Tailor Your Call, Resume, Letter, Proposal, Follow-Up, and Linkedin Profile to Fit Any Advertised Job

By Patrick Ow

This is an incredibly practical book for individuals to acquire practical strategies and techniques for applying to the advertised jobs.

Patrick Ow (of PracticalRiskTraining.com) notes that the ability to effectively sell yourself and get the attention of the recruiter or hiring manager through specifically tailored call, resume, letter, proposal, follow-up and LinkedIn profile is both a skill and an art. This is where your documentation, approaches, and strategies must be specifically customized to the requirements of the advertised job.

Being able to sell and market yourself and your skills, experience, and knowledge to a potential employer is essential for securing a job – be it through your resume, at a job interview, or networking events.

Recruiters and hiring managers aren’t mind-readers, unfortunately. Your job is to convince them that you are the best-qualified person for the job in preference over all other applicants. Unless you can effectively tell them about your skills and highlight and communicate the point that you are the best applicant, they won’t know – and will probably hire someone else.

In marketing terms, you must know your unique selling point (USP) for the advertised job and be able to communicate that USP clearly and effectively to the recruiter and hiring manager.

If you are worried about over-selling yourself, remember that you are simply providing recruiters and hiring managers with evidence or information that you are the right person for the job. That’s the most basic you can get.

Approach a job application, or even the job interview, with the attitude that you are simply the best source of useful information for recruiters and hiring managers to make an informed decision that you are the best applicant for the advertised job!

You must show and provide evidence, not just tell, or brag about how good you are. Employers buy on value and achievements, not on personal subjective unproven assertions about yourself. They want evidence to show that you can accomplish the work they need you to perform on the job in return for the salary that they are going to pay you when you are hired.

Focus on key factual achievements, specific employer keywords, and verifiable numbers on your resume, letter, proposal, and LinkedIn profile.
Write enough quantitative facts about your accomplishments to get recruiters and hiring managers to call you for more information. Don’t give them too much information to toss your resume out. This is the balance you need to navigate.

Your call, resume, letter, proposal, follow-up, and LinkedIn profile must all convey a convincing human story of who are you are as a person. It also tells your career narrative that must emotionally connect you to the organization’s vision, mission, brand product, or services.

From a cultural fit perspective, connect to your reader. When writing a disruptive cover letter, try to avoid repeating the fact-based content from your resume. Share heart-based information that will interest your reader and show your personality. Tell recruiters and hiring managers who you are in an engaging, personable way.

In this practical how-to book, you will learn how to:
1.Find your dream job and know all about that job.
2.Conduct an information interview to gather information about the job before deciding to proceed or not with the job application.
3.Tailor your resume to the specific job requirements.
4.Write a disruptive cover letter with a compelling call-to-action proposal to secure an interview.
5.Update your LinkedIn profile as your online resume.
6.Follow-up on your job application.

This book aims to help tailor your call, resume, letter, proposal, follow-up, and LinkedIn profile specifically to the requirements of the advertised job.

Click the "Buy" button to access this practical information.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Patrick Ow
• Release date: Jul 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9780463475652

Patrick Ow

Patrick Ow CA Risk SpecialistRisk & Performance Management Specialist | Corporate & Personal Trainer & Coach at PracticalRiskTraining.com | Corporate Planning | Strategy Execution | Business Continuity | Workshop FacilitatorHelping organisations and individuals make better decisions to achieve better results.Professional profile• A Chartered Accountant with 25+ years of experience in governance, management, risk and performance.• Worked in public sector, not-for-profit and for-profit organisations with budgets of up to AUD25 billion and a workforce of up to 12,000 employees.• Adept in helping organisations and individuals make better decisions to achieve better outcomes and results.• Strengths in big-picture strategic thinking and strategy translation and execution.• Recognised for being practical, understanding of issues and knowing what to achieve.• Proven track record for encouraging open discussions in a friendly and trustworthy manner.• Managed a team of up to four professionals and influencing stakeholders for action.To learn more about how I help corporate executives and individuals, go to Practicalrisktraining.com or email [e-mail].

