10 Tips for Writing Your Cover Letter

I have recently been asked by several people about writing cover letters. They can sometimes be overlooked but are often an important tool for securing an interview. Here are my top ten suggestions to make yours stand out from the crowd:

1. If you are responding to a specific role, state your intention to apply for this job. Talk briefly about your motivations for pursuing a career with this company.
2. Make it specific to the company to whom you are writing; demonstrate that you understand a bit about their business. If you can make it personal to an individual (Dear Mr Smith) then do so.
3. Think of the cover letter as an extension of your “elevator pitch”. Why should the person opening your email/letter invite you for an interview?
4. Talk about your aptitude to do the job in question; this may be by giving example achievements from your recent experience.
5. Answer the question “What differentiates me from my peers?”
6. Use the cover-letter as a way to demonstrate your prose writing skills (i.e. don’t make it a list of bullet points).
7. Close the letter, i.e. suggest a next step, such as “Please take a look at my CV for further information”, “I look forward to hearing back from you”, “Please do not hesitate to get in contact with me if you have any questions”.
8. Keep it to one side of A4, type font 10 or 11 (if it is via email, keep it to 3 paragraphs).
9. Do not talk about salary in the cover letter.
10. Make sure your contact details are clear and correct; and also make sure that the company’s address and contact details are correct.

By Clare Buxton

Wind Energy Sector Lead, EcoSearch

Photo Courtesy of woodleywonderworks.

BWEA31 – 20th to 22nd October 2009

The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) will be running its annual conference and exhibition next week in Liverpool. The event enjoys a well balanced combination of thought-leadership and focused conference sessions, as well as an opportunity to network, learn about new developments, and identify new business opportunities.

I had a conversation the week before EWEA’s Offshore Conference in Stockholm, earlier this year, with a client who I’ve known for 18 months now. He asked me why I wasn’t going to be attending. I replied “I’m far too busy, I have too many open assignments and I can’t afford to take a day, let alone two, out of the office…”. He responded that he had also thought the same thing on many occasions, but that each time he thought it, he reminded himself of the intangible, but undeniable, value that comes from solidifying relationship and building new ones in person. He was right.

And so I’ll be at BWEA31, with the intention to get as much value from it as possible, and to have a fun doing it! I will be attending on Tuesday and Wednesday, with a focus on meeting new people and keeping abreast of new entrants, new developments and new projects in the sector, as well as using the opportunity to meet with existing candidates and clients alike.

Often we are asked by industry professionals to conduct Independent Career Appraisals, and the BWEA conference is an ideal place to do this, to maximise on time and talk to people when they’re out of the office environment and not worrying about the next conference call or a deadline they’ve got to hit. There are plenty of quiet corners to find a seat and grab a coffee.

If you’d like to meet up to ask me questions, share information, or find out about what we do and how we do it, please do use BWEA31 as the perfect opportunity.

Drop me an email to clare.buxton@ecosearchglobal.com or contact me via twitter @CEBUX.

By Clare Buxton
Wind Energy Sector Lead, EcoSearch

The Future of Online Recruitment

Yesterday Katharine Robinson and Phillip Clement attended Enhance Media’s Online Recruitment conference “The Year Ahead”. Katharine gives her thoughts below.

I was particularly interested to hear what Facebook, YouTube, PWC, Workcircle and the rest had to say. The conference was aimed mainly at the job board market and corporate recruiters, but when your job is to manage a recruitment company’s digital footprint, it’s somewhere you just have to be.

I was a little surprised that the day seemed to have no clearly defined objectives – I don’t know whether it’s because I used to be in teaching, but I like to have a clear Idea of what I am supposed to be learning so that I know whether or not I have been successful. There was not even an Agenda provided before the event.

We kicked off the day by hearing from YouTube. There was a whole plethora of incredible stats. Most notable from an energy perspective was the fact that YouTube might only be three years old, but it accounts for 10% of the bandwidth being used on the internet at any one time. As there are 1.2 billion minutes of video uploaded every month, this must be being stored somewhere. These data centres must account for massive energy usage and have quite a carbon footprint. Probably most interesting from a recruitment perspective was that video can help in the selling process – pictures add credibility when you buy something so moving pictures add even more. I was inspired by the notion of creating some short snippets of video, demonstrating the opportunities we are working on, having an EcoSearch YouTube channel and putting some of these clips on our site.

