Cover Letter formatting and how-to from Indeed

Cover Letter format from Indeed.

The complimentary closing and signature is only on two lines.

Sincerely,
Your Name

Opening Paragraph

"The opening paragraph is your chance to catch the hiring manager’s attention, introduce yourself and express your enthusiasm to a potential employer. Include why you’re excited about the job and the company and how it lines up with your career goals. Include keywords from the job posting and match your skills to the employer’s requirements.

If you were referred to this job by someone who knows the hiring manager or already works at this company, you may want to mention this referral in your opening paragraph.

Tips from a University Staff member who was on several hiring boards:

* They need to be easily able to connect the dots

* Specifically demonstrate how your experience is relevant

* Give data points if possible

* Only one page, keep it as concise and short as possible

Delta is hiring again soon

As of May 10th, 2023, Delta is revamping their careers page and looks to be offering updated job postings on soon after May 11th.

Here's how their careers page appears today with the message:

"Thank you for visiting Delta’s career site! 

Our site is currently under construction as we make updates to our job requirements. Please return on or after May 11 to view updated opportunities with Delta and our subsidiaries."

A few days ago, they did not have any flight attendant positions posted, but that may be changing very soon.

Why You Should Start Preparing For Rejection When Interviewing - Forbes

 Helpful tips from this Forbes article on interviewing in a more competitive job market:

Takeaway #1 - Do your homework to get prepared

You need to study the job description and prepare an elevator pitch that shows you possess all of the requisite requirements. Search LinkedIn to learn all about the people who will be interviewing you. 

Use the profiles to consider mutual commonalities that will enable you to quickly bond with them. Ask your recruiter for all the insider information about the company, the hiring personnel, corporate culture, compensation ranges and what they are looking for in a candidate. See if you know anyone at the organization and ask them to put in a good word and recommend you.

Takeaway #2 Think of interviewing like a marathon

Just as top athletes need to be in peak condition to perform, you need to view interviewing similarly. Prepare and perfect your presentation. Make sure that you take care of yourself. 

Takeaway  # 3 Rejection Stokes Passion And Great Achievements

Overcoming adversity can empower you to achieve great things. It is easy to let rejection get the best of you. The harder part is to learn from the experience.

The key is leveraging rejection in your favor. It could serve as the motivating factor to try again with greater vigor and passion. A Jedi-type mind trick is to feel that if you can rebound from a setback, still feel fine and have the people you love still care for you. 

Takeaway #4 Interviewing is a numbers game

The more interviews you do, the more likely you are to land a job offer.

Yearly salary - per workday pay equivalents

How much are you paid for each workday at different salary levels?

A $50,000 per year salary translates to $192 per workday.

To calculate this, I took 50,000 ÷ 52 weeks ÷ 5 days. A simplified way to do this would be 50,000 ÷ (52×5) or 50,000 ÷ 260. In essence, people with standard five day work weeks are working about 260 days per year. 

$60,000/yr = $230/workday

$70,000 = $269

$80,000 = $307

$100,000 = $384

$120,000 = $461

$150,000 = $577

These daily pay rates do not factor in the added value of 401K matching, health insurance benefits, and other benefits paid by the employer.

Bozeman Substitute Teacher Pay Salary for 2020-21 and Bonus During COVID-19

2021-2022 Bozeman Substitute Teacher Pay Rates

$114 per day / $15.20 per hour

This is a 1.78% increase over the 2020-2021 school year rates.

Bozeman School District Substitute Compensation page

2020-2021 Bozeman Substitute Teacher Pay Rates

$112 per day
$14.93 per hour

This is 1.81% increase over the previous school year.

Monthly gross pay:
20 school days: $2,240
21 school days: $2,352
22 school days: $2,464

During the COVID-19 pandemic, BSD9 was experiencing a heightened sub shortage and offered bonus pay incentives for substitutes who worked 90% of days during the fall months in 2020.

Message from the BSD on 10/2/20:

In an effort to encourage our substitute teachers to work more days, the Bozeman School District will pay you a $40 per day incentive bonus if you work 90% or more days in the following two week periods: 

October 5-October 16                            7 out of the available 8 days. ($280 bonus)

October 19-October 30                          9 out of 10 days ($360 bonus)

November 2-November 13                    9 out of 10 days ($360 bonus)

November 16-November 27                   6 out of 7 days ($240 bonus)

November 30-December 18                   12 out of 14 days ($480 bonus))

This incentive bonus is for substitutes who work to cover certified teaching assignments only.  It is not available for substitute coverage for paraprofessional, custodial or other classified assignments.  Substitute teachers who earn the bonus will receive a stipend authorization from Human Resources for each two week period.