Book preview

Tailor Your Call, Resume, Letter, Proposal, Follow-up, and LinkedIn Profile to Fit Any Advertised Job

Patrick Ow

PracticalRiskTraining.com

Copyright © 2021 by Patrick Ow

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the writer except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN: 9780463475652

Practicalrisktraining.com

Dedication

For Mei, Olivia, Sarah, Nicole, Esther, and Benjamin

Table of Contents

Preface

Know these basics

Find your dream job

Call before working on your resume and cover letter

Tailor your resume to the job posting

Write a disruptive cover letter

Follow up on your application

Update your LinkedIn profile

Preface

Outside of my professional life working as a risk expert and professional in the corporate world, it has been my passion to see individuals and families manage their opportunities and risks to succeed and thrive under uncertainty.

People need work to earn an income that will enable them to buy food, pay for their accommodation, and increase their financial and personal security and health.

The ability to secure the right job becomes more crucial as there are far fewer jobs for an increasingly over-qualified workforce. This could mainly be due to automation and the changing nature of work.

Hence the need to acquire the right practical techniques to apply for a job opening become more important for any job seeker.

For the job seeker, by reading this book, you will learn how to:

1. Find your dream job and know all about that job.

2. Conduct an information interview or call to gather information about the job before deciding to proceed or not with the job application.

3. Tailor your resume to the specific job requirements.

4. Write a disruptive cover letter with a compelling call-to-action proposal to secure an interview.

5. Update your LinkedIn profile as your online resume.

6. Follow-up on your job application.

This book aims to help tailor your call, resume, letter, proposal, follow-up, and LinkedIn profile specifically to the requirements of the advertised job.

If you are not looking for a job right now and you still have many more years to contribute to society, then this book will help you strategize and put in place the appropriate foundations to position yourself for your next job search.

As the saying goes, people don’t plan to fail, but they fail to plan. Like anything else, act and plan for your future. Build a strong foundation that will put you in the best position to secure your future dream job now.

If you are actively looking for a job right now, the strategies and information contained in this book can help you tailor your call, resume, letter, proposal, follow-up, and LinkedIn profile to fit any professional job posting. These strategies have been gained when I was a hiring manager for many corporate roles and as a human resource or people and culture practitioner and trainer.

All the best to your future.

About the author

Patrick Ow is a Risk Specialist and a corporate and personal trainer and coach at Practicalrisktraining.com.

As a Chartered Accountant with over 25 years of international risk management and corporate governance experience in the private, not-for-profit, and public sectors, he helps individuals and organizations make better decisions to achieve better results.

Patrick has been a hiring manager for many corporate roles and a former people and culture (human resource) practitioner and trainer.

He shares his valuable but practical insights in three related books:

• Create a Better Future: Plan to Succeed in Life

• Tailor Your Call, Resume, Letter, Proposal, Follow-up, and LinkedIn to Fit Any Advertised Job

• Plan to Succeed in Your Career: How to Find Future-Ready Jobs, Build Stronger Resumes, and Secure Dream Jobs

Know these basics

The ability to effectively sell yourself and get the attention of the recruiter or hiring manager through your resume or curriculum vitae (CV) is both a skill and an art.

A resume provides a summary of your education, work history, credentials, and other accomplishments and skills. It should be as concise as possible, up to two pages long. This is where resumes are to be customized to the specific requirements of the job advertisements.

They only contain information that’s relevant to the advertised position:

1. Contact information.

2. Professional profile.

3. Skills, education and training, and certifications

4. Work history and quantifiable and verifiable achievements (15 or so years).

The resume will often get you a foot in the door. Once it does, it will be up to you to convert this opportunity into a solid job offer. This means being very clear about your strengths, weaknesses, reasons behind your career moves, your mandates, and how they weave together to form your overall value proposition to the hiring manager.

