JUNE 21-27 2015
Cover Story Knock Out Quetta’s Hazara community empower themselves by taking up martial arts
Feature
An inspiring tale The Inspire Initiative aims to spread education in remote areas of GilgitBaltistan
20 Feature
No child left behind Polio workers in Balochistan fight against all odds to eliminate the crippling disease
24
31 Regulars
6 People & Parties: Out and about with beautiful people
36 Reviews: Art, books and documentary
42 Human Resources: How to write an effective cover letter
Magazine Incharge: Dilaira Dubash. Senior Subeditors: Sanam Maher and Ali Haider Habib. Subeditor: Komal Anwar Creative Team: Jamal Khurshid, Essa Malik, Mohsin Alam, Talha Ahmed Khan, Hira Fareed, Maryam Rashid, Eesha Azam and Sanober Ahmed Publisher: Bilal A Lakhani. Editor: Kamal Siddiqi For feedback and submissions: magazine@tribune.com.pk 4 Twitter: @ETribuneMag & Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ETribuneMag Printed: uniprint@unigraph.com
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Naseem and Roofi Jamil
Zeenat
Mr and Mrs Hashmi
PHOTOS COURTESY NEW WORLD CONCEPTS
Supporters of Karwan-e-Hayat organise a charity fundraiser in Karachi
Mr and Mrs Jamil Mughal with Qaisra
Tabinda Chinoy
Mr and Mrs Saeed Ayesha Kehar with a guest
Samina, Ambreen, Nurayah, Zainab and Yasmin
6 JUNE 21-27 2015
PEOPLE & PARTIES Erum Alam
Gul Ahmed opens up at Jasmine Mall in Bahria Town, Lahore
Cybill Chaudhry Saima Ali
Fauzia
8 JUNE 21-27 2015
Sonia Nazir PHOTOS COURTESY QYT EVENTS
Nadia Malik
Henna and Sehyr
Humza and Hufsa Rasool
Mr and Mrs Sadiq
PEOPLE & PARTIES Sana Gangat and Sana T
Sarah Mujtaba
Sana T Aziz showcases her Spring/Summer 2015 collection in London
Aida Khan
Zaheen Shah
10 JUNE 21-27 2015
Unum Muneer
Gaurika Sherwani
Sonia Lakhani
Ayesha Mustafa
PHOTOS COURTESY WALNUT PR
Heba Razvi
PEOPLE & PARTIES
The restaurant Des Pardes opens up in Islamabad Farah
Beiya Khan
12 JUNE 21-27 2015
Zeeshan and Zara
PHOTOS COURTESY NUCLEUS EVENT AND PR
Ayesha and Ijaz
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Huma
PHOTOS COURTESY NUCLEUS EVENT AND PR
Ayesha
Roma
Huma and Saba
Sulmeen
14 JUNE 21-27 2015
Kiran
Saira Rizwan
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Ayesha and Faizaan Ahaab
Amna Majid and Romana Abdullah
PHOTOS COURTESY REZZ PR AND EVENTS
Rizwan and Syra Rizwan
The Hopscotch flagship store launches at Centaurus Mall in Islamabad
Sama Fazla and Naveen Saad
Sabeen Khan and Omar Khan
16 JUNE 21-27 2015
Adil Zulfiqar and Natasha Adil
PEOPLE & PARTIES Raheela Khan and Zareen Mirza
PHOTOS COURTESY REZZ PR AND EVENTS
Fakir Iftikhar and Tehmin Sayeed
Fatima and Ayesha
Mr and Mrs Hamza
Tahir Khan and Laila Hassan
Mr and Mrs Mohsin
Baleena Khan and Aitizaz Mirza
17 JUNE 21-27 2015
FEATURE
An inspiring tale Spreading education in remote parts of Gilgit-Baltistan was no tall order for trekker Bushra Farooqui BY SHABBIR MIR DESIGN BY SANOBER AHMED
PHOTOS COURTESY: INSPIRE INITIATIVE
‘To be in the mountains’ is often used as a euphemism to join the Baloch separatist movement or the insurgency in Fata. But far from embracing the sword, the people of the Sadpara area of Baltistan are learning the power of the pen, thanks to a non-governmental organisation Inspire Initiative, which celebrated its first year anniversary on June 13. The Inspire journey started back in 2007 when British-Pakistani Bushra Farooqui visited Baltistan for the first time with a group of trekkers from the UK for a charity trek to K-2 Base Camp. “From then on, I continued to visit for various trekking expeditions, but it wasn’t until 2010 that we decided to give back to the hospitable community by supporting girls education in Basha Valley, a very remote part of the region.” In 2011, 60 girls were given primary education at the only boys school in the area. The initiative was funded by Bushra Farooqui and two other expats from the UK. The number of students soon grew to 360 girls within a span of three years. The initiative was first aimed at only girls because parents who could not afford to send all their children to school sent boys as a priority. “We started using the boys school premises and introduced an afternoon shift for girls, bringing in female teachers, books, uniforms and other school supplies. This grew each year as we supported more girls deprived of education,” shares Farooqui. Later, however, boys were also included in the initiative. “The motivation behind running a primary school in this beautiful mountainous region is the collective love of mountains, trekking and education,” says Farooqui, who relocated to Dubai The Inspire Initiative initially started by imparting primary education to girls, but has since expanded its scope to include boys as well.
