I am a thinker, and live the recruiting business 24x7. I am constantly thinking about ways to make it more efficient, more productive, more effective, and ways to get more people off the unemployment rolls and on to employed status, in order to get this country moving again rapidly.

What we do in this country sustains millions abroad, and I believe we have a moral obligation to them as we do to all of humanity.

Our obligation is not to let another Greenspan screw it over again and adversely destroy any hope of tens of millions of foreigners who, up until the removal of $$$ seven TRILLION from our economy, depended on us for their very lives, from garment workers in China to Guatemala, to child rug weavers in Pakistan and India.

In spite of what we believe to be inhuman conditions, we Americans are in fact naive, unrealistically spoiled, and those child workers are happy to do what they do... because its generally the only way they will earn enough to EAT that day and their only hope of SURVIVAL ! but I digress..

Consider the following, and see if we can agree on some fundamentals. That probably 80% of all middle and upper management executives have degrees unrelated to what they are doing now and what brought them the most success.. FACT. - A very small percentage of college graduates spend their entire lives doing what college trained them for. We have Plant managers who have degrees in Microbiology, History, Psychology, Socialogy, Geography, English, etc.. We have Research Managers who have Bs degrees in fields totally unrelated to their current profession.

We have medical Doctors with undergraduate degrees in Ceramic Engineering, and Managers in every field with no degrees at all, or with only some college.

The point of this is that Its neither EDUCATION, nor industry , nor product focus, alone, which contributed to their Success, but other personal qualities. They got where they are by what personal characteristics IN ORDER OF PRIORITY ( who wants to do the market research ?)

My guess INTEREST, MOTIVATION, RESOLVE, COMMITMENT, FOCUS with FLEXIBILITY, DESIRE, DEDICATION, RESOURCEFULNESS, RESEARCH, MORAL SUPPORT, or something that happened in their lives to cause them to take a road LESS TRAVELLED BY...and to go where few others had already trodden.

They were INDIVIDUALISTS, sometimes Iconoclasts, Isolated, extremely focused, but intent on making changes and being part of the future and not a sheep who decided to follow the nearest flock. Sometimes something happened, like having a younger brother get some disease, spending time to determine root causes, and then seeking a solution. Thats why we have cutting edge drugs, high tech innovative medical devices, biofeedback mechanisms, SOMEONE CARED enough to seek a solution which theretofore did not exist. I will get to the point soon.......

Most middle and upper managers, if asked, and were truthful would probably agree to the statement " I learned 90 % of what I needed to know in the first 10 weeks of my tenure... after that it was clear sailing ! "

My point is that most hiring managers are the same ones who would agree with the statement above, but who today insist that any qualified applicant have a PHD and ten years experience ! or a BSME and 7 years of experience in some esoteric process or product area, or with the last 8 years in some specific industry !

Aren't these the same ones who when they began their careers would have echoed the sentiment that there was NOTHING that they could not learn, nothing that they could not do, nothing that they could not achieve given a little time ? OF COURSE ! They are the VERY SAME ones !

Look back at the large cap words like DESIRE, above and ask yourselves how many resumes you have seen which give any clue ever, to the subjunctives I highlighted ? Few if any resumes qualify there. My intent here is to refocus the emphasis from the resume to the cover letter..

Why? ... because changing demographics in this country will change hiring practices forever in significant ways.. Latins and Asians are in my opinion, much more 'family' oriented, and put a much greater emphasis in their lives on those subjective concepts above, than do Anglos. Since it will increasingly be those Latins and Asians who are the bulk of all applicants, we had better find meaningful ways in which to relate to them as candidates. How many of you speak fluent Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, German, Vietnamese, or Thai ?

When the bulk of all available applicants speak only marginal English, how do you expect to survive ? Do you think that this government can, will or should mandate English Only for business ? Look at the Cuban repatriation of South Florida.. There... if you dont speak fluent( if not native) Spanish, you DONT GET A JOB !

Heres my point.. that cover letters can express DESIRE, INTEREST, MOTIVATION, RESOLVE, COMMITMENT, FOCUS, FLEXIBILITY, DEDICATION, RESOURCEFULNESS, and that resumes do not, can not, will not and should not.

That if applicants begin to use, and recruiters begin to request and expect a cover letter, as I've been doing for years, that you'll get a better presentation package, and that if enough of us are on the same page, we can in fact change the expectation of employers in the longer term.

How many times do you think that a corp recruiter or decision maker has to get a narrative letter with a resume which results in a hire, to begin to place as much emphasis on the cover as is now placed mainly on the resume ?

More importantly, how many MORE candidates might get interviewed based on their cover letters who would NOT have been interviewed solely on the resume alone ??? How many more PLACEMENTS might recruiters make in their practices ?