I was looking forward to hearing from Facebook. If you are interested in such things, you will know that EcoSearch already has a Facebook Page where you can become a fan. I wanted to see what more I could do with it. I was a little disappointed to find myself on the receiving end of a sales pitch for their targeted advertising. We were told about pages, and shown a couple of the best ones (that I had already investigated when creating ours). I was also disappointed to find that the speaker couldn’t answer my question about our page’s analytics.

Blogs were also a big topic of the day. In my opinion the most important thing about blogging is communication and interaction with your audience. As a recruitment company I am often concerned that people will not wish to comment as they don’t want anyone to assume they are on the market for a job (either rightly or wrongly). I have nothing against this and at EcoSearch we are committed to privacy and ensuring that our clients and candidates are ensured the highest discretion. The only suggestion from the speakers at the event was to give people the ability to comment anonymously.

Here on dot.green anonymous comments have always been allowed – so don’t worry about commenting on the blog – we encourage you to have your say.

Debby Lloyd Rants: CVs are real people too

Today I’m going to have a Jeremy Clarkson style rant on account of the activities I can see affecting candidates and clients in today’s marketplace, although I will take issue with Jeremy over his views on Green.

EcoSearch has known that dot.green is THE place to be for the last two years. There were those who thought we were opening some tofu eating hippy commune and as we are on New Greenham Park, former home of the Greenham Common women’s action group against Cruise Missiles – they probably had a point. Although Dale Vince I believe was keeping Swampy company at the same time on the A34 and look where he is today – counting UFOs – but that’s a different story for another day.

I ramble, anyway, the rest of the recruiting world has now woken up to the fact that renewable energy is where the action is.

Add in the impact of the credit crunch and this is what I’ve heard this week:

From EcoSearch Client A (in a similar Jeremy Clarkson style rant to me):

“Debby – you won’t believe this but I’ve seen one CV cross my desk this week by 4 different recruiters of a person we interviewed through you 3 months ago!”

Now what do you think he’s thinking a) about the recruiters and b) about the person who’s CV this is? More importantly what impact is this behaviour having on this person’s career? – Let’s not forget, we are dealing with real people with valuable careers to protect, although some people treat them as a paper commodity and I wont begin to go into the inordinate amount of time wasting for the client company. (I could even go into the ever expanding datacentre implication issues for data storage and energy consumption but that would be churlish).

From EcoSearch Client B:

“Debby, I am being hammered by recruiters offering me candidates that have no relevance to my business and don’t know the difference between a kw and a mw turbine. I don’t have the time, it’s such a distraction!”

From Clare – EcoSearch’s wind sector specialist (in a fist slamming, angry kind of way):

“Debby, this candidate has just found out his CV has been emailed “somewhere” into our client by a recruiter who hasn’t even had a conversation with him and qualified what career path he’s looking for and can’t tell him who its gone to or where it is” 

Cue EcoSearch team who break into Bridget Jones style cries of “No!” on a group basis across the EcoSearch office. Net result – this candidate hasn’t been positioned effectively in this organisation and will no doubt end up wasting his opportunity to entrée a great career. Not to mention the service level to the client which is clearly second rate.

Recently I’ve assisted a Candidate re-format his CV. Even when we are personally unable to place someone, it doesn’t mean we don’t help, especially where the candidate has been mutually helpful to us. The candidate’s new CV went up on Monster yesterday and in the space of 2 hours he had 16 recruiters “specialising in renewable energy” had given him a call. However, (with an incredulous look on face and raised voice):

“Debby – the quality of the conversation was so poor and some of them couldn’t even say Photovoltaic!”

But the absolute prize of the day is currently held by Steve – our carbon and engineering sector lead. Who had a “specialist renewable energy recruiter” ring him up today – having seen the jobs on our website (posted for our own client’s hiring needs) and ask if she could help us with our hiring needs …

“When she asked me what my job title was I told her ‘it’s the same as yours … Executive Search Consultant!’”

