What’s the most important part of a typical job application? Is it your CV / Resume? Is it the  years of experience you’ve built up? Is it your unique blend of skills and expertise? The correct answer is none of the above! While all of those things are crucial components of the perfect job application, a really successful application is about getting you invited for interview. The For that, the single most effective weapon in your job-seekers arsenal is your covering letter. Why you need a great cover letter for your job application The term “covering letter” implies that this is perhaps a less important document than the material it accompanies. Not so! You see, when you’re applying for a job, your covering letter is much more than just a note to accompany the enclosed documentation. It is what the recruiter is going to read FIRST. It’s not so much a covering letter, it’s more of a sales letter.

Sell yourself with your covering letter

Your cover letter is the first opportunity you have to really shine… and to impress upon your employer just how perfect you are for the job. It’s worth spending a bit of time getting this right:

• Be professional, be personable, be you: don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through in your covering letter. Stay professional, focused and on-topic, but remember that your personal flair, affability and enthusiasm are just as important when it comes to hiring you.
• Play to your Strengths: your CV contains a a record of your employment history and experience, but on it’s own it rarely provides sufficient context. Your covering letter gives you the chance to show how the qualities on show in your CV can benefit his or her business.
• Be concise: use relatively short, carefully crafted sentences that are punchy and to the point. Unless you’re an expert wordsmith, keeping things short and sweet will give your letter more impact.
• Do your homework: address the recipient by their correct name and title. If you don’t know it a simple phone call is often enough. Show that you’ll go the extra mile, even before they hire you.
• Make a list: it pays to plan ahead… and your cover letter is no different. Make a short list of points you want to get across in the letter, and refer to the list as you are writing to make sure you leave nothing out.
• Check, then double check!: once you’ve written your covering letter, proof read it yourself for any grammar, punctuation and spelling errors. Then put it aside overnight and proof read it again! You’ll often find that coming back to it fresh after a break will reveal things you didn’t spot first time around. Now give the letter to someone else to read. Remember, first impressions count!

Happy job hunting!

Related articles

• Six Myths About Writing Excellent Cover Letters (distance-education.org)
• Triple Your Job Offers With Amazing Cover Letters (amazing-cover-letters.com)
• How to Make an Interesting Resume Cover Letter (socyberty.com)
• Great Cover Letters Only One Click Away (oneclickcoverletters.com)
• Career Search: Adjust Your Resume and Cover Letter to Reflect Your New Career Path (halliecrawford.com)

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Are you struggling to balance the demands of a busy career with a hectic personal life? Does it feel like you’re constantly juggling your commitments in a desperate attempt to squeeze everything into an impossibly short day?

If the answer is yes, you’re not alone. Trying to find the perfect work-life balance is something that countless employees around the world wrestle with every day… but for many it simply isn’t working.

The concept of work-life balance first entered the recruitment lexicon in the 1970s in an attempt to describe the issues faced by employees looking to divide their attention between their work commitments and their personal life. It’s since gained popularity among industry commentators, recruitment and careers experts, employees, and most recently with employers, who have started to view the panacea of work-life balance as a magic-bullet solution to employee dissatisfaction, absenteeism, and boosting productivity in the workplace.

One of the main reasons that work-life-balance has become such a buzzword is that it resonates with so many people. Almost all of us know that overwhelming feeling of desperately trying to divide our finite attention between all of the things that matter to us. But although the work-life-balance concept has been around for nearly four decades, many of us are still struggling to manage our disparate commitments effectively; we fail in our quest for "balance", and ultimately everything suffers.

According to business and lifestyle coach Ali Davies (www.alidavies.com) the main reason so many of us haven’t nailed the work-life balance conundrum is that the whole concept is fundamentally flawed.

"The problem is what we are focussing on – balancing work with life," said Ali. "The two aren’t separate things. There is only one thing: your life. Everything else is a label for an activity you are doing within your life."

Ali argues that instead of seeing work and life as two separate entities, and struggling to achieve balance between them, it makes much more sense to view everything in our lives as one. By focussing on what we really want, and treating everything as part of a coherent whole, we can manage our attention much more effectively.

