CmdrFly said:
So I see this ad for a job in the paper. Description looks easy, requirements no problem... compensation: starting at double my current pay.
It's hard to make a recommendation without knowing exactly what it is you are doing now, and what you will be doing.
I will assume that the new job is paying in the 60k-70K range. The old saying that if it sounds too good to be true, then it is, holds true. IT people are rarely overpaid anymore as they are more than dime a dozen. High salary could be an indicator of an incomplete job description or requirements. Finding out what exactly they are looking for without to annoy them would imho be the first step.
Then you should think about how serious you really are about switching jobs. If you are dead serious, I would spend like $200 to have a professional write me a cover letter (like the folks at monster.com).
Standing out is the biggest challenge for some. If you have a run off the mill education I wouldn't mention anything about it in the cover letter. If you do have certifications that are worth something, like EMC, Oracle, CISSP, I would definitely bring that up. MSSD, MSCE, A+, etc are almost expected today, unsure if mentioning those would do any good, if it were my cover letter I wouldn't point them out as they are listed in the resume anyway.
Mention special skills, such as language, or Fortran90, or anything that is not found in many other employees.
Concentrate on what you have done to better the company you are currently work for. Be specific, but brief, (i.e.: I developed procedures that resulted in a 8% increase in completed CS requests per hour.).
How have you positivly affected the bottom line of the company you work for?
If you haven't done anything like that, then it will be an uphill battle.
I would suggest to point out specific skills that you believe will be beneficial in either motivating your team, or leading your team to higher efficiency. In this case you absolutely will have to do some research on the company you are applying for. You will need to find out how they are doing financially, what it is they are struggling with, and specifically address those issues in your cover letter.
Those kind of things catch a recruiters attention.
This is often easier said than done. If it is a large company, then there will be plenty of info available online. If it is a smaller local or regional business, then you will have to do some digging, perhaps even place a CS call to them and see what happens. Of course they won't have a ticket, just play dumb (uhm, I have submitted that last week, why isn't this done, etc etc, social engineering basically) and see where it goes from there. You want to get a feel for how their place is run. Call them right at start of business, call them during the lunch hour, call them a minute before end of business. Don't use your home phone of course. Find out whether there is a backlog of tickets, etc etc. What you are looking for is details on a weakness.
Writing on your cover letter that you have ideas on how to reduce their CS ticket backlog from 520 tickets to the industry standard of 120 tickets, or the average response time for 49 minutes to the industry average of 24 minutes will get you major attention points (all numbers made up). Of course you better have some valid ideas, whether they are feasible in their operation is irrelevant as long as they are not outlandish.
Any business has room for improvement. If you can't find anything wrong with the business, then that is worth mentioning as well and playing the "I believe that being part of a business that for the 5th year posted operating profits in excess of 27% combines my personal and professional interests and ambitions.". Give the recruiter anything that indicates that you have done some research on the company.
Good luck.
9).
