Don't underestimate the power of a cover letter. When well written, attractively designed and customized for the recipient, a cover letter is a powerful tool that can practically scream "Interview this candidate immediately!"

But when they are thrown together using little to no consideration, personalization or creativity–as cover letters often are -- the letter is as ineffective in the job hunt as a blank sheet of paper.

"This is a major misstep when job searching," say Wendy Enelow and Louise Kursmark, co-authors of "Cover Letter Magic." "You should take advantage of every opportunity there is to stand out from other candidates."

Enelow and Kursmark also say that writing a cover letter can be more fun than job seekers realize. "With the right perspective and a positive attitude, you'll find that it affords you great flexibility. There is no one set format in which they must be written. There is no one style in which they must be presented. In fact, there are very few rules at all; and because they are so flexible, cover letters allow you to positively present just those skills, qualifications, achievements and credentials you want to bring to the recipient's immediate attention."

There are a variety of ways job seekers can get creative with their cover letters and bring them to life in ways they never considered. In their book, Enelow and Kursmark suggest a few of these techniques:

Your resume is the first point of contact between you and a potential employer.  This is often the only opportunity they will have to get to know you and your skill set.  The reality is: you don't have a lot of time to impress the reader as they spend about 10 seconds looking at each resume. So not only do you have to make a great first impression, you have to do it fast.  Here's how to create a compelling, concise resume that makes an immediate positive impression:

DO'S

1. Make sure your resume is reader-friendly.
Your resume's design is just as important as the content.  Be sure to format your resume using a standard font size/type, appropriate spacing, bullets to highlight accomplishments and lines to separate major sections.  Allow at least a one inch margin all around the page.

2. Include a brief summary of qualifications. (for experienced professionals)
Remember to tailor your resume for each opportunity by highlighting key achievements and qualifications that relate specifically to the position. Often this may be as simple as reordering bullet points to emphasize certain skills and expertise. In addition, include terms you find in the job description. If you're applying for a junior graphic designer position and the advertisement for the job includes "project manager" and "experienced with corporate clients," integrate those phrases into your resume (as long as they're true, of course!). Many companies electronically screen resumes for keywords, so you can boost your visibility by adopting any applicable phrases.

3. Highlight the skills that are important to the job you are applying for.
Rather than just listing your skills like checklisted items, it's more effective to use a technique like the S-A-R (Situation - Action - Result) framework to describe your accomplishments.

4. Quantify everything you have done, wherever possible.
Numbers demonstrate impact.  Use numbers to show how many people you managed, how much money you saved and how many clients you served.  If you have reduced expenses, indicate how much or list the percentage of reduction. Remember to ask yourself how you helped the organization, and describe the result by using numbers.

5. Proofread, proofread and proofread more!
The resume is a living document that continually represents your working experiences.  Be really thorough about proofreading your resume.  Nothing is worse than finding typos or grammatical mistakes in a resume.  It may help to print a copy of your resume to read through a few times.  Put it down and look at it again after a couple of hours, then ask a friend to read it over as well.  Leave no room for error.

DONT'S

1. Remove the Objective from your resume.
There really isn't a point to having one, besides getting the job.  This is valuable real estate at the tip of your resume and would be more effective used for a professional profile, or a summary of your qualifications.  If you believe in stating your career objective you can include that in your cover letter.

2. Don't include personal information.
It's not necessary to include personal information such as age, race, marital status, height/weight and religious/political affiliations on a resume.  Stick to professional experiences and what skills you bring to the table.

3. Don't be too repetitive.
Avoid repeating the same action verbs throughout the resume.  Bust out your thesaurus and mix in different terms to describe your achievements.

4. Don't lie.
This is obvious, but lying is unacceptable on a resume.  Don't fudge dates or titles on your resume to conceal the fact that you have gaps in your history, have been unemployed, that you switched jobs too frequently or that you held low-level positions.  More and more employers are using background checks as part of the screening process and if you are caught in a lie, you will be automatically disqualified for the job.

5. Don't list references on your resume.
It is not necessary to provide references until a later stage of the recruiting process, when they are specifically requested by the employer.

A well-crafted resume is the key to a great first impression with potential employers. Once you have the do's and dont's down, you'll be one step closer to landing the position you want.

Most people don't realize that the simplest measures can make a huge difference while job hunting. For instance, taking just a few minutes to spruce up your online resumes on the various job sites can make a big difference in getting you noticed by corporate recruiters and staffing specialists.

For this special OTM Job Center edition of the Web Extra, Jason Ferrara of CareerBuilder shares a few tips with Carmen on getting your resume noticed over the thousands other on a site. He says it's one of the most important things is to customize your job for certain jobs that you're seeking. Employers can spot boilerplate, generic resumes a mile away.

Part of this, Jason adds, is peppering your resume with keywords that are important to your particular industry. For tech jobs, you should list all the programming languages and other technical skills you have. For management jobs, you could stress your leadership and project management skills by mentioning achievements and awards you've received.

Finally, you should keep in mind there's an army of people out there looking for work like you. It's easy for your online resume to become "stale" and get lost in the pile. Resumes that are refreshed often are the ones that usually show up first when employers do searches on the job sites. Keep that in mind and update your resume often. You can put down your newest projects and achievements or anything else that will keep your resume fresh -- even rewriting your goals and objectives occasionally.

In the last post it was mentioned that communication is “arguably the most important skill which should be in any Jamaican jobseeker or employee or employer’s arsenal”. This is especially true when we are in the process of applying for a job, sending a business email or any other type of written business communication. This is so because clear, effective business writing is more important than ever.

Now I could sit here and give you pages of information about business writing and various tips and tricks, however, it is important to just grasp the basics (what you will need in that application letter or other business email). Here I will discuss a few things to look out for.

In a recent survey of Fortune 1000 executives, 80% decided not to grant an interview decided not to interview candidates based solely on poor grammar, spelling, or incorrect punctuation on cover letters or resumes. Among these same executives 99% said that this also hurts your chances of getting a promotion.

Taking this into consideration you may need to polish up those simple skills such as spelling, grammar and punctuation. Try the following tips and you can distribute your writing with confidence.