Crank Up Your Career

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.

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.

Pay Gap – Are women responsible?

Wendy Terwelp Leave a comment

By Pat Schuler, Business Development Coach & Sales Trainer

Do we, as women, need to take responsibility for the fact that we earn on average 80 cents for every dollar that men earn?

An article at MSNBC today talks about the pay gap and very interesting research about women professionals, in this case veterinarians.  It seems women are more likely to make accomodations based on ability to pay, and desire to create or strengthen relationships.  Men in the same study offered the same fee no matter what the circumstances.  One thing the article didn’t report on was whether this was a successful strategy for the women professionals – did they have longer relationships, greater client retention than their male peers? 

Read the rest of the story on Pat’s blog.

Job hunters, what’s in your online profile?

Wendy Terwelp Leave a comment

By Michelle Jarboe of News-Record.com

GREENSBORO — The message sounds like Big Brother is watching, and maybe that’s why this room full of incoming students seems hushed.

Junior Angel Wyatt, 20, is leading a UNCG orientation seminar about how students can use the social-networking Web site Facebook without subjecting themselves to unwanted — and potentially career-damaging — attention.

Her message: Take to the Web and have a good time, but watch your step — and what is posted about you. Others have their eyes on you.

Click here for the rest of the story.