Monday, April 20, 2020

How to Write a Cover Letter For a Resume

How to Write a Cover Letter For a ResumeWriting a cover letter for a resume has become increasingly important in today's job market. Because you are applying for jobs that you would otherwise not have gotten, employers will look at your letter with even more attention. You want them to notice the information you have written in the first paragraph of your cover letter. Here are a few tips to help you out.The first thing you want to do is to take a look at the different resumes that are on your computer screen. Some are from a business and some are from a personal job search. Make a note of those that really catch your eye. Remember, not all employers like the same letter. But, if you write one that stands out above the rest, they may see that it is the kind of resume they would be interested in reading.By now, you may have already put some thought into your job hunting or if you are applying for a job in any job at all. This is the part where you will write your resume for a job. Whe n you start to write your resume, make sure that you are following the instructions that come with the job. In other words, your job will tell you what to put on your resume.For example, if you are applying for a job as a computer operator, the information you need to include in your resume is that you need to provide proof that you have worked for your current employer for three months or more. Most job seekers know this and what you need to do is to write your resume as though you were applying for a position in an entirely different company. Don't worry, you are not stealing information.Once you have your resume in place, it is time to begin the actual writing of your letter. To get started, start your letter by thanking the employer for giving you the job, but it is not necessary to say more than that.Give the employer a brief bio about yourself. Most employers don't ask for a lot of information on your resume, so you will want to focus on the things that really stand out to the m. This will help to make you stand out from the rest of the resumes on their screen. So, once you have introduced yourself, you should then turn your attention to the benefits you bring to the company.If you have never written a cover letter before, remember that you can choose to follow the traditional way of formatting this type of letter. Or, you can decide to go the unconventional route and go for a more natural style that you may have never considered before.

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

College ROI Schools amp; Jobs With the Highest Pay for Grads

College ROI Schools amp; Jobs With the Highest Pay for Grads If you want to set yourself up for earning big after college, you can’t just bank on having a degree from a specific school or pursuing a certain profession. More often than not, you have to figure out the perfect way to pair the two. Fortunately, PayScale has already done it for you. The compensation website released last week its 2018 College ROI Report, an annual research project that relies on salary data collected from some 1.4 million survey respondents over the past decade. Among PayScale’s different data breakdowns, one identified the best value colleges by career pathâ€"essentially, publishing a list of the college-plus-career combinations that have given alumni the highest net 20-year returns on investment. That analysis found 19 cases where that ROI totaled $1 million or more, even before taking a school’s typical financial aid into account. (This type of analysis tends to favor public schools, where tuition is lower. Private universities that tend to have higher sticker prices but greater aid to students do better when the analysis factors in the college’s net price, after aidâ€"and indeed, an ROI analysis that factored financial aid showed a much greater set of million-dollar combinations, more than half at private institutions.) To determine the rankings, the PayScale team calculated the difference between bachelor’s degree recipients’ median pay over 20 years and high school graduates’ earnings over 24 years. (The latter group counts a longer period of income because, as the thinking goes, university students lost out on paychecks while they were in college.) It then subtracted college costs, considering whether students paid in-state or out-of-state tuition rates. Some institutions appear on the list more than once if they offered a high payoff to both in- and out-of-state students. Predictably, the results are dominated by career paths in science, technology, engineering and math: so-called STEM fields that we already know tend to pay more than normal. Ten of the 19 cases were linked to alumni securing employment in computer and mathematical occupationsâ€"a job category that, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, includes software developers, information security analysts, programmers, database administrators and more. “Generally speaking, with computer and mathematical occupations, there’s just been a surge in demand in those roles over the past 10 years or so,” PayScale chief economist Katie Bardaro tells MONEY. “STEM isn’t going away any time soon, so pursuing majors in STEM is a really good opportunity.” Service schools also showed up on the list, with both the U.S. Military Academy and Merchant Marine Academy appearing twice. Bardaro suggests that this was partly because those institutions have such a low cost of attendance: West Point pays for students’ tuition, and the Merchant Marine Academy charges only about $1,000 for tuition and fees. “When you’re thinking of ROI, that’s immediately a cost reduction,” she adds. The list includes big-name private schools like MIT and Stanford, but also public institutions like the University of California â€" Berkeley. Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof says he thinks the results can help counter outdated views of the school. While the campus was the site of famous Free Speech Movement protests in the 1960s, Berkeley students now have a long-term track record of finding high-paying jobs. Mogulof attributes that to a couple of factors. First, he says, the college’s faculty members “have feet in both worldsâ€"academically and the real world,” which makes it easier for students to make professional connections. Berkeley also has a lot of alumni engagement in a region with high-paying jobs, he adds, with the campus located about an hour away from Silicon Valley: “We have a pretty good sense of what’s going on out there.” Some of Berkeley’s graduates say the campus advantages predate Silicon Valley. Alumnus Jolen Flores, a 70-year-old retired aerospace engineer living in the San Francisco area, gives the campus at least partial credit for his lengthy and lucrative career at NASA. “I enjoyed learning not only in the classrooms but from the progressive open-minded thinking that is nurtured at Cal,” he tells MONEY. “I loved my life at Berkeley.” Of course, college salary data can be an imperfect science. As Inside Higher Ed pointed out last year, PayScale draws conclusions from self-reported data volunteered by survey respondents, meaning it doesn’t have the same amount of information for every school. However, PayScale’s numbers still offer solid guidance for students trying to pick a college. Bottom line? While these schools and careers don’t necessarily guarantee a lifetime of profits, they’re definitely a good place to start. Dive into the numbers for yourself here.

