Career Advice & Insights

Expert guidance to help you navigate your career journey

Keep it short, simple, and interesting. Read More

7 words you need to avoid in cover letters Lindsay Tigar

Ace the cover letter now. Read More

Get read: How cover letters market your resume Ladders

There’s no denying that a powerful, customized cover letter is a key piece of any job search. It’s often how a potential employer decides whether or not to read your resume. So how do they work? Know your audience and find a balance. Think of it like this: the cover letter is the advertisement for … Read More

Cover Letters

Showcase Your Personal Brand in Your Cover Letter Heather Huhman

3 ways to highlight your unique value proposition. Job seekers often overlook the cover letter in favor of the resume, but it’s just as important and effective in getting you noticed by your dream employer. It’s not only a way to expand on your experience, but showcase your unique selling points, or personal brand. When … Read More

Cover Letters

Test Your Cover Letter Lisa Vaas

How does your cover letter rate? Use this test to score your cover letter before you submit it with your resume and job application. Before you submit your cover letter to recruiters and hiring managers, run through this battery of questions to gauge its readiness. Q: How is your cover letter addressed? A. Personally addressed … Read More

Cover Letters

When Writing Cover Letters, Lose the ‘Tude Lisa Vaas

Letters crawling with creeping arrogance inflict hiring managers with terminal cases of Don’t-Hire-This-Jerk-Itis. The job seeker couldn’t figure out how to find a C-level HR person’s name to follow up with. “I found out that… the secretary (sorry, assistant) forwarded my letter to the HR recruiter without showing it to his boss,” he wrote. Look … Read More

Cover Letters

Using Cover Letter Keywords to Craft Cover Letters that Get Noticed Guest Contributer

If you’ve looked for a job in the past few years, you’re likely aware that employers are finding new ways to use resumes as screening tools. Web sites (Ladders included) devote thousands of pages to discussing the best practices of resume writing. Meanwhile, a cottage industry has grown up around certified professional resume writers (CPRWs) … Read More

Cover Letters

Creating Effective Cover Letters Guest Contributer

Do cover letters matter? Do recruiters and human resources managers even look at the correspondence that accompanies your resume and job application? The answers vary widely even among career experts and HR pros, many of whom have strong opinions on the matter. At one extreme: Susan Cucuzza, a business coach with Live Forward and formerly … Read More

Cover Letters

My Cover Letter Was Out of Shape Patty Orsini

A Denver job seeker hits the gym to get in shape for a job search, then tones up his resume and cover letter. In early 2009 Greg Anderson found himself out of a job for the first time in 13 years. The operations pro quickly set about to optimize his job search and discovered an … Read More

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I did 8 rounds of interviews and still didn’t get the job

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Myth busted: 5 ageism stereotypes that need to be broken

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The simple eye contact trick you should use in every conversation

“When two people are having a conversation, eye contact signals that shared attention is high —that they are in peak synchrony with one another.”

How to deal with ‘The Great Resignation’ when you are a manager

Managers are worried about maintaining the talent required to keep the doors open, but they are not asking the right questions.

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7 things you should never ask your boss

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