20 JUNE 21-27 2015
Members of the Inspire team: Muhammad Nazir, Bushra Farooqui, Ghulam Murtaza Bushra Farooqui and Pakistani mountaineer Hassan Sadpara and Nisar Hussain. distribute prizes among the children.
The motivation behind running a primary school in this beautiful mountainous region is the collective love of mountains, trekking and education Inspire Initiative founder Bushra Farooqui Students stand in line to welcome the Inspire committee members during their annual sports day. recently to keep a close eye on the running of the school. As a result of the initiative’s mounting success, it was given a formal structure and registered as a charitable organisation in 2014 to support primary education in Sadpara. Currently, 180 children, both girls and boys between the ages of four and 14 years, are enrolled at the two schools adopted by Inspire. The children are taught English, Urdu, mathematics, general knowledge, social studies, Islamiat and science. The ratio of female to male students is 50:50 and with these two schools, Inspire is catering to at least 70% of Sadpara valley’s primary school-going children, adds Farooqui. Inspire covers all the costs, including salaries and training of teachers, school supplies, furniture, stationery, uniforms, bags and books. All the volunteers are Skardubased and tend to the day-to-day operations of the school by liaising with the teachers and village education committee (VEC). According to Farooqui, Inspire Initiative plans to create a cluster of three schools per valley and will hopefully take
over the running of another school by next year. “We have also shortlisted other remote valleys in Baltistan where we can easily expand in the next five to eight years. We aspire to give these children a taste of childhood while they are with us,” she says. “We have a strategic partnership with Aga Khan Education Services Pakistan whereby they provide technical support, help with training teachers, curriculum development and quality assessment,” says Farooqui. Thus far, the initiative has been successful on many levels. Along with providing quality education to children in a fun and creative school environment, Farooqui says the school has created an air of excitement in the valley. “Parents and community elders are often invited to attend events and meetings at the school so they too feel that they’re a part of it,” she says. But a lot still needs to be done to spread education in the remote regions of Pakistan and Inspire Initiative sends the message that this is not impossible. T Shabbir Mir is a Gilgit-based reporter for The Express Tribune. He tweets @ShabbirMir
21 JUNE 21-27 2015
FEATURE
chil hild left behind
Polio workers in Balochistan struggle to reach thousands without access to life-saving vaccine BY SHEZAD BALOCH
As is typical for Pashtun women, Arifa’s face is covered by a loose white scarf when I meet her. But with direct eye contact, she projects an air of self-confidence that no scarf can hide. Arifa is a 29-yearold polio worker in Pashtunabad, a highly-conservative neighbourhood in Balochistan’s provincial capital, Quetta. She is part of a very important cause —
DESIGN BY MARYAM RASHID
the eradication of the crippling poliovirus from areas like Pahstunabad, home to roughly 10,000 families. This year, three cases of poliovirus have been confirmed in Balochistan: one each from Quetta, Qila Abdullah and Loralai. The Quetta case was detected in the Pashtunabad neighbourhood. Pakistan accounted for 95% of the world’s poliovirus cases this year. According to the Balochistan Emergency JUNE 21-27 2015
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A mass immunisation campaign kicked off in Balochistan on May 28 with a target population of more than 1.2 million children. PHOTO: REUTERS
21,000
children miss out on polio vaccination in every campaign in Balochistan, according to Unicef.