Friday, April 10, 2020

4 Ways Facebooks Latest Change Can Actually Help Your Personal Brand - Work It Daily

4 Ways Facebooks Latest Change Can Actually Help Your Personal Brand - Work It Daily Last Thursday, Facebook announced that it’s platform would shift away from a publisher-influenced platform to one that puts people first, a change that has been long-awaited by Facebook members. While brands and publishers aren’t pleased with this change, it has the potential to help you build your personal brand, whether you’re looking for a job, starting a business, or looking to advance in your current job. Here are four opportunities Facebook’s News Feed update creates for your personal brand: 1. You can create more valuable content. Instead of recycling meaningless videos from publishers or like-minded brands on your personal page, you can use this latest update to finally improve your content or learn how to create valuable content of your own. Creating content doesn’t require you go back to school or spend countless hours trying to make a video that resonates with your audience. However, it does require you to pay more attention to trends, listen to your followers, acknowledge what’s working for highly sought-after candidates, and spend more time creating and sharing. 2. You can use it as a networking tool. Now that many unnecessary posts will vanish or will appear less in the feed, this presents a great opportunity for you to not only make yourself more visible to your friends, but also to reach out to those who inspire you. Basically, it gives you the opportunity to use Facebook like you use Linkedin. Facebook can be a meaningful and powerful resource for networking (just like Linkedin) if you choose to use it that way. Tip: Start engaging more with your friends. Share your experiences (where valid), highlight your most recent work, and connect over the value you both bring each other. Estimated Time: 5 minutes or more each day. 3. You’ll gain confidence in yourself. Sharing content that matters and seeing people who inspire you can help your confidence. According to a study, people who used Facebook more tended to have more depressive symptoms than those who used it less. This latest change from Facebook aims to create a more supportive and positive environment. So, become an influencer and create value for your community! 4. You’ll be more intentional when you’re on Facebook. Before the change, it was easy to get lost in the same content from the same brands. It was also easy to simply watch from the side-lines and leave one’s personal brand to hang in the balance, slowly losing impact under Facebook’s former algorithm. With this update, you can expect a chance to tune back in and create strategies that will help you better represent your personal brand and create more awareness about your skills to colleagues, friends, and potential employers. Instead of deactivating your account, become more aware, share your wisdom, engage with your community, and earn merit as an influencer. You’ll gain confidence, become a respected leader in your circle, and grow your personal brand along the way! Join Our Private Facebook Group Join Work It Daily's private Facebook Group for exclusive advice, insights, discussion, and special offers! Request access here. #   Have you joined our career growth club?Join Us Today!