The incentive will run until the last day of classes in December.  The District will evaluate the effectiveness of this incentive program as well as Federal COVID funds available before extending the incentive bonus beyond December 18, 2020.

2019-2020 rates

$110 per day
$14.67 per hour

Table captured from Bozeman School District website on 5/14/21.

Historical Pay rates

2017-2018 pay

----

2016-2017 pay

$103.50 per day / $13.80 per hour (7.5 hours)

2015-2016 pay

$100 per day / $13.33 per hour

TSR for Photography Product

Link to job on Indeed.com for Technical Customer Support for Arsenal.

Remote job, providing support by email and social media.

Part time: 30+ hours per week.

Full time: 40 hours per week.

This is a Kickstarter funded project with a growing company.

Wage/salary is not listed.

Job description:

Strong technical knowledge of DSLR or mirrorless cameras and mobile device troubleshooting is a must. The ideal candidate will also be familiar with advanced photography techniques like focus stacking, exposure bracketing, and timelapses.

Required Qualifications and Skills

Strong technical knowledge of DSLR/Mirrorless cameras
Hands-on professional experience working with camera hardware and/or mobile hardware accessories
Professional experience in a formal, ticket-based customer support role
Significant photography experience and familiarity with advanced photographic techniques
Enjoys troubleshooting complex technical problems
Self-directed and motivated to help customers
Able to learn quickly by conducting your own research
Fluent in English with strong written communication skills

Company location looked to be somewhere else, but after doing some research, the company is actually headquartered in Bozeman, Montana.

Getting the job, Tips from LC Staffing

LC Staffing - Getting That Job!

• Dress the part
• Bring a few extra copies of your resume and reference list
• Be prepared for interview questions
• Ask questions about the position and the business
• Get business cards of all the people you interview with
• Follow up with a phone call or thank you card as appropriate
  

Roundup: Lifehacker stuff

Bookmark reminders
NetRocket Catalogs Your Bookmarks and Issues Reminders

For Benard:
Know When to Use Alkaline Versus Rechargeable Batteries

Use Tape to Mark Frequently Moved Cables

Master the "Why Hire Me" Story to Land a Job

Close Open Loops to Relax Guilt Free

Strategically Tweak Your Resume's Dates of Employment If You Job Hop

Push Through a Creative Block with a Diversion

Create a Single, Reusable Packing List

CustomGuide Provides Quick-Reference Sheets for Microsoft, Apple, and Adobe Products

Install Snow Leopard on Your Hackintosh PC, No Hacking Required

Apply the "Art of the Small" to Get Tasks Done

How Weekend Projects Can Free Your Inner Rock Star

Fix Scratched CDs with toothpaste

And a bit of humor:

What's the "Best" Spam Email You've Received?

Job Hunting

• Being organized is key to getting a job these days. It also helps keep your spirits up to see that you've been working at it. Good post. [lifehacker comment]
• Five Ways to Streamline Your Job Search
• Create a log to keep track of your job search

• Call (or email) after submitting a resume to follow-up. Advise for both sides of the issue and a follow-up call wins (gets) the interview.
  

"Every single day, I hear from people who got jobs because they stayed on the case."
- Liz Ryan,

Tips for Applying to a job from Craigslist

The cover letter should stand out from the 90% of everything else.

• I don't even get to most resume's because the cover letter is so drab. If you want to stand a chance at getting a response, you ABSOLUTLY MUST spend some time on this.
• If you just regurgitate a form cover letter from some book you read, or the email you sent to the last company, I'm going to yawn and hit the delete key before I ever get to your resume.
• You're writing me an email.... imagine me sitting at my desk with my inbox dinging every minute. Do you think I really want to fire up Word to see a formatted cover letter.
  

Answers to know for job interviews

Lifehacker included these two answers in their summary. More available from 10 Answers You Should Know Before Your Job Interview [Dumb Little Man]

Tell me about yourself.
Chances are the employer doesn't want to know how much you weighed when you were born, when you learned to tie your shoes, or how much you had to drink last night. He or she wants to know how you would fit into the company and what your relevant job experience is. You might answer by asking the interviewer what he'd like to know. Or you might talk about your education, the fact that you're a team player, or whatever you think might be important to this particular company.

Why did you leave your last job?
Never put your former employer or your co-workers in a negative light. Don't blame them for your departure. Give a positive reason, such as you left to take advantage of another opportunity that was better suited to your skills.

-----

Do you have questions for me?
Always have a few questions. They show that you researched the company. Ask about a
current issue the company is working on or how their recent layoff in another department
affected company morale.