Operation Centre (BEOC), 24 cases of poliovirus have been detected nationwide, of which 10 cases were recorded in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, seven in Federally Administered Tribal Areas, four in Sindh and three in Balochistan. As many as 51 union councils in five districts of Balochistan have so far been declared at high risk for contracting poliovirus. According to Unicef Polio Team Lead Dr Jawahir Habib, at least 21,000 children are missed in every campaign in Balochistan. These children form an unvaccinated pool that represents not only a danger to themselves but magnifies the risk of infection to others. The BEOC says that the province’s highest risk union councils lie in Quetta, Pishin, Qila Abadullah, Zhob and Mastung. According to their reports, the environmental samples taken in Quetta and Qila Abdullah in May tested 32 positive for poliovirus and set off alarm bells. “The failure JUNE 21-27 2015
to eradicate poliovirus is a source of great embarrassment for Pakistan in the world,” states a government official who wished to remain anonymous. A mass immunisation campaign, the Sub-National Immunisation Days campaign, kicked off on May 28 and targets eight districts — Quetta, Pishin, Qila Abdullah, Zhob, Jaffarabad, Lasebala, Nasirabad and Sherani — with a target population of more than 1.2 million children. Arifa is one of many Union Council Communication Support Officers working to reach those 21,000 unvaccinated children. In attaining this position, she has defied many cultural norms and stereotypes. Her job entails monitoring the anti-polio drive, training women vaccinators and persuading parents who refuse anti-polio drops for their children on religious or other grounds. “There have been about 800 refusals to date,” she says. “We try very hard to
revisit these parents and change their minds.” The refusals are not the hardest part of the job, however. On the day I met Arifa, four police officials were shot dead in Pashtunabad. On November 26 last year, four women vaccinators in Quetta were brutally killed. For Arifa, however, such threats make her conviction in the work she is doing stronger. “Why should I be fearful? Whom should I fear?” she asks. “To tell you the truth, I have no fear at all. People need to understand that we have to win this war against polio. We need to protect future generations from the risk of life-long disability.” Arifa has been working to help eradicate the poliovirus for four years now. When asked what bothers her most about working in the field, she admits to being hurt sometimes by the stereotypes people have and the negative attitude towards working women. “People think that because I dare to leave the house and work like a man does, I must not be of good character,” she says. “They seem to believe this particularly of women involved in the anti-polio drive.” Arifa and her sister are the sole breadwinners in their family. The neighbourhood near Pashtunabad where they live is made up of mostly single-storey mud houses. Her family comprises an older sister, a differently-abled brother and a widowed mother. “My mother is proud of me and
at the door to her home. In the field, she says she has been followed and verbally harassed. “I get catcalls from men on the streets but I really don’t care. I know I’m on the right path.” When dealing with parents reluctant to allow their children to be vaccinated, Arifa faces resistance of a different nature. She reports that some parents are suspicious of the anti-polio drops, fearing they are part of a conspiracy to control the world’s Muslim population by suppressing fertility. “Parents say, ‘How come every other medicine is expensive but anti-polio drops are free and get delivered to our home?’” she says. “I’ve heard statements regarding refusals, coverage and lack of availability of antipolio teams that are completely false.” This is a very serious issue, she says, one that exposes the weak foundations of the vaccination campaign. According to Arifa and other
I get catcalls from men on the streets but I really don’t care. I know I’m on the right path Polio worker Arifa
Arifa is one of many Union Council Communication Support Officers working to reach 21,000 unvaccinated children in the province. PHOTO COURTESY: SHEZAD BALOCH
of the work I do. That makes me happy,” she says, when asked whether she faces opposition at home. “My female cousins also praise my work.” Such support,however, stops
vaccinators in Quetta, the timely payment of wages has also negatively affected the quality of the campaign. “Payment, security and performance are the main challenges the vaccinators face today,” she says. “The wage of a vaccinator is a mere Rs700 to Rs800 (approximately US$7) per day. It is difficult to live on such a small sum,” she says. Officials say it has not been easy to employ female vaccinators like Arifa largely due to a cultural barrier, as women here do not work in an environment where they must go door-to-door in a neighbourhood. Thus, a Community Health Volunteer (CHV) programme has been launched in Balochistan in order to ensure that no child is left without the vaccine. Officials say the mapping, tracing and coverage of unvaccinated children is a top priority and the deployment of nearly 600 female CHVs in 23 highrisk union councils in the province is part of that effort. “The government and partner agencies are putting their best efforts into ensuring that every child in Balochistan is vaccinated against polio,” says BEOC coordinator Syed Saif Ur Rehman. But with families shutting their doors on polio workers, it will be long before we see a polio-free Balochistan. Shezad Baloch is a Quetta-based freelance journalist. He tweets @Shezadbaloch
33 JUNE 21-27 2015
The Mohatta Palace Museum’s latest exhibition, ‘A Flower from Every Meadow: Design and Innovation in Pakistan’s Dress Traditions’.