Cue EcoSearch team group laughter and hilarity. Unfortunately in her haste to make the call, she thought we were a renewable energy company. I thought our website looked good, but maybe we should revisit it ….

So, to make sure you get the service you expect as a job seeker...

• Demand written confirmation that your CV is not sent to any organisation without your prior knowledge. 
  
• If it is, you can request they withdraw your CV - YOU choose who represents you. 
  
• Work with your consultant in putting a defined list of target companies together.
  
• Mark your CV up with big red letters “DO NOT SUBMIT WITHOUT PRIOR CONSENT”.
  
• Demand to know who is getting your CV (although email forwarding is uncontrollable to a certain extent).
  
• You should receive written candidate service level terms of business from the company you work with or at the very least the consultant should have explained how they work, what to expect, timescales for working together and communication expectations.
  
• Keep in regular touch – build the relationship. 
  
• Don’t work with multiple recruiters at any one time. 
  
• Use a specialist.
  
• Any consultant with integrity will work with you on fully understanding your needs and making the most appropriate introduction. Anyone that only spends 15 minutes on the phone with you and wants you to tell them 50 companies you want to work with …. cue large ringing bells - run a mile. 
  

And for more information download the “recruiters – working with them” helpsheet below.

Recruiters - Working With Them

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Resumes & CVs resume howto

We can’t help everyone (as much as we’d like to), we aren’t perfect and we are not the fastest, but my goodness - some people need to raise their game out there … let’s keep it professional!

OK, I’m back to my desk now …

Boost your career in 2009 with LinkedIn

In my post on Looking for a ‘good’ green job I promised to write about using LinkedIn. LinkedIn.com has become the online business network of choice for many. It allows you to create an online profile and make it as visible as you wish. Apart from anything else it is a great place to keep contact details for all the key players in your network. You never know when you might leave that battered old filo-fax in the back of a taxi.

You might be asking “Why do I need a LinkedIn Profile?”

Are you legitimate? - If you call someone with a business proposition, they may well look you up on LinkedIn to find out more about you. It certainly happens a lot here at EcoSearch when we are looking for service providers to partner with.
Take a look at my LinkedIn profile and you will see how long I have been working at EcoSearch, what other experience I have and my educational background, as well as a whole wealth of other information.
Not only does it allow you to be found by those you already know, but people with potential opportunities can find you just by doing a search.

Growing your career – LinkedIn is now widely used by head hunters to identify individuals with the right profile to match senior level opportunities with companies they represent. Whilst being on LinkedIn will not guarantee that you will be approached by a head hunter, it will increase your chances of being noticed by people who can help you to progress your career at the right time for you.

Strengthening a connection - If you meet someone at an industry event or even on the train and they work in your niche, it can be easy to let that meeting be forgotten. Down the line potential opportunities for collaboration can be lost. If however you have a philosophy of connecting to everyone you meet on LinkedIn, you never lose their business card, or forget their name or which company they represent.
LinkedIn is reaching the point where the majority of savvy business people are signed up. There is no excuse for not using it to keep up to date with and to grow your network.

Wider networking - LinkedIn groups (discussion forums about a specific topic) have undergone a lot of change recently. Despite the number of groups you can join being capped at 50; I think most of these changes have been for the better. You can now search for relevant groups, start discussions and share ideas without leaving the site. This is a great way to interact with likeminded folks that you are not connected to. Often these can lead you to an external networking website with previously untapped potential.

Creating your profile

LinkedIn has acquired many more features recently so creating your profile may seem a little more daunting than it would have done six months ago. Let me assure you though, the new features make for a much more useful experience. Having a profile is worth the time investment.
Go along and hit the sign up button, the site is very user friendly and talks you through creating your profile. You can include as much or as little information about yourself as you like.

I would encourage you to think about a few key words that should be included in your profile. Try to include your job title (and any other ways your function might be described) as well as the sector you work in. If somebody is searching for a person like you, what keywords might they type into a search box?

Once you have a profile, start looking for people you know (you will probably be surprised by how many people are already there). Invite them to connect, and watch your network grow. Once you have a small network of contacts, you will have a pool to search and find useful folks that work in your field.

