What is your call to action?

When you are sending your resume and cover letter, in effect, you are sending a sales document.  You are trying to sell your skills to the business and hopefully, you have packaged them successfully enough to entice a business owner or hiring manager to read your materials. Often, with hundreds of resumes appearing for one position, you need to stand out!

Any brochure or flyer needs to have a "call to action" to encourage the reader to:

• buy tickets,
• attend a rally,
• register for a workshop,
• READ your resume
• INVITE you for an interview!

Your cover letter gives you the opportunity to answer the question "what's in it for me?" that the person reading the cover letter will ask about why they should call you in for an interview.

If you have successfully accomplished your job of telling them why you would be a good fit for their organization, the last thing you need to do is establish your "call to action".  Here are some examples:

• I appreciate your consideration and look forward to speaking with you if my capabilities can be of use at XYZ Corporation.
• I look forward to meeting with you to discuss my candidacy. Thank you for your consideration.
• I will be in New York from DATE to DATE and wondered if it would be possible to schedule an interview for that time?
• I am available for a personal interview at your convenience.
• I hope to schedule a personal interview at a mutually convenient time.
• You may kindly contact me by phone at 224-224-2244 or email me at emailaddress (at) emailprovider.com
• Kindly review the enclosed resume and consider my application for the job.
• Enclosed is my resume and photographs of my work.  I have some great ideas for ABC Publication and hope to have the opportunity to discuss them with you.
• If you feel that my experience and drive can benefit ABC Company in this or other positions, let's talk!
• It will be a pleasure to meet with you at your convenience to discuss my credentials in detail.  I can be reached at the above numbers when you are ready to set up a time to meet.  I look forward to your call.
• Would your organization benefit from these attributes? Please call me at your earliest convenience to discuss my focus on bringing a fresh perspective to the LMNOP arena.

And rather than the standard "Sincerely yours" as the line above your signature (closing), what about:

• Enthusiatic about joining your team,
• Until we meet,
• Cordially, or,
• Looking forward to the interview.

The key to getting the interview is making your cover letter and resume stand out.  Your skills have to be a pretty good fit, but, how you package it makes all the difference in the world.

What other inventive, yet professional ending paragraphs or letter closings can you suggest?

Resources used:
Employment Digest
Cover Letter Format
The Everything Cover Letter Book by Steven Graber
Cover Letters for Dummies by Joyce Lain Kennedy
Cover Letter Magic by Wendy S. Enelow and Louise M. Kursmark

14 square inches of space

How often do you see in the paper an event advertised that is taking place in your community where businesses will be represented.  If there is a small fee for admission or no cost for admission, you might want to make sure that you attend the event.  It is a perfect networking opportunity.

If, for example, the cost of admission is a business card, you should be prepared.  Just because you may not be currently employed, does not mean that you cannot have a business card.  In fact, it is a perfect opportunity to use 14 square inches of space to your advantage.

Office supply stores sell business card stock as do many discount retailers.  Software programs are available with templates for business cards, or you can create one very simply in Microsoft Word if you know some of the basics.  Use the front side of the card to provide your basic contact information that should include name, address, phone(s), email, website address (if you have one), and a link to any of the other social media sites you are using to network for your job search.  A job title that would normally appear on a corporate business card would be replaced with your area of expertise, for example, Marketing Coordinator as an exact title could become a simple switch to Marketing Professional or Social Media Specialist depending upon what direction you wish to pursue.

Use the back side of the card to list your skills in bullet format using action verbs where possible. For example using our Marketing Coordinator position and skill set:

• Instructor for social media formats
• Graphic designer in multiple formats
• Editor for e-news and blog
• Creative writing
• Editorial writing
• Photographer

If you have portfolio type items, include a link to an on-line portfolio where contacts you meet can view your work.  If you need additional assistance creating a resume, enlist the assistance of a Career Resource Professional at an Illinois workNet Center near you.  To find other resume resources, visit http://www.kcdee.org/

Use a Call to Action to Market Yourself

I just read a great blog post on Employment Digest about 4 great Tips for a Cover Letter.  It mentions a call to action.  I would like to explore this idea a bit further.

A call to action for those of you who are not in the marketing and sales industry is a statement in your letter or "advertisement" that makes a statement to cause the reader to want to act upon that statement.  A couple of examples are:  Call within the next 24 hours to save $.  Click here to print your coupon. Link here to read more tips to help you get back into the workforce.

When you are writing your cover letter the article on Employment Digest suggests that your call to action should be to ask for the interview. Asking for the interview is similar to car salesman or real estate agent asking if you are ready to make an offer on a car or property at which you have just been looking.

If you don't ask, they may not feel compelled to take any action at all.

Once you have had the interview and you are sending your thank you note, you may want to include a call to action that invites the interviewer(s) to view your website, read your blog or invite them to call you with the job offer!

Your thoughts?