All Ping

Students have just finished the last shifts of their summer jobs, while their teachers are, more than likely, begrudgingly ending their summer vacations. Here we are doing a round-up of all our top summer posts.

In previous posts we’ve supplied you with tips on how to handle an interview, from a list of 79 sample job interview questions to advice on how to answer the 10 most popular ‘about you’, job specific and even situational type interview questions.

We’ve discussed the importance of including volunteer experience on your resume and obtaining references and recommendation letters.

We’ve provided you with some key tips on how to perform a successful job search, as well as explaining the significance that networking will play on your ability to get an interview.

Today’s post will go one step further, where we will not only teach you the importance of writing an inquiry letter, but will also provide you with some tips on how to write a letter that will give you access to the most sought after jewel of any job hunter. The unadvertised open position.

Why write an inquiry letter?

Simply put, your job searching skills can only get you so far. Not all companies advertise each and every open position they have available. This is one reason why we’ve tried to stress the importance of networking. Knowing someone in the company, even Bob from Accounting, may open some hidden doors for you.

If there is a company that you have set your sights on, but have yet to build any networks, all is not lost. This is where the inquiry letter comes in. A well-written and professional letter will help you to gleam some information about the company that may be otherwise unavailable to the general public, such as unadvertised open positions that are currently available.

Tips on writing an inquiry letter:

An unsolicited letter of inquiry, sent to a company that you have targeted as your next career move, can go a long way to getting your foot in the door. If done properly, your letter of inquiry will help you to establish a relationship with the hiring manager, which will greatly increase your success rate of being invited in for an interview.

Style

As with all correspondence you have with any hiring manager, formal business writing should be maintained. Your inquiry letter should in no way duplicate your cover letter or your professionally written resume.

Your inquiry letter should do the following:

• Be able to not only grab, but also retain, the reader’s attention immediately
• Clearly specify your intentions in language that is simple and direct
• Identify your strengths and how they match the company’s requirements
• Accurately describe your accomplishments and how they would benefit the company
• Close strongly with a request for a further discussion or meeting

Additional things to include in your letter

It might go without saying, but it is extremely important to sign your letter of inquiry, and in ink. You also should include as much contact information as you feel comfortable divulging, be that your mailing address, a contact number, email address, or a combination of all three. Finally including a self-addressed, stamped envelope, may increase the odds of getting a response, be it a positive one or simply to send you a PFO letter.

When it comes time to follow-up your letter of inquiry, the general rule is that you allow the hiring manager at least two-week to respond to your initial request before sending a follow-up letter, phone call or email.

Happy new week to you my valued reader and, I hope you had a fabulous weekend. I’m happy I’m back again for us to continue where we stopped, the ailment that caught me recently really took me away for a bit long but, thank God it’s all over now.

Now, based on the question I asked on the title of this post, I know the answer will certainly be different for each of us but, I just wanted to share with you something I discovered for some time now, you know it’s all about sharing our experiences right? I guess.

There is something that really caught my attention to write this post, it’s not as if this is the first time it happened but, I never made up my mind to write about it until now so, let’s get the point.

It’s all about writing blog posts and I ask you again……What time do you normally write your posts? I hope you will answer this question on the comment thread.

I discovered that it’s normally very easy for me to write in the morning, I mean, very early in the morningthan any other time of the day.

Initially, I can write at any time especially late in the night because, that’s the time I’m always less busy and have less distraction so, I usually utilize it to work on my blogs but recently, those time no longerwork for me when it comes to writing.

I can certainly do any other thing on my blogs but, not to write a blog post. I’ve tried so many times to write at night as usual but, each time I opened my PC and word document to write, the inspiration will not just be there, I will always find enough reason not to write.

However, the next thing I normally do after I’ve done every other thing on my blog is to go to bed. This same thing also happened last night, I tried everything I could to write, all to no avail in fact, what you’re reading now is not what I planned to publish here today but, I just changed my mind to tell you about this rather.

Why am Writing About This Now?

I know that there is a thing called writers block and many of us surfers from it at one point or the other in fact, most people don’t even know how to handle it.

What am I saying? The reason you normally have writers block may be attributed to the time you always choose to write, do you agree with me?

Yes, think about it based on my own experience. I can’t write very well at any other time except early in the morning and since I discovered that, I don’t know what writers block is again. Once I open my PC to write in the morning, the ideas will just be flowing and flowing unstoppably until I decide to stop now, isn’t that amazing?

This is the same reason why I’m asking you, when do you normally write your own blog posts? You really need to answer this question because; it might be a solution to your writers block problem you know.

If you normally experience writers block whenever you’re writing, why don’t you change your writing time and see what happens next? If you normally write in the afternoon, why don’t you try writing in the evening or at night?

