References: who to use

Who should you use for references?

Ideally you should have 3 former employers/ managers or supervisors as your references.

You can have more than one person from any one job. You could have your immediate supervisor, the manager, and a coworker, for example.

Or you can have one person from each of 3 different jobs.

Employers usually like a reference from your most recent employer. If you are still working, however, they don't usually expect a reference from your present employer as they realize you may not want the people at your current job to know you are job hunting.

If there is some reason the obvious person at your previous job would not be a good reference, try to think of someone else at that place of work who would have good things to say about you.

If you have been out of the workforce for a while, or for some reason cannot use previous employers/ coworkers, you can use personal references. These are not as good, but if you need to use them, then do.

A good personal reference could be someone in any kind of professional position: a doctor, lawyer, minister, counsellor etc.

Failing that, just anyone you know who would be able to tell the employer good things about you.

If you have been volunteering, someone you worked beside as a volunteer would be good. You may not get paid for volunteering, but work is work and you were working as a volunteer so the reference is just as valid.

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Resumes: Employers don't read, they scan

How long will the average employer look at your resume?

15 - 30 seconds.

That's not long so here's how to give maximum readability in that short time span.

• write bulleted items, preferably of one line and no more than two
• do not use unnecessary words, such as "the" and "a" - just miss them out
  
• do not use "I". "my" or "me"
• use powerful descriptors such as effective, efficient and successful
• use statistics where ever possible: Increased sales by 15% in 6 months

Other information:

• group bulleted lists under different heading so no one heading has more than about 6, or at the most 8 bullets, and no less than 3
• Whenever you tell the employer you did something, the last bit of that one-liner should tell him/her what benefit that is to them
• for example: Reorganized filing system, saving 3 hours filing work per week, ensuring quick, easy access to files for all staff

Success happens when you:

• Take time to write your one liners.
• Use simple bullets, no fancy checkmarks or designs.
• Make your resume on that will stand out enough in the first 15 - 30 seconds that the employer will give the time it takes to read it in entirity.

Do you need a cover letter?

Do you need a cover letter? The short answer is yes.

About 50% of employers don't even look at a cover letter, but for the other 50% who do, it's imperative that you have a powerful letter to go with your resume.

Why do 50% not read your cover letter? Imagine you are an employer, advertising a job. You get 300 responses. That is 600 pages, if the resumes are generally one page long, 900 pages if they are two pages long. If you ditch all the cover letters you have just saved yourself reading 300 pages. Quite a time saving.

But back to those who do: what do they want to find in your cover letter?

Firstly say where you found the advertisement and the position title.

Then highlight the main strengths and experience you have that the employers seems to want the most. This can take one or two paragraphs.

Next, visit the employers website, or look them up in the yellow pages, and to your cover letter add a short statement about something you find interesting or exciting about the company.

Lastly is the call to action. This is where you tell the employer what you expect to happen next.

With an advertised job, this will mean just stating that you look forward to hearing from him/ her, and hope they will interview you.

With an undavertised job, you state that you will call in a few days, or a week, in the hope of setting up an interview. (And then make sure you do call!)

Thank the employer for taking the time to read your material, and close with "Sincerely", and your name.

One page, no more and lots of white space.

That's your cover letter. It's job is not to get you the job. It's job it to get the employers to read your resume so take time and put some thought into what you write, just in case you hit one of the 50% of employers who read cover letters.

Need more help and detail on writing a powerful, result-driven cover letter?

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