"Stop focussing on work life balance. Instead, make a decision right now that you are going to build the life you really want for yourself and your family," she advises.

Here are Ali’s top tips for doing just that:

• Make sure you have a crystal clear picture of what your ideal life would look like. Define what constitutes a successful life for you including all aspects of your life as one.

• Is that worth fighting for? If so, start thinking "designing life" NOT balancing life.

• What would need to happen for your ideal to become a reality?

• Don’t wait, start now – even if you don’t know how you will make it all happen. Think baby steps.

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Finding a job in today’s employment market is hard work. To increase your chances of success, it pays to have a clear idea of what you’re looking for, and a well-thought out plan of how you’re going to go about getting it before you dive in.

1. Know what you want

If you want to find the right job, the first thing you need is a clear idea of the area you want to work in. This could be a broad career discipline… like marketing, accounts or computer programming; or maybe you want to work in a particular industry, like pharmaceuticals, food or manufacturing. If you don’t really know what you want to do, try making a list highlighting the things you like doing, or that you feel are particular strengths. Now look at your list, and consider what sort of career might dovetail with your list of preferences and strengths.

Once you have a high level idea of the area you’d like to work in, refine it a step further by researching various job titles in your area of interest to see which roles are a good fit with your skill set, your temperament and your personal development goals… you want something fulfilling that will stretch and challenge you, and that will allow you to grow and progress.

2. Know where you want it

Are you looking for work in a defined area, or are you prepared to relocate to find the right job? If you have a specific location in mind, your next step is researching suitable companies that operate in the geographical area you want to target. Try contacting local business organisations like local chambers of commerce or other business directories to identify potential employers.

Again, do your research… determine what type of company fits your needs, values, style, and personality. Make a list of things that are important to you in an employer — things like company size, corporate culture, management style employee empowerment and the like — and use it as a guide to shortlisting suitable employees in your target area(s).

3. Know how you’ll find it:

There are lots of ways to find out about suitable job vacancies once you know what you’re looking for… here are just a few suggestions:

• On-campus Recruiting: if you’re a student, your college or university will almost certainly hold careers or recruitment fairs during the academic year which employers attend to recruit new graduates. Find out what companies are going to be attending, and arrange an interview with one or more of them. If nothing else it will be great interview experience.

• Other Career Events: as well as on-campus events, there are also local, regional and national careers fairs and recruitment related events, and some industries even have their own events. Find out what recruitment events are happening in you areas of interest and plan to attend the ones you feel are right for your job search.

• Networking: the vast majority of vacancies out there are still filled through personal referrals and networking — use your professional network. Now you know what sort of job you’re looking for, let other people know. You might be surprised by what comes up.

• Direct Mail Campaign: this is a traditional method that can still be devastatingly effective when executed with skill and panache. Identify a number of suitable companies in the area you’re searching in, and write to the human resources manager / hiring manager with a vibrant covering letter and outstanding CV. Response rates are typically low, but land your letter on the right desk at the right time and you might just bag yourself an interview.

• Internet Job Sites: another string to your job seekers bow… but use these sites in conjunction with, rather than as a replacement for your other job-seeking efforts.

• Company Websites: many employers will post external vacancies and invite applications through their company website. If you have specific companies in mind, check out their sites for information.

As the ranks of Ireland’s unemployed continue to swell, those people still in work are forced to work longer hours, or even take on a second job to meet the challenging economic realities of life in post-celtic-tiger Ireland. The survey of 837 workers on the island of Ireland took place in January and February of this year, with 39% of respondents admitting to holding down a second job, up 16% on a similar survey the firm conducted last year.

"In theory [a second job] is a good idea," said Mr Alan Price, managing director with Peninsula Ireland. "A second job means higher income, but it can pose problems for both the boss and the employee. HR laws need to be looked at to ensure that no one is breaking the law by working too many hours in one week," he said.

"Another problem you face is employee fatigue and this may well become a health and safety concern, so it’s something that both the employee and the employer need to address."

