Cover Letter Basics Essay Example for Free

Cover Letter Basics Essay A cover letter is an invitation for a hiring manager to read your resume. Hiring managers usually have an order to which they read your submitted documents. That order would be cover letter, then resume, and then any supporting documents. You want your cover letter to grab their attention and draw them in. After reading your cover letter they should want to learn more about what it is you have to offer their company. This can be your make or break introduction. First thing first, you need to be prepared. The majority of business’s that you will be applying for positions at, will have a website. Research the company. If not only researching for your cover letter, research the company for yourself as well. A company’s website can give a lot of information on how the company runs, events they hold, how involved they are in the community, etc. Take note of bits of information that you may be able to use for conversation purpose at the interview you are going to get, as well. Check out their company history page. This gives you an idea of how long the company has been in business. Is it a family owned business? Is it a couple of friends that started this business? How many locations do they have? Finding out as much as you can, about how the company got started, can only make you feel more confident and knowledgeable when writing your amazing cover letter. Your interest in the company and not just the paycheck they will be giving you can differentiate you from all the other applicants. Make sure to know the job you are applying for like the back of your hand. Print out the job description. Make a T chart on a sheet of paper. In the left column, make a list of your job skills, abilities, and achievements. In the right column, list the job requirements, duties, and responsibilities. Draw lines connecting the columns where your skills or abilities match up with their requirements (Gardner, 2012). This T-Chart will help you out when writing the body of your cover letter. In today’s competitive job market, companies’ often pre-screen applicants by running applications through a computer program made to weed out unqualified applicants. To make sure your resume is viewed, include critical key words in your cover letter and resume. Since you already have your job description printed out, highlight key words that you could use in your cover letter or resume. For instance, if the job description specifically asks that you be proficient in Microsoft Excel, you want to be sure to include the keywords, Microsoft Excel, instead of just using the word spreadsheets. If the company is specifying they need an employee who is proficient in Microsoft Excel, it is highly possible that those two words will be included in the computer program’s search on cover letters and resumes. Ask yourself what you have done that is similar to what the job requires like classes, work experiences, internships, and volunteering (The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 2012). The layout of your cover letter should have one inch margins all around. The length of a cover letter is important. You want to be precise and to the point but include enough information to make the hiring manager curious about what your resume consists of. Ideally a cover letter should be around two-thirds of a page and contain two to three paragraphs (Newberger, 2009). Start your cover letter by including your contact information at the top of the page. Keep your font and font size consistent with your resume. Make sure your contact information entails your name, address, city, state, zip code, phone number, and email address. It is very important to have an appropriate email address, such as [emailprotected] Do not use an email address that would give the hiring manager reason to think anything other than professional thoughts about you. An email address such as [emailprotected] may cause the viewer of your cover letter to throw your resume out due to the thought of you getting injured in a race and not being able to be helpful to their company. It may be wise to create a whole new email address just for your job search. There is a lot of spam these days and you do not want to take the chance of missing an email from a potential employer due to having 101 new emails coming through a day. Your phone number should be the contact number where you are most available. Whether this would be a cell phone or a home phone, be sure that your greeting message is business appropriate and if you have a ringtone on your phone for people calling you, it would be wise to change to a normal ring during your job search. Again, you do not want any small detail to cause the hiring manager to think anything other than professional thoughts of you. After your contact information is complete, double space to type your potential new employer’s contact information. The employer’s contact information section should include the hiring manager’s name, if at all possible. It should also include their title, company name, address, city, state, and zip code. The reason you want address your cover letter to a specific person is because generalizing a cover letter shows a lazy approach to your job search and can be a turnoff to a prospective employer. This tells an employer that you either don’t care or did not take the time to find out a name, and may have the same attitude when it comes to your work (CVTips, 2012). If the job posting does not specify a name for you to address your cover letter and resume to, there are other ways of finding out. A lot of times company’s website will include a list of their staff, which you would be able to look up the head of the department in which you are applying for the job. If there is not contact information on the website, you can call the company and ask specifically for the name of who is doing the hiring for that certain department. If all the research leaves you without a name, then use Dear Hiring Manager of (include the specific department your potential position is in). This would go for the salutation, as well. The first paragraph will be called your introduction. These few sentences should convey why you are writing the letter. Briefly introduce yourself, state what position you are interested in, and how you heard about the opening. The attention grabber is next, the body.

