 and in 2005 decided to take it really seriously.

For the next six months I blogged and blogged and blogged. Every spare moment I had was spent “brain dumping” what I knew and had opinions of into my blog. My traffic grew, my online profile grew and in fact I wouldn’t be here writing this article for you if Robert and Sam from Flying Solo hadn’t contacted me via, yes you guessed it, my blog!

Let’s get serious for a moment though, it’s important you know why blogging is so good. Blogging is a conversation. It provides a channel communication to contact hundreds, thousands, even millions of people, if you become really popular.

When you blog you aren’t looked upon as a corporate entity or even the boss of a small business. You are viewed and interpreted as who you really are, a real life human living in the world today.

If you haven’t been convinced yet to start a blog, let me recount some specific benefits it’s provided me:

Click here for the rest of the story.