Sources: The Best Cover Letter I Ever Received. How to Write a Résumé That Doesn’t Annoy People. Ace the Interview

Cover Letters:

• PLEASE AVOID –
• The recap: The résumé in prose form. It’s redundant, harder to read than the résumé, and provides no additional insight.
• The form letter: This says, essentially, “Dear Sir or Madam: I saw your ad in the paper and thought you might like me.”
• The “I’m crazy”: This one’s rare, and it expands on the résumé of experience with some personal insights. Examples range from the merely batty (“I find batik as an art form has taught me to become both a better person and project manager.”) to the truly terrifying (“I cast a pentagram hex and the central line pointed towards your job listing. I know you will find this as comforting as I do.”)
• There are really only a few times to use a cover letter: When you know the name of the person hiring, When you know something about the job requirement, or When you’ve been personally referred (which might include 1 and 2).

Resumes:

• 1. Get the formatting right.
• 2. Insert dates for everything.
• 3. Fill up on the buzzwords.
• 4. Choose verbs that mean something.
• 5. Rewrite your résumé for each job application.
• 6. State career objectives or outside interests — but be very careful.
• 7. The further into your past, the less detail you should have.
• 8. Keep it short.
• 9. No typos.

Interviews

• 1. Dress appropriately.
• 2. Shut up. Did I tell you about the time someone came and told me his life story for 45 minutes and then allowed me 10 minutes to explain the job? I think you know how that story ends.
• 3. Listen. The most useful skill in sales is listening — and in an interview, you’re selling yourself. If you say, “I think the best computers in the world are PCs and people who use Macs have more style than substance” after the interviewer mentions his iPhone, you could be left with your opinion and no paycheck.
• 4. Ask questions. You can avoid the problem above by responding to the question, “Do you think we should scrap all the PCs here and buy Macs?” by saying, “That depends on lots of factors. What would your requirements be?”
• 5. Show interest. When an interviewee doesn’t ask me anything about myself, she’s not just saying “I’ve got pride in my accomplishments and don’t need to pander to you.” She’s also showing me that she isn’t good at showing interest in other people. Which means she’s going to have a hard time politically in the company. And since that’s going to reflect badly on me…no job for her.
• 6. Do your research. Some people find being Googled creepy. But if you do it carefully, you can show the hiring manager that you took the time to learn something about them.
• 7. Answer the question you wish they’d asked. Robert McNamara said that about dealing with the press, but it’s also very good advice for interviewees. How many times have you left an interview thinking, “I never got a chance to tell them about my Nobel Prize in possum research?” Don’t wait for the question. Answer “What did you do at your last job?” with “Actually, it was my work on possums two jobs ago that you might find most relevant.”