New Year, New Job?

If this is the year that you’ve decided to pursue a new career, then make vocabulary-building part of your professional plan. Your language skills will help you when you’re writing your cover letters. Good cover letters will get you interviews – and successful interviews will place you at the top of the list when the hiring decision is made.

Cover Letters

If you’ve been following the Ultimate Vocabulary program, you’re able to use elegant and sophisticated words with ease in conversation. However, a cover letter might not be the best place to use some of these words. You might be tempted to describe your excellent work habits by saying “I am an assiduous worker and always punctilious,” but the person reading your cover letter (often a secretary, or someone in the Human Resources department) might rate your letter lower if they don’t understand your meaning. Save your best word skills for the interview, and keep your cover letter clear and to the point.

Here are some sample sentences you might use to describe yourself and your work history, using some of the more well-known words featured in the Ultimate Vocabulary program:

• While acting as the office manager, I developed a comprehensive procedure manual that all of our seasonal workers now use as a reference guide.
• Due to my three years as the department’s liaison to management, I am confident in my ability to help people achieve consensus.
• I was instrumental in the process of installing the new computer software, and even after I left the company, they called me in as a consultant during the annual upgrades.

Interviews

Once you’re scheduled for an interview, call the company and ask who will be conducting the interview. Many companies have web sites, and you can look up information on that person and find out what their background is. They’ll be asking about you, but if you’ve taken the time to learn about them, you’ll be able to easily adapt your speaking style to best suit the situation. Keep in mind that many interviews are set up in two stages, with the preliminary interviews done by assistants or office workers, just to see if you’ll “fit” with the existing work group. Remember, not everyone uses the Ultimate Vocabulary program! If your interviewer has to ask you to explain what a word means, they might feel embarrassed, and that could reflect negatively on you. Adjust your conversation according to your audience, and use vocabulary that will highlight your abilities and experience without creating confusion in your listeners.