However, I also noticed from my experiments that, majority of writers also prefer writing early in the morning than any other time of the day so, why is it so?

I don’t know really but, I think it’s because our brain is usually very calm and fresh at that time of the day because, we just woke up and have not had any form of distraction or something to think about but, after going through all the daily struggles, we normally feel weak and tired and therefore, our brain might not be able to function well again when we try using it in writing.

I don’t know if this is the reason but, that’s my own thinking.

Finally, I think I’ve already made my points, what I now want you to do now is simply to give what I said here a shot. If you finds it difficult and challenging to write at any given time then, why don’t change the time and see if that works for you, it’s all about trying so, JUST DO IT.

Don’t forget to answer my question and also tell me your own opinion based on this post via the comment thread; I always love to hear your opinions. And please, share this post with your friends if you enjoyed it, use the buffer button to tweet.

Thanks for reading my post today and, may we all have a productive week.

You are a webmaster with a killer blog with readers hungrily demanding new content daily. You wake up, head mailbox to see what your faithful content writer has in store for the waiting audience. Through the steam rising from the hot cup of black coffee raised to your lips, the only thing you find is a letter of resignation, effective immediately. Apparently, getting a book deal from a well-known publisher takes away your desire to write blog posts.

If you are a non-writing webmaster, your obvious first reaction is… PANIC! Guess what, you don’t have time for that, you have a blog post to write. So even if you couldn’t write your way out of a can of alphabet soup, calm down and read on.

We have five creative writing tips that will help you to forge ahead until you find a replacement writer.

But First…

If you have never learned meaningful research for writing, we need to have a quick chat first. Researching an article or blog post is nothing like going online to find the right fishing reel for bass because:

1. Real research is at least three levels deep (At the very least)
2. Cross-referencing sources to ensure voracity is time-consuming
3. Fact checking statements to include three “official" sources with at least one link for the reader, usually the easiest one to understand

My point is if you make a claim, you have to be able to back it up, so stick to what you know, especially when you are caught in a situation like this.

1. Make Use Of Your Life

Making use of your life makes it easier to reach readers because while you are unique, you are still living on the same planet, experiencing the same emotions, and making the same dumb mistakes as everyone else. Using examples from your life makes you someone that everyone can relate to and feel for. This will go a long way to cover a great many of the mistakes in grammar you may make along the way.

2. Show, Don’t Tell

Show, don’t tell is a trick that creative writers use to help readers use their imagination rather than their analytical reason. Imagery in writing can be difficult, but it can also be fun.

People think in words. We literally hear the words before we speak them. It is like a voice inside our heads telling us what to say. Imagery and ‘show, don’t tell’ allows the reader to see what you say rather than read what you wrote.

An example of this is in the first paragraph of this post. "Through the steam rising from the hot cup of black coffee raised to your lips, the only thing you find is a letter of resignation, effective immediately." Until these bits of imagery, you were merely reading my words.

When you reached this sentence, you began to see the steam, feel the heat of the cup, and realize the shock. Descriptive writing helps visualization.

3. Third-Person Omnipotence

If you are a first time writer, being God-like is the easiest solution to writing without making tense mistakes. Here is an example of a tense mistake.

“They all went to town yesterday. It was an exciting and eventful day. Everyone is having so much fun that half of us slept on the way home."

In case you did not spot the two mistakes, I jump from past to present and them to us. The easiest form of writing is third person omnipotence. This makes you an ever-present, invisible story teller that knows what everyone is thinking and what is going to happen.

Third-person writing combined with omnipotence gives you complete control. Pick up any Stephen King book to learn more about third person omnipotence. Mr. King is the king of TPO.

4. Creative License

Having creative license is not a license to lie or make up facts. It is simply the writer taking small and reasonable liberties with language, grammar, or an adaptation or interpretation of someone else’s original writing for the sake of creativity and plot destination.

I have taken creative license throughout this post to demonstrate that you do not have to be perfect – just interesting. While the statement, “You could not write your way out of a can of alphabet soup" is an original thought straight out of my pointy skull, we all recognize that it is a variation of someone else’s clever line.

5. Tell A Story

Using an experience out of your own life and tying it together with whatever point you are trying to make about a product, service, or the overall idea of your post makes it easier to get that point across in an interesting and engaging way.

If your post is about using duct tape to fix just about anything and you were once duct taped to a wall as a prank, telling that story in relation to the point of duct tapes versatility would be an excellent idea.

Conclusion

Just remember to take your time, use what you know, and write in the third-person omnipotence style. If you make references from a recognizable source, do so in a way that does not even come close to outright copying (plagiarism) or you must clearly state who said it first and in what work it was said. Story telling is always an interesting way to write about anything. Try it.