Spending more time at work means less time at home, and that brings other pressures to bear on families already struggling to cope.

“Working longer hours may not necessarily be good for your health, and people can get easily overwhelmed when they take on a second job,” commented Mr Price. "Before considering a second job look at all the risks and weigh up the benefits. It may well be that you will be in a worse-off situation, especially after taking into account travel, taxes, any other expenses,

“Think about the lack of quality time at home and any implications on your health; there really is a lot to take into account.”

If money is the primary motivator for the second Job, workers may be better served looking at opportunities to increase their earning potential in their primary role, advised Mr Price.

“There may be better ways to improve marketability, training and education,” he said. "Look to see if there are extra skills required for jobs that pay more money, such as supervisory roles. Have you expressed an interest to your employer that you would like to be considered for these better-paid roles?”

Anyone considering taking on an additional job would do well to heed the advice and consider the long term consequences rather than just the short term gain of a boosted income. Long hours, frayed nerves and exhaustion can have serious legal and safety implications, could adversely impact your performance in your primary job and potentially exact a heavy personal toll on you and your family. If you’re considering another job to plug a shortfall in your finances make sure you explore all of the options available to you, and are aware of the potential pitfalls before you make the decision.

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With the economy still making things tough for job-seekers, and businesses still shedding staff at every turn, now is the time when workers everywhere should be working hard to progress their career goals and prove their worth to their employer. You may feel like sitting tight, keeping your head beneath the parapets and waiting out the economic siege, but its during times of adversity that real talent is tested and true commitment shines through. Standing out for the right reasons during the hard times will not only make your employer want to hold on to you when the chips are down, but will also put you right up on top of the heap in terms of progressing your career when things turn around again

• Embrace change: many workplaces have changed radically in recent times… and the best workers are those who can adapt readily to those changes. A lot of businesses are having to do more with fewer resources. If you’re open to new ways of working, learning new skills and taking on more responsibility, you’ll be well positioned to progress your career when things improve.
• Explore new opportunities: just because times are tough it doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities out there… changes in your organisations structure, client base or work processes can give you the chance to change roles, retrain to learn a new skill, volunteer to lead a project, implement a new cost-saving idea… or whatever. Keep a look out for any opportunity that will have a positve impact on your career.

• Keep your workload manageable: while we all need to be adaptable and open to new opportunities during the downturn, it’s important to stay aware of your workload and not take on too much. Overcommitting yourself leads to stress, burn-out and lack-lustre performance, and that can only have a negative affect on your career. Manage your workload carefully and don’t over-commit.
• Stay calm under pressure: it can be hard to keep your cool when layoffs and cuts are on the cards. Worrying about your job, your colleagues and the business you work for when times are tough is perfectly understabndable, but try not to get too pre-occupied with what might happen. Keep calm, assess the situation rationally and take action as appropriate, but avoid letting the distraction of pointless speculation cloud your judgement and affect your work.
• Keep up-to-date: the more up-to-date you are with all of the software, systems and processes your company uses, the more indespensible you become to your current employer. It’s also worth remembering that possessing current skills will make you a much more marketable commodity if the worst does happen and you find yourself looking for a new job. With more skills at your disposal you’re likely to find a better job more quickly. Many company’s are taking advantages of the downturn to re-train and cross-train staff… if you get the chance, never knock back the chance to progress your professional development.

Nobody knows how long the economic downturn will last, or how long it will take the job market to recover, but if you stay proactive, keep looking for the right opportunities and show that you’re someone to depend on in a crisis you’re much more likely to weather the storm, and to pave the way for continued career success when conditions improve.

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While economies around the globe lumber painfully out of recession, and there are signs of improvement on the jobs front, finding and getting the right job for you in today’s market is still incredibly challenging. With spring around the corner now is the perfect time to break out the metaphorical duster and give your job-seekers tool kit a much needed spring clean. It may be just the edge you need to land your perfect job.

