What to write in a Cover Letter? Suggestions needed....

I have two work histories that ended early before one year mark. One was due to health issues and I had to step down, and one because of layoffs. Do I explain that on my cover letter, because to a normal person it looks like I cant hold a job but my other job history does show that, but not the recent.

atht is a great way to say what I was already thinking, I just had no clue on how to word it. Thanks a million.

I understand, but I feel that lately I have not been getting the interviews based on how the last tow entries make my resume look. Is like I am in between a rock and a hard place. They see my resume, I have what they are looking for, but no call backs, why? Well since 07 through 08 I have had 2 jobs. Both under 8 months. So they may say well, something is wrong there and not call at all. So my cover letter has to somehow convince them that I am stable even though my resume might not show that. Your point is valid, but since November I have had no interviews. So I have to start to look at why I am not even getting interviews.

So, your suggesting that I combine them both? How do I go about doping that? You see, the last two are very important, one was a good position at a higher level, the second was in a different industry from my past ones which make up my bulk. I would consider doing that if you can somehow explain how do I combine two different industries but my position in them was a similar capacity.

Example is my last two jobs one was at a senior living facility as operations manager, the other in the hotel industry as a manager of housekeeping, a slight step down from the previous. How can I really combine those, and also like you state, if I say what I plan on my cover letter they may not call. But If I say nothing why would they take a shot at someone who looks like they cant hold a job the last 2 years. I mean I was getting interviews before when my last position was still recent, so on the resume I said it was still current as I was still getting paid. But now its just been too much time.

I see. But I guess what I am saying, is if they ask well, where did you work as "Residential Facilities Management & Operations manager" what do I say since it was at two places? Also, in 07 I began the Ops manager at the senior home, became ill had to step down. November of 07 I got the hotel position which ended in sept of 08 due to downsizing. How to merge both from 07 to 08 i guess can be done, but when they ask where, that's tricky, and if for some reason they can see that in a background check they will also find out it was two diff places.

So in my resume, I would not put years for any of my jobs, just what I did there. That may help get me more interviews in the door? Is that a common practice? Just tryig to get a real good sense of here as I'm trying my best to maximize my advertising of experience in my field. All you guys are great help, and Im starting to formulate how this might go. I just always were under the impression that resumes were supposed to show your stability at each place of work, atleast thats what I looked at when I was hiring.

Well, starting year and ending year is how I describe it on my resume. But like i said in one year I had 2 jobs, that was 07. So it seems a bit tight. Below is how my resume look, it looks better in word, this is a plain text format, there are objects and a table that make this look a bit off.

| CORPORATE Focus: Operations Management |
HealthCare/Facilities Markets | Expertise: Deep Understanding of the
HealthCare/Facilities Market Skill Sets: Bi-lingual/bi-literate in Spanish|
| Department Launches & Turnarounds Team Building
| Leadership & Operational Management Profile: Noted for recruiting, motivating, and leading top talent; creating unifying vision and goals; executing keen operations strategies; and surprising the competition to gain number one rankings. Build networks and partnerships; embrace diversity.
Value Quote: I think big, I maintain a competitive drive, and I accomplish goals through people.”
DRIVING FORCES:
Competencies Results
Escalate satisfaction scores through Innovative Management Best Practices Hands-on knowledge of Facility operations; developed and forged projects leading to best practices for high scores, Facilities: Mount Sinai New York/Queens | Bergen County Hospital New Jersey | Jewish Home and Hospital| Essex House Hotel
Hire Effective Management Teams & Versatile workers. Hired, coached and led and worked with a team of managers; delivering the highest scores in building services Mount Sinai New York had ever had.

OPERATIONS MANAGER PERFORMANCE HISTORY
ESSEX HOUSE HOTEL– New York, New York 2007 – 2008-
Jumeirah Essex House is part of the National Trust Historic Hotels of America; a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Jumeirah Essex House is one of more than 200 hotels and resorts throughout the country that is recognized by Historic Hotels of America.
Housekeeping Manager

union environment.
• Collaborate closely with, Department Heads, and task force on designing creative ideas which boost top line, reduce costs, improve and propel overall revenue.
• Re structured the lost and found process which led to higher scores on guest comment surveys.

JEWISH HOME AND HOSPITAL – New York, New York 2007 – 2007
Jewish Home Life care offers long term care, adult day care, home health care, health services, and social and community services throughout the New York area. The nursing home provides health services for more than 5,200 senior citizens daily, at our three campuses in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Westchester, and through our Lifecare Community Services Division, which provides healthcare and social services throughout the metropolitan area.
Operations Manager
• Managed facility operations of a 514 beds including overtime budget, scheduling, hiring, engineering, and administrative functions. Directed day-to-day operations including leadership in an 1199 union environment, motivation, and evaluation of staff ; before leaving the company due to a serious health condition developed concepts for innovative damage recovery packages for patients and family, giveaways, and contests and vouchers for free meals and stays.
• Maintained laundry department par levels and budget and directed management staff. Monitored OSHA standards and participated in JACHO inspections.
• Developed a floor care plan specifically for long term patient care units which in turn helped maintain heavily worked floors maintain their luster. In 2006 JHH had 11 violations with housekeeping services reported, 28 days after my arrival in 2007 with some team col

thats not my entire resume but thats the two positions that I think are giving trouble. Just so you guys get an idea of what I meant.