A curriculum vitae (CV), on the other hand, is a Latin phrase that roughly translates to course of life. Its intended purpose is to comprehensively cover your professional achievements, work skills, and academic accomplishments. Because of this, CVs can run for as long as three to six pages. Generally, CVs are more suited for academic and scientific roles.

If you were asked to submit a traditional CV, you need to include:

1. Contact information.

2. Professional profile.

3. Skills, education and training, and certifications

4. Your professional, academic, or board appointments.

5. Books you’ve published.

6. Blogs and articles that you’ve written.

7. Leading websites you’ve been mentioned in.

8. Peer-reviewed publications that you’ve been mentioned.

9. Awards and honors.

9. Voluntary/non-profit experience.

10. Conferences you have attended, especially where your paper was presented.

11. Mentoring experience.

12. Languages you speak.

13. Your vocational memberships.

14. Your references.

Despite clear technical differences between a traditional CV and a traditional resume, you must keep the cultural context and common practice in mind.

It’s important to note that many of these differences become redundant across certain country borders. For example, the British tend to refer to their main career document as a CV, while Australians, Americans, and Canadians prefer to call it a resume.

Therefore, people have used the terms resume and CV interchangeability. But the fact remains, this document must only be up to two pages long. It must succinctly sell your capabilities to the recruiter or hiring manager. Use this document to secure a job interview, where you can present your case to the selection panel in person.

For our purpose, the term resume will be used.

Branding, marketing, and selling yourself

No one will ever know about you and your capabilities if you do not tell people about them. Hence, the need to brand, market, and sell yourself and what you can do for others so that you can earn an income in return.

While these activities can be uncomfortable for some people, you must overcome your fear of self-promotion. Be your natural self when branding, marketing, and selling yourself.

Firstly, let’s look at the difference between these three things are.

1. Branding – This uniquely identifies who you are as a person, what capabilities you have, and what value you can create for your employer – current and future. Branding is not marketing. Your brand helps with your marketing strategy, but it’s a very small part of marketing.

2. Marketing – Promoting your brand and reaching out to potential employers who may be interested in buying your value-creation services in the future. Marketing is the strategy to make your brand seen and known, and it ensures that people know that you exist. Without a marketing strategy, you might just have a great personal brand without anyone knowing about it.

3. Selling – Convincing people to buy your services through your unique selling point. Cover letters and resumes are selling tools that you can use to sell yourself to recruiters, hiring managers, and future employers. There will be other selling tools that you can use like social media and a personal website. Use these tools to convince people to hire you or use your services.

Branding, marketing, and selling can be uncomfortable for many people. But it is a necessary evil that you must overcome if you want to succeed in your job, career, or calling.

Dr. Amy Wrzesniewski, a professor at Yale School of Management, has spent her career researching how individuals identify with their work. She has established three different, defined contexts of work – job, career, and calling:

1. Job – A job provides you with pay, benefits, and perhaps some social perks. It’s primarily about earning money to pay the bills and enjoy life. People in this category are typically more invested in their lives outside of the office. Work is merely the way they afford to do the things they love. They focus on their family, friends, and hobbies more than their professional pursuits.

2. Career – A job is what you do for others, while a career is what you do for yourself. Career professionals are also working for the salary. They are more driven to seek out opportunities for advancement in the workplace or even industry. These individuals tend to strive for the next promotion, look for more training, and generally aim to impress. People with a career orientation tend to have a long-term vision for their professional future, set goals, and enjoy healthy competition with colleagues.

3. Calling – Those who experience their work as a calling are most likely to feel a deep alignment between their vocation and who they are as a person. They feel a personal and emotional connection to their work. They are enthusiastic, have a sense of purpose, and are willing to work harder and longer to contribute. Unsurprisingly, this group is often the most satisfied with their professional situation.

Branding yourself

Personal branding is how you define yourself in the work environment while also incorporating the personal elements that make you who you are, your identity.

A successful personal brand can go a long way with self-promotion, conveying loyalty, and offering consistency in the quality of the services you provide.

Define your brand and become an expert. Take the time to do some soul searching and