From there you can go on to join groups, ask questions or just network with your new community.

For great information straight from LinkedIn, check out their article Start 2009 Strong with LinkedIn. Let me know how you get on creating your profile and any benefits that come of it.

By Katharine Robinson
Research Associate at EcoSearch

The Monster is evolving...

Internet job boards came on the scene in the mid nineties and revolutionised the way we look for a new job.

No longer do we wait for Thursday’s newspaper and head to the opportunities section with our red marker pen, ready to circle whatever looks interesting.

Now I can look for jobs on any day of the week, without even leaving my house to go to the news agent. I could wake up in the middle of the night, wondering what others doing a role like mine are earning and get an approximation in just minutes by switching on my computer.

If I feel tempted, and have my CV ready, I can apply with just a few clicks of my mouse. No need to worry about having nice paper to print on or ink in my printer. I don’t need to buy an envelope or even a stamp.

Searching on the internet for a job allows us to find opportunities in companies that we have not heard of or companies that we might not have thought to send our CV to otherwise. I could even add my CV to a database and then do NOTHING – just wait for the right job to come and find me while I get on with my life.

It sounds pretty nifty to me already. So when Monster says that it’s all about to change, you have to take notice! Monster’s CEO and Chairman, Sal Iannuzzi says that the new website will be almost a 100% rebuild. There will be new features and functionality unique in the industry. Debby Lloyd and I attended a launch breakfast for the new site at Altitude on the 29th floor of the Milbank Tower in London Last Monday. The full extent of the rebuild was confirmed when we were shown just how different the site will look and feel for both candidates and recruiters.

A lot of other job boards have recently gone through overhauls and then spent a lot of money on advertising. I was approached by fish4jobs.com following their re-launch earlier this year. I had, of course, seen their new advertisements on E4 (just before Scrubs) and so was unconsciously aware that something was going on in that world. But was it fish4jobs or totaljobs or could it have been jobsite? It’s really hard to say. I wonder how these other job boards will react to their already much more recognisable competitor coming in and trouncing them all with a career management revolution.

How can it get any better?

Monster has not done anything by half measures. They have spent many millions of dollars on THE BEST search tools that money can buy to analyse their industry leading CV database (I don’t even know if I’m allowed to tell you how many CVs that is). This means they can provide job seekers with information regarding likely future career moves based upon their previous experience, or allow someone to input their career goals to find out what they need to do to get there.

When you go to the homepage of New Monster, it won’t look the same for any two people. New Monster goes beyond the Niche Job Board provision – it is a 100% personal and customisable job board. You see what you tell it you want to see, and the most relevant jobs will find you. I don’t know anywhere else I can get that.

On a more logistical level, the sign up process has been streamlined. It will now only take 50% of the time to create your profile (My Monster) and upload your CV (but only if you want to). This gives job seekers more time to be focusing on their career rather than plodding through the dull sign-up process getting bored and frustrated.

This new stage of evolution will allow the job seeker to not only have control over their job search, but their entire career path. The aim is for you to be able to look at your present experience and compare with others, see possible future career paths and how to effectively take the next steps. You will also come back to the site regularly, just to see that you are still going in the right direction, this might allow you to see an opportunity for faster progression you might otherwise have missed.

I can’t wait to see it working!

New monster goes live on Saturday 10th January 2009.

By Katharine Robinson
Research Associate

Without once mentioning the word “poo”!

Everyone at EcoSearch would like to extend a big thank you to our first guest blogger. An Energy Consultant placed by Steven Rogers earlier this year gives her thoughts on getting into the industry.

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When considering a change of job, it is definitely worth having a chat with someone about what you consider to be your transferrable skills. Those of us that are “Green Collar Workers” (whoever came up with that phrase has a fantastic sense of humour!) are in the enviable position of being in a minority – i.e. there is a gap in the market for professionals who have a number of years experience in the energy industry. We can therefore have a long hard think about what we’d like from a job, and if our current job is not fulfilling that, what skills do we have that will facilitate a move in the direction we want to be heading. We certainly don’t have to sit within the same area of the energy industry, just because that is where we have our core practical skills.