Polish that CV

When was the last time you took a good long look at your CV to make sure it’s both up-to-date and up-to-scratch? Fish it out now, and go through every little detail to make sure it’s accurate and current. Don’t forget that both the information and the way its presented needs to be tailored to the sort of jobs you’re looking for. If you’re looking for more than one type of job, you probably need more than one type of CV — so create templates for each based on your generic master copy to suit the jobs you want to apply for.

Contact your referees

If you’ve listed references on your applications or have mentioned that they’re “available on request” on your CV, take a few moments to actually make contact with your nominated referees and let them know that you’re looking for a job. That way any request for a reference won’t come “out-of-the-blue”, and they’ll be more prepared to deliver that glowing reference that will set you apart from other candidates. Are the references you have listed the best ones… are are their contact details up-to-date, or would you be better off replacing some of them entirely?

Hone your online profile

When you’re looking for a job it’s no good hiding yourself away… the more places people can see you, yours skills, experience and expertise the better. The Internet is a massive boon to job seekers in that respect, and making sure your online profile on professional networking sites like Linkedin (www.linkedin.com) adds very significant visibility to your skillset.

Don’t just throw up a Linkedin profile and forget about it… actively connect with existing contacts and seek out new ones in your field. Ask people who’ve worked with you to write recommendations, join and participate in groups and discussions relevant to your industry and expertise: showcase your knowledge.

Most of all, tell people you’re actively seeking work, and in what particular field (just remember, if you’re already in a job, your current employer may well be looking at LinkedIn too) — spread the word, and ask others to do the same… the results might be surprising.

Network, network, network

The importance of effective networking, be it online or off-line, really can’t be overstated when it comes to job-hunting. Your personal network, and the extended network beyond them, offer an enormous pool of potential advice, job leads, introductions and more to help you find the perfect role. But you have to work at it! Use e-mail, phone calls, online messaging tools, coffee, lunch, appointments and meetings to reinforce and extend your professional network at every opportunity. The effort you put in is never wasted… and who knows, the next contact you make could really help you with your job search.

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It’s the start of a brand new year. What better time to take stock of your career, examine your options and set a few goals to keep you on track, or perhaps even change direction. Here are some of our suggestions for some work-related resolutions you could set yourself for 2010.

• Learn, baby learn: whether it’s brushing up on existing skills or developing new ones, it’s never been more important to keep your skills current than it is today. The broader your skill-set the more valuable you are as an employee, and that can deliver all sorts of benefits.
• Embrace technology: technology is reshaping the modern workplace, familiarise yourself with the latest technology and how it’s helping your industry to grow and evolve. Understanding technology and its role in your organisation will help you to do your job more effectively.
• Update the CV: things can change rapidly in todays workplace, and it never hurts to be prepared. While we’d certainly advocate tailoring your CV for specific job applications, having a generic, up-to-date template to work from will save you time, and help you hit the ground running if you do find yourself job-hunting.
• Learn a language: learning a new language can be invaluable if your business puts you in contact with people overseas on a regular basis, but can also be an empowering and life-enriching experience on a personal level… it’s a win-win.
• Get organised: resolve to tidy those files, clear out old e-mails, review your contact list. Re-evaluating your records and clearing out the dead wood is a great way to refocus your priorities and get a bit of perspective as you head into the new year.
• Build your network: establish a personal goal to meet and network with more people on a regular basis. Set yourself a network expansion target of, say, 5 new people each month, and try to stick to it. Expanding your professional network can have all kinds of knock-on benefits. It’s normal to be a little apprehensive at first, but once you get over the initial trepidation meeting new people is fun and productive.
• Read more: pick five key best-selling business books that are relevant to you professionally, and make a point of reading them during the course of the year.
• Make more me time: setting a goal to create more time aside for yourself and your family may seem counterintuitive in a list of resolutions for your career, but feeling more fulfilled outside work will actually have a tremendously positive impact on your career.
• Save more: planning to put more money aside for the future is always a good idea. At the moment that’s a tough proposition for many workers, but we’re getting used to tightening our belts. When the inevitable turnaround comes, and prospects improve, chances are that we won’t miss a little extra cash diverted into our savings every month.
• Look after number one: perhaps its a bit of a cliché, but the concept of a healthy body and a healthy mind is crucial to career success. You can only operate at your peak, at work or at play, if you take care of yourself. Could you eat more healthily, or do more regular exercise? The fitter and healthier you are, the better you’ll perform at work.

