Resumes and Cover Letters « We Write For You

Persuasive Writing: when “more” is “less”

August 28, 2009 | Posted in: Competitive Writing, Fundraising, General Writing, Grantwriting, Public Relations, Resumes and Cover Letters | Tags: brochures, business writing, compete, competition, copywriting, document, editing, funding, Fundraising, grant writing, Grantwriting, marketing, persuade, persusive writing, private donors, proposal, proposal scores, Public Relations, resume, We Write For You, wewriteforyou.com, winning grants, writing, writing tips |

Most of the time, persuasive writing is used in competitive situations.

It is the resume, when you compete with others to get the job. It is the grant proposal, when you compete with others to get funding. It is any time you compete with peers to get donors, votes and even “your way.”

More is less in persuasive writing when you use words that say the same thing. For example, “Our approach is economical, efficient and frugal, freeing up manpower, materials and money for other uses.”

It is obvious to the reader that your plan will save money. In fact, it is obvious over and over and over. The reader tunes out when statements include unnecessary words; and worn out by the repetition, gives little attention to the rest of your statements.

Imagine the sentence above being followed by “Think what we could do with the resources this method saves our organization.” When your sentences repeat the message, you suggest to the reader that you (in a resume) or your plan has no other good qualities; that much of the document is really filler.

In conclusion, when you write a resume, proposal or sales document, don’t use unnecessary adjectives and redundant sentences. Let each unique point you make stand out.

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Before you write your resume (and especially before you write your cover letter)…

July 5, 2009 | Posted in: General Writing, Resumes and Cover Letters | Tags: cover letter, Hot Pockets, resume, We Write For You, wewriteforyou.com, writing, writing tips |

If you read our previous post on resumes, we pointed out how important it is to tailor your resume for the particular position you’ve targeted. (And if you missed that one, read it here right now.)

Before you sit down to write that tailored resume, whether revising or starting from scratch, you need to refer to the one critical document that will determine what information to include or omit:

The list of job qualifications.

That’s right, the template for your resume should not be a list of stuff you’ve done in the past. The template should be what qualities the employer is looking for regarding this particular job. And this will be even more important in the cover letter.

Think about it this way: you’re looking for the perfect mate on an online dating site. Let’s say you’re looking for a woman, and you’ve come across one you believe would make the perfect partner. She lists all of her turn-ons, and they include: outdoor activities, dancing, kittens and romantic dinners.

So you decide to give her a “wink” online to gauge her interest. But the information in your profile notes that you spend all of your time playing video games, you hate to dance, you’ve only had dogs as pets and you only eat Hot Pockets.

Think there’s any chance of getting a date? (more…)

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More on resume basics: one thing you need to know to get the job

June 10, 2009 | Posted in: Resumes and Cover Letters | Tags: cover letter, editing, editing tips, experience, fast food, interviewing, interviews, job search, job searching, Lindsay, Lindsay Lohan, Lohan, marketing yourself, resume, We Write For You, wewriteforyou.com, writing, writing tips |

Resumes seem so simple — but they’re not. Not the good ones, anyway. Not the ones that actually lead to job offers.

The last time we talked about resumes (read it here), we talked about how a resume is a marketing document (it’s marketing you, of course) and what contact information to include.

This time, we at wewriteforyou.com want to address another resume tip that makes all the difference and yet very few people follow it. Here it is:

Instead of having a single, universal resume and using it every time you apply for a job, you should tailor your resume every time to the job you’re after.

Listing ALL of your experience -- at a burger joint, for example -- might actually work against you on a resume. (And you definitely won't get an interview if you admit you're Lindsay Lohan.)

Isn’t that more work? Sure it is. But it’s worth it: tailoring your resume will exponentionally improve your chances of getting an interview.

How do you tailor your resume to a specific job? There are many ways, but they include:

Highlight the aspects of your experience that fit the job’s needs.

Omit (or at least, downplay) aspects of your experience that are irrelevant to the job or serve no useful purpose.

Relate your experience in the context of the posted job qualifications for that position. You want to show a high degree of similarity between who you are and who they’re looking to hire. Makes sense, right?

Employers don’t care what fast-food jobs you worked in high school or where you tended bar during college, unless there are skill sets specific to those positions that help qualify you for the position you want.

Even then, consider omitting them if you’ve had similar experience since then at a more professional level. Listing too much low-level work experience can actually work against you in a resume — a topic we’ll expand on in the future.

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Dos and Dont’s: A few critical resume basics you might not know

June 2, 2009 | Posted in: Resumes and Cover Letters | Tags: business writing, email, marketing, resume, wewriteforyou.com, writing tips |

We’ve been getting a little more resume work than usual lately, which is not surprising given the economy.

The right resume is the key to getting the interview.

What is surprising, however, is how few people understand even the very basics about what makes an effective resume. We often see resumes from professionals with 20 years of experience and several degrees, yet they have no clue how to market themselves in their resumes.

That’s what a resume is: a marketing document. It is not simply a list of the stuff you’ve done and the honors you’ve achieved. It’s the most important thing to remember.

We’ll get into some more specifics in later posts, but I promised you a few important basics for now. Here you go:

DO include your email address in your resume. This one might seem obvious, but we still see quite a few resumes that omit this.

DO make sure your email address sounds professional. If you’re still using partygirl420@yahoo.com, that reflects poorly. Get a new, free email (from Google, MSN, or others).

DON’T include contact information about Facebook or Twitter. It will just be confusing to non tech-savvy employers, and you never know how they’ll interpret what they find if they do look you up.

However, DO make sure that if you’re looking for a job and you do use Facebook or Twitter, there’s nothing on either that reflects badly on you. If a hiring manager simply Googles your name, your Facebook or Twitter often will come up. So will blog posts and comments, so keep that in mind too.

We’re out of time today, but we have tons more to tell you about resumes. Keep checking back to the We Write For You blog to learn more.

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