Hello Judy,
A couple further ideas and questions about some intriguing points you have
made... Really good common sense advice in your whole post, by the way...
You wrote:
> One of the most effective sections of any letter is the PS. It's the one part
> of your letter that is most likely to be read. So try to think of something
> interesting or unusual or exciting that you can tag onto the end of your
> letter--perhaps it's a mention of a mutual acquaintance, or an invitation to
> attend your upcoming recital, or simply an offer to provide references.
Great idea! Another idea sort of like this that I once picked up in a class for
"general" resumes, when I was upgrading my "clerical" stuff - Under a heading of
"personal qualities" or some such, put three or four adjectives that give some
indication of your personality, how you might be as person to work with -
perhaps
some intangible aspect that would "tweak" with a particular employer and be a
deciding factor in getting hired, especially when you are competing with others
who have similar skills and experience... This needs to be tailored for
different situations and requires more than a little imagination without being
too, um, "off the wall"... For example, on my "office" resume, I have
"maturity, compassion, humour". On my "showbiz" resumes (which vary for concert
and different stage work): "supportive, humorous, earthy, eclectic". Of
course,
these kinds of "marketing slogans" will all vary widely between individual
people
and situations. As with every other aspect of resume/cover letter writing/life,
it is important to carefully consider and continually review the particular
appropriateness of all your choices... It occurs to me, this "slogan" could
apply to a cover letter as a "p.s.", or maybe even as part of the letterhead, or
perhaps in the signature - something original or maybe "borrowed", as I often
see
in signatures/postscripts in forums like this...?
> I like to print several copies of my letters--for some reason, my first
> signature never seems to look right!
Hmm, this really intrigues me. I have long been wondering about hand-written
signatures, the whole "art and science" of them... Rhetorical question - How do
individuals acquire, adapt and evolve signatures? I would be curious to hear
from others on this... I have never been a great hand writer. My current
"usual" signature has kind of evolved from fifteen summers of doing vaudeville,
where after the shows, we autograph programs for our audiences, almost always
for
large crowds of folks (that's a good thing in the "bigger picture"...:o)), with
very little time to spend with each individual and only our laps for a
"supporting surface". Besides my inept natural handwriting, it doesn't help
that
my name is physically kind of angular, awkward to pronounce and hear in "real
space", which could be part of a whole other "marketing thread" - "when/how to
adapt stage names" and such... Sometimes, I think my life would be simpler if I
had a name like "ooo eee" or something - much easier to write and
pronounce...:o) Anyway, my current signature is pretty much a scrawl (there's a
certain oxymoron...) - My technique, such as it is, is to just kind of "think my
name" and let my hand sort of follow some approximate physical contour... I
notice that many folks, particularly celebrities, corporate executives and such
often have scrawls for signatures, though often very distinctive ones, which is
part of their "marketability"...? But then, most of these folks probably don't
have to worry about their signature, or for that matter, applying for jobs...
For recent job applications, I have been doing a more legible kind of
"semi-printed" signature...
"Graphologically" yours,
Michael
Michael Eckford/"Awkward" <michaelb@y...>, or Michel Coinbourg, or Michele
Michael Eckford/"Awkward" <michaelb@y...>, or Michel Coinbourg, or Michele
Angoloponte (French and Italian "equivalents" of my name I once sort of made
up...)
"What's that? Eckworth? Eckhart? Eggnog?"
Then there's my name for my "shadow" self...
Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada
http://www.angelfire.com/me/interdependence/
What's in a name...
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