For example, I had been working as an energy analyst for eight years, I’d been given the opportunity to stretch my wings as much as the job had allowed, however I didn’t feel that things were moving at a pace that was right for me, or in a direction that I really wanted to be headed.

I had spent the majority of my eight years behind a desk, running reports & answering queries to do with site energy consumption. I am now rarely in the office – in fact, it’s a strange week if I’m behind my desk for more than a couple of days! I’m clambering up on roofs, all round plant rooms, talking to all sorts of different people at all sorts of levels within different organisations. My week is divided between high level meetings with financial & facilities managers and driving all over the place in my jeans, polo shirt & tool belt. It’s not something I’d have thought I’d be doing this time last year, that’s for sure!

Going back to the subject of transferrable skills, mine were being a bit of a spreadsheet whizz, being articulate (something to do with being able to explain how electricity is generated from sewage, without once mentioning the word “poo”!), and having an enthusiasm for the subject of energy consumption that possibly borders on the nerdy. None of the transferrable skills I’ve mentioned above are what one would consider to be “taught” skills; however, I’m also lucky as part of my degree was energy studies.

So, what is the point of this rambling blog (bear with me, it’s the only one I’ve ever written!)?

Think not just about your roles & responsibilities when you are putting a CV together, think about finding a way of highlighting your transferrable skills.

A new Monster is coming...

Monster is launching its all new site on 10th January 2009. Debby Lloyd and I have been invited to a launch breakfast in London on December 1st 2008.


As the one of the initial players in the online recruitment game, it is ok for them to change the rules.

But what exactly are they planning to make online job hunting a better experience? A more personalised and customised service for job seekers is the main focus.

I am excited to find out exactly what this will mean for EcoSearch and for those seeking Green Jobs.

Look out for more news on the new Monster as soon as we get it.

Katharine Robinson,
Research Associate

Top tips for creating a brilliant CV

John Lawton, Director at Ezek - one of our partner organizations, has produced the first part in his “How to create a brilliant CV” article. Here is a flavour of what he has to say.

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Some advice for anyone thinking of re-vamping that old CV – a few things to consider first...

1. Don’t re-vamp an old CV! Start from scratch and really think about who you are and what you want. The process you go through in creating the CV is perhaps more important than the document itself. There are questions about yourself that you need to know the answer to before attending any interviews. The creation of a new CV is the ideal time to do this.
2. Have a clear identity! Only include the information that is relevant to what you want to do next. You don’t have to appeal to a wide audience, just the employer you want to work for. If you think you have more than one identity, have more than one CV. Send it to people that will be interested! It can be very frustrating for employers to receive many irrelevant CVs.
3. Give your achievements. Express what you have done in the past tense – then I am sure that you actually did it. Illustrate the benefits of what you did and quantify this if you can.
4. John gives an amusing list of his top bad CV categories. If you find your CV falling into one of these, it may be worth speaking to a professional. Here are the ones from John’s list that we at EcoSearch see most often
   a. The ‘I followed a system on the web’ CV
   b. The ‘cut and paste job description’ CV
   c. The ‘let me tell you my life story’ CV

For more from John, you can subscribe to the Your Career articles at www.yourcareer.co.uk/articles and receive all future instalments direct.

An Online Job Search – What to look for in a ‘Good’ green job

Today Katharine Robinson will be looking at the online job boards and how to use them effectively to get to the next step in your green career.

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I manage EcoSearch’s ‘digital footprint’. Simply put, I make sure we are there to be found on the web. Not only does that mean I manage this blog, but I also look after where we advertise the job opportunities we are working on.

The news for those seeking a new green job is good and I’m going to tell you why.

Setting the scene

The talent pool in the sector is so limited in the UK, EcoSearch’s home territory, that the number of applications to these job advertisements is small. Not only that, but a surprising number of those applying have irrelevant experience – I had a candidate not long ago apply to a job as a wind farm project developer, his only work experience to date was of trapping hedgehogs.

If you are looking for an EcoJob, you will find a plethora of opportunities out there for you – you won’t have to put more than a couple of key words into a search engine before you find somewhere you want to send your CV.

