Email
Cover letter
Resume tips

The most important reason for failure of applications today may not arise from your work experience or relevance of academic qualifications but rather from your inability to understand the application procedure. We find that most résumé’s are not even looked into and profiles dumped merely because the cover letter is generally ignored and the resume contains details that have no relevance to ones profile.

Here are a few tips which we would stress you consider and apply accordingly. Until you actually land an interview your resume needs to talk for you and this is where you need to understand how things work within the corporate and placement consulting world.

Today 65% of applications are made via email and so you require to comprehend the following in these laid out steps.

1) Email format, body of email

2) Cover Letter (to be taken when going for your interview rounds)

3) Important resume tips to considered.

EMAIL

To: xyz@xyz.com

CC: Please avoid mass-mailing your resume to several firms at a time. Again this can lead to deletion at server level as the server may consider this junk mail besides a resume sent to various firms at a time may not be very appealing and applications need to be improvised and specific.

Subject: Application for the post of : “ “ (Always mention if there is a job code use it)

Body of email:

To, dd/mm/yy

HR Manager

XYZ Corp

Dear Recruitment Officer,

Please do not merely mention “ enclosed resume please do the needful” this is not only rude but also unprofessional. Your resume will most probably be dumped.

Instead you should write about 3-8 lines about what you have done in the past, your experiences, and academic qualifications. This is almost like an abstract and should always be embedded within the body of the email. This is different to a cover letter. Cover letters are submitted with some in-depth factors such as attributes or experiences in detail. The email body should be used to entice the recruitment or HR personnel to open your attachment and go through it. Just short of creating an interest, which is further fulfilled by analyzing your resume.

EXAMPLE :

I am a ______________ graduate/MBA with a high/upper first class degree from the University of ___________. In the past couple of years I have worked at a _____________________ and believe I fit the profile as required by you for the above mentioned position.

My skillsets are as follows: I am enclosing my resume which will give you an indepth idea of the skills required for the positions.

“Here you can mention a few work experience cases that may fit the applications requirement.”

PLS NOTE : Your email file size should never exceed 60 KB as most servers delete the file as it your application may never make it through. Always zip your file or send it in text format. If you want it to be presentable you can convert it into rtf for a smaller file size.

xx

If you use the above email format to make your application you will have a much larger window of opportunity to be called for the interview. Once that happens you cannot merely take your resume copies but your resume requires a cover letter and below we have given an example which you can use, improvise and change according to your details without changing or amending facts.

COVER LETTER

COVER LETTER FORMAT. Used for postal applications and submitted during your interview sessions. Most large firms screen this letter so it can give them a better insight of your profile and may tailor questions and the interview based on this. Most candidates do not provide the same while going for an interview round and generally lose out notwithstanding their good credentials and work experience.

Cover letters are an important aspect to your application. It weightage in terms of your overall application is positioned at 40-60%. Cover letters give a larger insight than your resume can provide because the latter has a bland almost formal approach and you cannot really get into the knitty-gritty details you would like to discuss.

Here is a format of a cover letter.

To, MM/DD/YY,

BNP Paribas

XXX, XXX

Mumbai

SUB: Application for the Management Trainee Program,

Dear Recruitment Officer

I am enclosing my CV for your consideration because I wish to take up a permanent job with BNP Paribas. I have worked on several assignments at a local consultancy firm here in Bangalore in the past several months in the research and MIS department locally but I wish to deploy my capabilities in a larger context, this has been a strong reason for my application to your firm. BNP Paribas has an outstanding banking record, which matches its overall global reach, and character and I too firmly believe that all financial markets prospects depend on worldwide coverage.

I am an Indian national and I possess the necessary qualities and skills required by any candidate applying to an esteemed firm like yours. I can converse in several languages and have a great deal of finance work experience as I have participated in the management of a finance firm. On the academic side, I have received a degree from _________________ with a high second/first class

My travelling experiences and great exposure to university in Europe have given me a large platform to be globalized. I can easily adapt to my environment and work in a team or on my own depending upon what my work demands of me. I have no inhibitions of any kind and do not suffer from being narrow minded. My work definitely is my first and only priority although I do cherish other social and other interests that have helped me over the years in my goal of being an `all-rounder`.