Drinking And Driving Essay -- Alcohol, Drunk Driving, DUI

What possesses a person to get behind the drivers’ seat of a car and drive intoxicated? This question is always asked whenever a drunk driver is involved in a drinking and driving incident. Many people drink and drive without thinking about the consequences. The majority of fatal car crashes are caused by alcohol related incidents. Of all traffic fatalities in the United States in 2005, 39% of traffic related accidents were alcohol related (Alcohol Alert, 2006). Driving while intoxicated puts drivers and others lives at risk. Drinking and driving do not mix and the consequences can be prevented. A simple solution can be by simply having designated drivers to help keep drunk drivers off the road. All 50 states have a designated blood alcohol concentration level. This blood alcohol concentration level is determined when a person is legally drunk. A person is not permitted to operate a vehicle when this limit is reached. The limit for all 50 states for the blood alcohol concentration level is .08. 43 states and the District of Columbia have strict laws that prohibit the driver and the passengers from possessing an open container of alcohol in the passenger compartment of a vehicle (DUI and DWI Laws, 2007). Drinking alcohol can have many side effects on a person. Every person’s body will react differently to alcohol absorption. Alcohol begins to be absorbed into a person’s bloodstream within one to two minutes after an alcoholic beverage is consumed. After consuming alcohol it accumulates in the bloodstream. Intoxication usually occurs when an individual drinks alcohol faster than the liver can oxidize it. While the percentage of alcohol in the blood increases, the more a person becomes intoxicated (Hanson, 2007). Remember th... ...or his or her actions, there would be fewer accidents in the world. The next time someone gets behind the wheel of a car he or she should reevaluate their actions and think of the consequences. References Alcohol Alert. (2006). Alcohol alert. Retrieved June 8, 2007, from http://www.alcoholalert.com/drunk-driving-statistics.html Drinking and Driving Data. (2007). Nhtsa. Retrieved June 8, 2007, from http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/kids/research/drinking/index.cfm DUI and DWI Laws. (2007). Iihs. Retrieved June 8, 2007, from http://www.iihs.org/laws/state_laws/dui.html Hanson J.D., (2007). Alcohol Problems and Solutions. Potsdam. Retrieved June 8, 2007, from http://www2.potsdam.edu./hansondj/DrinkingAndDriving.html Jourard, R. (2007). Drinking and Driving. Retrieved June 13, 2007, from defencelaw Web site: from http://www.defencelaw.com/drinking-driving-1.html