Be Picky – You can afford to have a good job hunting experience

Here are a few things to look for in a ‘good’ green job advertisement so that you get off to the best possible start;

· A name - of a real person that is working on that opportunity (try finding that person on the web, do they have a LinkedIn profile – are they credible?).
· An email address direct to that person – for you to send your CV to.
· A phone number - so you can call and speak to that person.
· Some information about the sort of company or team the job is with – this may be brief but it should be there.

If you can’t see those things, it’s not worth sending your CV. Your experiences and hard work will go off to populate a recruiter’s database so they can call you if their key-word search throws up your details. A lot of job advertisements try to keep the identity of the company that is hiring a bit of a secret until they know you are serious about the opportunity (so don’t worry if you don’t the company’s name) – but be wary if no information at all is offered. In the end, this is likely to be THE deciding factor as to whether or not you want the job.

To upload or not to upload?

In your green job hunt, you might stop by a number of websites that allow you to upload your CV to their database. This means that jobs can come and find you, taking some of the work out of your hunt.

This sounds great. Upload my CV and wait for the perfect job to come knocking on my door. This can be the case and sometimes is. I know that at EcoSearch we often search these databases for possible candidates and are often surprised by the quality and fit of some of those we find.

Unfortunately the best people often report being approached by multiple recruiters about vacancies that were not necessarily relevant. This can be frustrating if you went to the trouble of submitting a detailed CV. Especially if you are called about an opportunity that has nothing to do with the objectives you stated. It’s very easy to feel undervalued if you get called by an assortment of ‘white-socked’ recruiters looking for a quick hit.

My advice would be to cultivate an online presence that can be found – the easiest way to do this is by creating a profile on LinkedIn.com or another professional networking site. You can see mine by clicking on my name at the top of this page. This allows you to access your professional network online – a very useful tool for managing all your contact information. It also allows those seeking your skills to search and find you but not make the (often wrong) assumption that you are desperate to make a move – any move.

The next step on the ladder is out there for the taking, so go and find it!

To keep up with what EcoSearch is working on, follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheSourceress. I tweet on EcoSearch and general Renewable Energy news as well as keeping up to date with the Web2.0 buzz.

Look out for my future posts; I’ll be looking at creating CVs and using LinkedIn to benefit your career. If you have any points to add about searching for a job online, feel free to contribute below in the comment section.

Day 4: “A Working Week to Solve the Wind Energy Talent Shortage”

This week Clare Buxton is looking at how to manage the talent shortage in the Wind Energy sector, whether you’re hiring or looking to be hired. Today, we take a look from an individual’s perspective. How do you use the talent shortage to your advantage?

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What professionals working in the space can do

The burning question, another one that EcoSearch hears frequently, is:

“How do I make the most of my rare skills in the Wind Industry?”

This isn’t quite so hard to answer, and guess what? Here are a few suggestions:

If you’re a professional in this space and you’re looking to forward your career, there are, without any doubt, multiple opportunities and many possible avenues:

• Companies need to be smart and look after you to keep your loyalty; but equally every member of the team is an important aspect in creating and managing a good working culture and thriving business.
• Review your goals regularly, and if you’re concerned about the direction your career is taking you, take the time to sit down with your manager and work out the best career path for you. If the company you’re with can’t offer it to you, take a look at the wider industry space – there’s a lot going on out there!
• Work with a recruiter or head hunter (well I would say that wouldn’t I?!) because they will be able to get you access to companies which fit your requirements and career plans. If they’re any good, they’ll spend time getting to know you and be able to introduce you confidentially to the companies you are most interested in, without having to stick your CV highly visibly on a job-board.
• In my experience, the wind industry is incredibly incestuous, so it’s good to have a third party representation that can help you navigate the market place. That’s what we’re here for, after all!

To stay up to date with what projects EcoSearch is working on, follow Katharine Robinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheSourceress. She sends out updates on Renewable Energy News, Web 2.0 and EcoSearch News.

Tune in tomorrow for the last post in our series “A Working Week to Solve the Wind Energy Talent Shortage”.

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