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The job market is still tough. You must do something to break through the drudgery a hiring manager is experiencing as he goes through cover letter after bland cover letter. (Trust me, I just read through 80 resumes for a position we needed filled).

My recent job landing came through unique efforts and opportunities. It all started with my creative cover letter.

I was determined to have a unique, humorous approach to my job search. I started a temporary Facebook account in which I loaded in the content I wanted, did a screen capture. I then edited the screen capture with Photoshop mock-up of a Facebook wall and used humorous status updates that reflected the true value I could bring as employee. After converting this to a pdf, I then attached this creative cover letter to my traditional cover letter, and my resume and began launching it out. I made sure the title on the pdf file of the creative cover letter had a catchy title. I experimented with different titles including Whacky Cover Letter, Unorthodox Cover Letter, Funny Cover Letter, Facebook Cover Letter,etc. on different launches.

The Results

I had for some time sent out a serious cover letter and resume into the black hole of monster.com. Five days after creating the cover letter, I, on a whim, decided to check craigslist for some freelance copywriting opportunities. I came across the opportunity for a social media manager position at a mid-cities public relations agency. I shot my creative cover letter out on a Saturday  morning and within 15 minutes had a call back from the company COO. He asked if I could come into their boutique public relations firm for an interview for their social media manager position. During the interview, it didn’t take long for me and the COO to realize I was a “wee bit” overqualified for the position. As we ended our interview, the COO mentioned that he felt for some reason, I really needed to meet his wife, the company CEO. Two days later that meeting happened, and she led off the conversation saying the creativity visible in the cover letter compelled her to meet with me. Her staff had vetted me and she was impressed. I was made an offer on the spot to become Senior Account Executive.

Lessons to draw upon.

Be creative. Do something to set yourself apart. Consider an add-on to your traditional cover letter.

Be willing to use atypical channels (yes, craiglist even).

Don’t fall into the myth that you have to know someone within the company. While it does help, it isn’t always necessary. I had absolutely no connections to anyone within the public relations firm.

Keep up your hope with hope (help one person everyday while you job searching).

Take the interview even if it is a company you’d like to work with but not the exact position you desire. On the other hand, if it is the exact position you want but in a company you’d never want to work for, skip it, unless you merely want to practice interviewing. Get in the door of your preferred companies or businesses, shine in the interview, and trust God with the details.

1. Set up a second twitter account (don’t put your full name in the profile and set the tweets to private so others don’t mistake it as your true Twitter account. I added a graphic to mine noting it wasn’t just in case).
2. Set up your Kindle (Home/Menu/Settings/Social Media) to connect this this new Twitter account.
3. As you read on the Kindle, underline and add notes if you want. (I have found it great to capture the thesis statement from each chapter, and sometimes each paragraph, to help you summarize the author’s argument or case. I label them as Thesis Chap 1, or Thesis Chp 1.p5 for paragraphs).
4. Save & Share these notes from your Kindle.
5. When you are ready to pull in a comment, you can go to your Twitter page and have the book outlined with thesis quotes and other notable quotes with your notes right their at your finger tips.
6. Click the link and the full quote will pop up for you to cut and paste away with a note as to why you underlined it.
7. Enjoy as book reviews almost write themselves.

This tip allows you to summarize books so your studious friends can decide if it is worth their read and your lazy (ignorant?) friends can have the uber-simple gist of the book without having to sully their lives with their dread of reading. It can also be done via your desktop version of Kindle but I like the summary layout in Twitter better.

1. Set aside a day outside the office late November/early December to do the personal assessment exercise sections of the process.
2. Calendar a time to take 30 min or preferably an hour for every member of your ministry team to complete and return the participant evaluation exercise. (We prefer to do this in a group setting, as emailing them out gets you very few returns).
3. Calendar a time to meet with your captains as individuals for their assessment of you and the ministry, and your assessment of them.
4. Set aside an additional half-day for yourself after the individual assessments for mastery points exercise and personal goals tweaking. Calendar a group captain gathering to formalize 09 goals and agendas. I usually do a Friday night dinner at a nice restaurant to say thanks followed by a Saturday morning get together at my house.
5. Find a time to vision cast reviews/goals 10 that are appropriate with all ministry participants.

You’ll need to start calendaring these dates now. I created these pdfs in 2008 so where you read 2008 simply replace it with 2010, etc. If you are not in ministry, simply replace the word ministry with department, division, company name, etc.

Here are the four processes:

year-end-review-process-1-2008.pdf

year-end-review-process-2-2008.pdf

year-end-review-process-3-2008.pdf

year-end-review-process-4-2008.pdf

The Expulsion of Sin by a New Affection Thomas Chalmers-Modernized

Why you should read it? If you struggle with sin and wish you could stop or find yourself tired of chasing after things in this world . Chalmers offers a view that concentrating on your merely ridding yourself of sin is doomed for failure. Instead, receive and revel in the love of God. In this, sin will be displaced.

To read why I modernize, check this.

It is joked around here that my agreeing to do someone’s wedding is a bit brutal. I don’t apologize. At the ceremony, I  stand in front of God and say to all listening that I sanction the marriage by the power vested in me by Him (and the Great State of Texas but that is another post). That is not a statement I make lightly. It has adjusted my approach.

Two things influenced me formulating this view.

1. A trip to Abba Love Church in Indonesia where they have a rigorous process that must be completed before the church will allow a wedding. The singles there joke, “It is easier to get into heaven than get married at Abba Love.” Another single said, “It is the second most important decision in your life. Shouldn’t you take it seriously?”

2. People asking me to marry them that know me pastorally at NorthWood but not as deeply personally. I don’t know their story or life situations in detail all the time.

Here is the document. Steal it and hack it anyway you want as long as it is for your own ministry use.

pre-marital-counseling-covenant-jordan
Do me a favor, if you have problems accessing this pdf, leave me a comment telling me what OS and browser you are using.