I see what you are saying. I have re worked this resume many times and have gotten to this after long revisions. I will try and re work this to try and fit in your suggestions, and I see what you mean about two 07 in the same heading. They might notice that the hotel was also in 07 but it does call attention. I will leave out the health issue from the resume. I will try and post a link to how the word format looks like so you all can get a sense where I am going. And yes, this resume if my my main field of work, and all will know what local 6, 1199 and JACHO are. Those are standard terms in my line of work, and if I were to apply for jobs outside of that field I would certainly explain it differently.

Here are links to print screens of the word doc...this way you can all get a sense so far where I am.

i8.photobucket.com/albums/a33/metalslugx1942/respic1.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a33/metalslugx1942/respic2.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a33/metalslugx1942/respic3.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a33/metalslugx1942/respic4.jpg

Thanks, that resume took me a long time to structure, as I had your run of the mill bullet points and box resume. I wanted to have one that looked like a real executive in the making would probably have. I thought it was important to show who I worked for and the type of setting and facility so that employers became aware of the type of quality I had to produce and what they can expect.

I have the same situation, and my resumes have not been receiving any response. So I feel I have nothing to lose by at least trying the idea of explaining my job history in my cover letter as per the resume personG. I'll let you know how it goes if anyone is still around.

Thanks for your input. I consider it an experiment. If it yields no better results, i will cease doing it. But do you really consider saying your last positions ended due to circumstances beyond your control to be a negative statement? Esp if you refer to them as opportunities, as the other person suggested? Seems it would be better than letting them assume you just can't hold a job. I lost my positions due to contract termination and budget constraints...

[Comment edited by forum moderator]

Kelly regardless of other opinions stated on here, thank you for your comments. It is so important to hear about what is actually happening on the HR end of the process. Again, thanks for your help!

metalslug in Jackson Heights, New York said: I have two work histories that ended early before one year mark. One was due to health issues and I had to step down, and one because of layoffs. Do I explain that on my cover letter, because to a normal person it looks like I cant hold a job but my other job history does show that, but not the recent.

I have had great success with T-Bar Cover Letters. I would never use anything else. It focuses on what the Interviewer wants which is the most important thing anyways. Look at a job posting, draw a "T" on a piece of paper. At the top left, write "Your Requirements" as listed in the job posting. On the right of the "T" write "My Qualifications." List out all the things the ad wants and to the right, briefly explain what your qualifications are. This is a great cover letter formula that takes all the guess work out of the question, "what should I write in my cover letter." Hope this helps.

Hmm?

Displaced, I don't want to make it appear that I'm only picking on your discussions, but your views are quite interesting.

If I understand correctly, you are implying that a candidate should dummy down their résumé to not appear over qualified? Yes, I'm paraphrasing, but that's the impression I get.

At least to recent years, the objective in our careers (no matter how short one's may be) is to excel everywhere possible through work experience, informal or formal training or a culmination of each. Grant it there's seems to be a shirt in that a person with a Master's can't seem to get a job that is commensurate to their work experience or degrees. However, there's still plenty of companies that seek candidates with qualifications to perform their jobs. I would think it's better to be over qualified & still do the job well, then be under-qualified & struggle to do the job.

However, you seem to be giving the impression that a candidate should have mediocre skills or qualifications to be considered.

Displaced Legal Professional in Denver, Colorado said: Not what I said. Companies won't consider candidates whom they deem to be "overqualified." One has to come up with ways to disguised "overqualifications" and not make them so obvious. Period. Now let's see if you can resist having the last word.

Yes, there are companies that don't want to hire over qualified candidates. This should be most evident with candidates applying to retail stores or (relatively) low-paying jobs. Perhaps, like you, me & others, we've applied to jobs where the prospective employer wants all these required & desired qualification, but don't pay a salary commensurate to the position. I mentioned in another forum that when I was a hiring manager, I had a strict budget or Gross Margin to maintain, which my job difficult to hire desirable candidates.

If you have the skills - If you earned the skills, then exploit them. Your There's no reason that anyone should have to disguise their qualifications, unless they're intentionally applying for a low paying or mediocre job.

A cover letter & résumé objective is to entice hiring services or managers to contact you or to invite you to an interview. Once there, then it's your job to demonstrate your skills will be an invaluable asset to the companies objectives. Remember, it's a 2-way interview. If the company invited a candidate to an interview, they must have some expressed interests - Besides going through the motions. During an interview, a candidate can also put out some feeler questions to ask what the positions objectives are. Hopefully, after a brief discussion the candidate can tailor the rest of the interview to the company's or job's objective, like they did with their cover letter & résumé to successfully get the interview.