You cannot get an offer unless you can get an interview, right ?

Have you ever heard of anyone getting an offer to report to work never having had an interview ??

You might have two possible chances to get that interview, but most job seekers only give themselves ONE chance, because they do not HAVE or USE a cover letter.

Someone called me today to say that they don't like putting salary information in a cover letter.. Consider this..

You are a merchant who sells puzzles. You cannot sell a puzzle to a customer unless it is complete. The puzzles come from your supplier every day by the dozens. Before you put them on the shelf for sale you open the boxes and very often you find several corners missing, several key pieces missing including some very obvious ones right in the center. Do you continue to try to put those pieces together and hope that a prospective buyer will overlook the missing pieces ?

In my case, those pieces are information, and the puzzles are resumes without cover letters.. The missing pieces are:

1. characterizations of what type and size firms the jobseeker believes can offer him the challenge he seeks and most closely relate to his skills. Another piece is

2. location... What part of the country and where NOT

3. timing.. is he employed and casually looking, or unemployed for the last 3 years and ready to flip burgers to preclude foreclosure, divorce, bankruptcy

4. current/ final or expected Salary.

There are others which are even more subjective, such as industry, role, management level, specific process, product, applications, sales, territory, type of customers, and sales volume considerations.

What can the merchant to do ? One solution: write the supplier and let him know that the puzzle is missing pieces and precisely which ones, and offer the merchant the opportunity to provide the missing pieces.

For those who think somehow I get my jollies getting into altercations with jobseekers because I enjoy the stress and the confrontation, the answer is NO! The truth is, I generally always provide the jobseeker with the opportunity to know what I'm missing and what I think I need based on 38 (plus) years experience, and speaking with half a dozen hiring employers on the phone five days per week.

If he doesn't provide the pieces in the form which matche the rest of the pieces and completes the puzzle..do I call the goon squad and have him beaten ? <g>

I GO ELSEWHERE and spend my time working on a puzzle which SEEMS to have all the pieces. With only so many 12-15) hours in my work day I spend the time working on the puzzles I can complete so that I can make presentations to my buying customers and ( recruiter ) dealers. The instant I find a major piece missing, I begin working on another totally different puzzle. Hope this enlightens some as to what standards and logic recruiters must use to survive in this economy and with the subjective parameters given us by hiring employers.

I generally do not even look at a resume until I have seen the cover letter with indication of $alary objective, industry and locational preferences, restrictions, and all the other items mentioned above, because the intrinsic technical qualifications are always subject to the preferences and $alary of the candidate.

When I know those, then I'll know, based on my awareness of all the jobs and all the affiliates and their clients and their open jobs whether I am justified in spending time on that particular puzzle.

Market demand has increased to the point that I no longer consider marketing candidates, as I have too many current active assignments for which I will not get paid unless and until I make a placement.

My efforts are almost always in behalf of those for whom I have the most complete information. Lastly, an EMAIL message which transmits the resume is NOT a cover letter. A cover letter is a DOC FILE as lastname.firstname.middleinitial.cov.doc which is sent as an attachment which can be placed in a archive with the accompanying resume, parsed, freshened, or overwritten, and sent to an employer as an attachment and who will be looking for a filename which approximates it's owners resume filename.

Warmly,

Bill Griffin

William Griffin, Pres.

wgriffin@adelphia.net

Georgia Tech Alumni - Cls 1965

ALPHA SYSTEMS, Inc

3325 Sweetwater Drive

Cumming, GA 30041-6641 678 889-6059

Web - http://www.jobbs.com

Technical recruiting and placement since Sept 1967

Deeper experience, deeper resources, deeper wisdom, better tools, better insights, better results.... and faster !