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You can view Communicating bad news at work – Part 1 here.

(Inspired by an entry in Lynn Gaertner-Johnston’s excellent Better Writing At Work newsletter)

Chances are you’ve read or heard more bad news on the jobs front over the last week. There’s no getting around it, things are tough out there for employers and employees alike, and are likely to remain so for the short term.

Sooner or later in your working life your going to encounter bad news, and, if you’re progressing in your career, and are responsible for a team of people, the job of communicating that bad news to others is going to fall on your shoulders. This week we continue with our tips to help make passing on bad news at work a little less painful for everyone involved.

• Speed and consistency are paramount: when you’re communicating bad news you can’t rely on the trickle-down approach to spread the word — have a plan for getting a consistent, coherent message to all relevant people in the organisation as soon as possible once the news breaks. The last thing you want is delays feeding rumour and speculation.
• A little compassion goes a long way: you’re probably sorry to be the bearer of bad news, and genuinely regret the circumstances that make it necessary. But the pressure of passing on the bad news can easily mask that. Don’t let it. Showing that you empathise with people, and telling them that you’re sorry about a situation isn’t an admission of guilt or liability. It simply shows that you care.

• Have answers, or be prepared to get them: be ready to answer the obvious questions… the what, why, when, where, who and how type queries that are bound to be at the forefront of people’s minds when they learn the news. Include as much of the information that’s likely to be important to them as you can. If you don’t have access to all the pertinent details, be honest about it, but endeavour to get the information you need as soon as you can. Lack of information can erode confidence and cause commitment to ebb at the worst possible time.
• Tailor the message to your audience: consider your audience, and customise your message to address their particular needs in a given situation. Passing on bad news to clients will require a different set of information delivered in a different way that communicating the same news to your co-workers. Different groups are also likely to have varying questions, their responses driven by a different priorities.
• Highlight mitigation: be sure to mention evverything the company is doing to minimise the impact of the bad news.
• In black and white: always write down your bad-news communications, even if you’re delivering them verbally. Without a script to refer to it’s far too easy to make a mistake with figures, fudge important details or make unrealistic commitments.
• Keep your word: If you say you’re going to give everyone an update on Monday morning, be ready with an update on Monday morning. If the information you’d hoped for isn’t available, say so… that’s an update. Remember, broken promises make bad news worse, and just erode your credibility.
• When things improve… tell people: when things turn around, and the news gets better, don’t forget to communicate and share the positive turn of events too. A project finally completed, a new order one, short-work-weeks returned to full-time-work, new jobs. Whatever it is, you should share the news and celebrate the turnaround together.

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(Inspired by an entry in Lynn Gaertner-Johnston’s excellent Better Writing At Work newsletter)

Bad news is rife in the world of business and employment today. It’s a fact of life as companies struggle to get to grips with the subdued economy. If you’re managing or supervising staff, there’s a fair chance you’ll find yourself delivering bad news to your team at one point or another, and how you choose to communicate that news can make a huge difference.

"No one ever wants to receive bad news, and no one wants to communicate it either," says business communications specialist Lynn Gaertner-Johnston. "Delivering bad news is a huge communication challenge. It requires great care, especially if the news is upsetting rather than merely inconvenient."