Financial crisis Essay

The current financial crisis that has caused world economic slowdown is forcing government agencies and financial market to re-think on their practices in order to avoid any possible future occurrence of the same. The financial crisis affected regulators and financial market as well and this reason why regulatory agencies are calling for strict supervision of financial markets (Bernanke). Impacts on regulation One of the regulators in the financial market is the Federal Reserve responsible for developing procedures used to supervise the markets. The current financial turmoil has forced the Federal Reserve to re-look at its supervision and macro-prudential orientation to financial oversight (Bernanke). The financial crisis has also led to the development of new tools by regulators e. g. the Federal Reserve Term Auction facility that can be used to tackle the financial crisis. Federal Reserve and other financial markets supervisors e. g. Financial Stability Board, Presidents Working Group on financial market and Senior Supervisors Groups have realized the importance of collaboration as well as international corporation so as to learn from other experiences abroad to gauge the performance of US institutions (Bernanke). There have been concerted efforts to ensure prudential supervision and consumer protection so as to avert future crises. Regulators have also emphasized on increased vigilance to ensure that the set standard are met. Regulators e. g. the Federal Reserve have been forced to improve on their internal procedure e. g. on communication of information in order to establish priority areas that need supervision and analyze emerging trends in the financial markets. Continuous supervision has also become an important aspect of consumer compliance to ensure enhance monitoring of largest banks (Bernanke). Impacts on financial system Clearly one of the biggest ways in which the financial market has been affected by the crisis is on the aspect of supervision. The regulatory agencies like the Federal Reserve has been forced to re-evaluate how they supervise the financial markets. The effects of this is that the financial market is able to operate according to the set standard thus minimize the recurrence of a crisis like this in the future. The financial crisis was also affected the products introduced by financial institutions. The regulators require that companies evaluate the possible unintended consequences of the products that they introduce to the market. The way companies compensate its management and employees is another factor that is under scrutiny by the regulators. Compensation and bonuses awarded to employees should be in line with the long term objectives of the company. The corporate governance and risk management is the factor that companies are required to consider in order to ensure long term survival of these institutions. Improved regulation The key to avoiding future financial crisis is by enhancing regulation within the financial sector. This includes expanding the capacity of the existing regulatory and ensuring compliance of the set standard of operations (Bernanke). One of the way in which regulation can help improve the financial sector is in the area of new product introduction. Companies should be able to analyze the potential effects of new product they introduce into the market (Bernanke). Management of risk is the other aspect that companies should look into. Companies need to develop risk management techniques that ensure their long term survival. Apart from managing these risks, companies should have capabilities of identifying risk facing them. Regulation on capital and liquidity is one of the key elements in financial sector. Companies are required to be adequately capitalized in order to fund their operations well. It is no secret that the current crisis was precipitated by lack of liquidity in the market. Conclusion It is clear from the current financial crisis that to ensure sound financial market, improved regulation and prudent financial operations on the part of companies is important. Companies are required to maintain adequate liquidity, capital and institute risk identification and management tools. On the other hand regulators should increase on supervision to ensure adherence to set standards (Bernanke). Works cited Bernanke, Ben S. Federal Reserve. 9th May 2009. 26th May 2009 .

The Civil War On Drugs - 1310 Words

The prison system in the United States is broken. There are many reasons why it is broken, but the main source of the problem is from the privatization of prisons. The United States has a capitalistic economy, which means our society driven by acquiring capital. Every person’s goal is to make money and live the â€Å"American Dream†, including big corporations. Since privatizing markets like healthcare, television, and banking worked for their favor, companies realized that prisons could produce large sums of capital. The war on drugs solidified that belief. Since the start of Ronald Reagan s â€Å"War on Drugs† in the 1970’s, prisons have been privatized and exploited for monetary gain. The public thinks that this so called â€Å"War on Drugs† is†¦show more content†¦Another problem with privatized prisons is that they do not focus on rehabilitating prisoners. There are no preventative measures enforced to keep felons from going back to pr ison once they get out. Since keeping prisons full makes more money, the private prisons plan to keep them full. The prison system is broken and it needs to be fixed. Our class collaborated and made a five point plan that we think will fix the majority of the problems that privatized prisons have caused. Our first point is to â€Å"abolish all policies and laws in place that discriminate against those that have been convicted. We want the judicial system to lead with fairness toward all†(1). Our second point is to â€Å"protect the interests of prisoners [by letting the federal government run prisons] and not private institutions [so that inmates safety is not sacrificed] for the sake of corporate profit†(2). Our third point is to â€Å"equip prisoners with the skills that they need to be successful when they get out of prison through correspondence programs, rehabilitation programs, and ridding the public of the negative stigma that prisoners carry†(3). Our fou rth point is to put â€Å"programs in place to prevent at risk communities from being forced into prison. This can be enforced by putting police through programs to teach them how to catch criminals without racial profiling. We want programs in at risk communities that teach skills