My CV I believe is self-explanatory and if I had to distill my abilities and aims I would say that I am seeking to enjoy myself in an enterprising environment within an organization. Although at my age one cannot expect to be fully conversant with the wide range of activities that are undertaken within your firm, my experience at ________________________________ and ___________________________________ has wetted my appetite for further involvement in the financial sector. My soul intention of working in your firm is to diversify my skills and experience as well as solemnly bring credit to the firm. I have a high motive level and an unquenchable thirst for work, which does not have to be limited to the ‘Conventional Office Hours’.

MIS and construing investments and portfolios plays a remarkable role in generating sound financial analysis and a high order of clientele. Accurate and in-depth research helps to make the right decisions which inturn leads to success and generous profit making. In this regard, I would very much like to be considered for a position under the Management Trainee Program or any other relevant dept.

Yours Sincerely,

xxxxx

RESUME TIPS

Please keep these tips in mind and re-format your resume if you have made these mistakes.

DON’T

1) Insert your passport no as its relevance is zilch. If you are applying for a domestic positions then its use is out of the question and even if you are applying for a position abroad no firm can run a check to see what your past travel records’ are. If you think it is important you can type the following

PASSPORT NO: (Presented upon request)

2) It is absolutely unnecessary to mention your Family names or their credentials, as it does not help unless you were applying to the Government sector. MNC’s cannot care less for the same because they will deploy your services within your individual capacity. Generally we find details such as father’s name, wives name etc to be irrelevant and the probability of such re

Providing references is an important factor to your application. Generally 2-3 is the norm. One should be an academic reference but if you have passed 5 plus years (ago) while making an application then all references should be employee related.

3) Always mention email address, contact no, mobile no and permanent residence address and no in all your applications. Please also use the email address that your provide as most firms will email you intimating you of your interview etc. Please do not constantly change your email address as sometimes firms may store your resume and if an opportunity arises 3-4 months down the line they should be in a position to contact you. You probably might change your address and phone no. but using a set email address is very crucial.

4) Your email file size should never exceed 60 KB as most servers delete the file as it your application may never make it through. Always zip your file or send it in text format. If you want it to be presentable you can convert it into rtf for a smaller file size.

DO’s
1) Improvise your resume according to your application. Be fluent in your style and use cases, examples of experiences that may induce firms to consider you in the role that is vacant.

2) Always have 2 copies of resume at hand. One which mentions everything and the other needs to be in-depth and specific in terms of your projects, experiences etc which may further help your application in financial and IT areas.

3) Always have a chart within your resume within a box mentioning your skills.

Example Accounting

Accounting skills : Finalization, Sales Tax, Excise

MIS : Use of MIS packages

Research: have worked on SPSS

Other : Use of Oracle and ERP packages.

This needs to be used in the initial portion of your resume.

Example Secretary

Shorthand : yes/no

Typing: speed per minute

Languages : English, Kannada

Use of EPABX: Yes/no

Recruitment officers need not have to go through your entire resume to find out your key skills they should always be mentioned initially.

Example IT

Operating Systems : MS DOS, UNIX, WINDOWS'98

Programming Languages : Basic, Cobol, C, JAVA and Assembly Language (8086)

DBMS : Dbase III Plus, MS Access, SQL Server

Web Technology : Internet, Java, JAVA Applets, JDBC, Servlets, Web Design, HTML, Java Script, HTML, CGI with Perl, FTP

Web Design Tools : Adobe Page Mill, Microsoft FrontPage, Dream Weaver, Cold Fusion, Web Style, Home Site 4.0, Adobe Photoshop, GIF Animator, Cute FTP, Paint Shop Pro, Adobe PageMaker

OTHERS : Ms-Office 98, Office 2000, Sun's Star Office

We hope you find the above details sufficient in preparing your resume or amending the older one you have been using.

Best of Luck!

Team - HitechManpower.Com