Breaking bad news can be a nerve racking and difficult experience for even the most seasoned business communicator, but if you find yourself passing on bad tidings at work consider following some of these tips to help ease the pain:

• Use multiple channels: don’t just focus on e-mail. E-mail tends to be a cold and sterile medium, unfeeling and stark. While e-mail may well be the most efficient communication tool, you should try to augment it with other, more personal channels of communication. Pick up the phone, arrange a person-to-person meetings or organise an online meetings or videoconference to add a more personal and caring element to the message.
• Keep people updated: there’s nothing worse than dropping a bombshell of an announcement and then clamming up. Keep the information flowing, provide frequent updates and volunteer additional information as it becomes available. People tend to take bad news on-board gradually, but once the central message sinks in they’ll be looking for more information. Be sure to provide it if you can.
• Don’t try to hide it: shielding people from bad news by concealing it is always a bad move. When the inevitable happens and the news leaks out, the fallout will be far worse. Be open, honest and up front about the reality of the situation.
• Don’t delay: sitting on the fence when isn’t a particularly clever strategy when it comes to delivering bad news. When the news does break the fact that you knew about it for some time before passing it on will erode trust and raise suspicion about your motives. The trust of your team is hard won and crucial to your success… don’t jeopardise it.
• Be professional: use appropriate language tailored to your audience, and always be professional. Take particular care before deciding to use emoticons like frowning faces and slang terms.
• Temper the message: if you can do so legitimately, try and include a snippet of good news to soften the blow. Downsizing a department is very bad news for some, of course, but if it ultimately saves people’s jobs and makes the company more viable that’s good.
• Don’t gloss over the negatives: while highlighting a positive aspect or outcome is a good thing, don’t attempt to disguise the negative message with positive language and corporate "spin" for the sake of it. Bad news doesn’t become any sweeter with a saccharine veneer.

Check back next week, when we’ll continue with more tips to ease the delivery of bad news in the workplace.

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While some companies may choose to skip the traditional office Christmas party this year, many more will go ahead with the seasonal merriment, seeing it as a way to boost employee morale at the end of what has, for many, been an incredibly harrowing year.

Of course, for some workers the prospect of a looming Christmas party could be the most harrowing thing of all, but love it or loathe it, this is potentially a very trick event for anyone who’s career minded.

To avoid waking up the next morning, looking back and cringing at your exploits in front of your co-workers and boss the night before, we’ve compiled this handy office Christmas party survival guide just in time for the start of the silly season:

• Watch what you drink: this sounds obvious, but is the single most important thing you need to remembers. Yes you want to let your hair down and have a bit of fun, but you don’t want to be the one falling over on the dance floor mid-way through the night. Enjoy a few social drinks with work colleagues… but pace yourself, and keep a clear head.
• Don’t be the first to arrive, or the last to leave: you don’t want to be sitting alone at the bar when everyone else starts to arrive, and being the last to leave can suggest that you don’t know when to call it a night.
• Leave office politics at work: this isn’t somewhere to score points or snipe at your work colleagues. This is a social engagement, and in the spirit of the season you should aim to keep things social; so, no spreading malicious gossip or venting work-based frustrations.
• Leave work at the office: there’s much more to you than just your work, and the same holds true about the people you work with. This is your chance to let your personality shine through..
• Mix and match: while you’ll innevitably spend a lot of the evening with one group of close colleagues, try to avoid being cliquey. Mingle, and at least have a passing conversation with everyone you know at the party – even if it’s just to wish everyone a merry Christmas.

• Don’t suck up to the boss: say hello to your boss, and be social, but don’t go out of your way to engage in lengthy conversation with him or her. Remember this isn’t the place to talk about that pay rise, promotion or review.
• Dress for the occasion: the party is a perfect opportunity to dress up a bit, and to let people at work see a side of you they don’t normally see. Just make sure you dress in something that’s appropriate for the chosen venue and/or event, and don’t go too overboard — remember, you still have to work with these people.
• Avoid impromptu romantic engagements: hooking up with someone at the Christmas party – or leaving with them – might seem like a good idea at the time, but it usually backfires… so be careful.
• Enjoy yourself: as long as you stay aware, don’t drink so much that it clouds your judgement, and bear the above points in mind, this is a great opportunity to relax, have fun and let your work colleagues see the lighter side of you. Remember the office Christmas party is just that – a party – so make the most of the occasion. Just remember that beneath the veneer of the tipples and the tinsel this is a work function, and therefore an extension of the working environment. Make sure you leave with your honour and reputation intact.