SpinningÊ yarnsÊ ofÊ identityÊ andÊ evolution No ordinary fashion show, ‘A Flower from Every Meadow’ traces the rich heritage of Pakistani design tradition BY HEBA HASHMI PHOTOS COURTESY: THE MOHATTA PALACE MUSEUM
Woman’s dress (jumlo), cotton embroidered with silk, buttons and zip fasteners from Indus Kohistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
36 JUNE 21-27 2015
The discomfort of a school uniform starched to the pale hue of anonymity will resonate with most of us, as will the urge to hoist up sleeves, un-tuck shirts and pop collars — colouring just far enough outside the lines to append the identity of the institution with a marker of our individuality. The Mohatta Palace Museum’s (MPM) latest installment, ‘A Flower from Every Meadow: Design and Innovation in Pakistan’s Dress Traditions’, however, reminds us of a time when individual identity was inextricably bound to communal identity, the commemoration of which was the principal function of dress and textiles. According to the exhibition’s curator Nasreen Askari, two decades ago, it would have been impossible for motifs and patterns — markers of a community’s identity and heritage — to be allowed to drift from the unadulterated lexicon of tradition. While it is imperative that these traditions be safeguarded, evolution in Pakistan’s dress traditions is an inevitability that the exhibition aims to explore in detail. The title of the exhibition, ‘A Flower from Every Meadow’, has been borrowed from the Ain-e-Akbari, written by courtier Abu’l Fazl, vizier of the Emperor and one of the nine jewels of the Mughal court, with Pakistan as the meadow and each textile a handpicked bloom. Few institutions and enterprises around the world can lay claim to the kind of authenticity that MPM celebrates in this exhibition, not only with the objects on display, but also with the organic evolution of themes that mirror the geographically and technically diverse history of Pakistan’s textile heritage as the galleries progress. After paying homage, in the first gallery, to master craftsmen — the most authentic surviving sources of the skill and tradition on display — the exhibition then progresses to printed and tie-dyed textiles, the authenticity of which is rooted in archaeological evidence dating back to the Indus Valley civilisation. Textiles in this gallery range from basic block printed or tie-dyed cloth to that adorned with silver foil and region-specific embroidered motifs, such as the woman’s shawl from the Kachi Rabari group.
Woman’s shawl (ludi) from Kutchi Rabari group, Dano Dandhal village, Nagarparkar.
Man’s ceremonial shawl (obechan), hand spun cotton, mordant dyed, black printed and embroidered from Meghwar community, Virawah, Nagarparkar, Sindh.
As the ambience carries us to the colder regions of the country, woven textiles are rendered authentic for their function, with thick animal fibres being used to weave shawls, coats, nomadic tents and floor rugs. A special section is dedicated to khes weaving, the most notable piece of which is a surprisingly modern checkerboard shawl that has been categorised in John Forbes Watson’s Textile Manufactures of India — one of the earliest catalogues of subcontinental textiles — as a man’s garment or cotton shawl (kass). Two contextual sub-galleries, ‘Where Mountains Meet’ and a model Baloch gidaan (tent), help visitors understand the function and geographical concentration of the types of textiles on display, especially the nomadic furnishings and animal adornments particular to itinerant Baloch tribes. The finale of the antique collection is undoubtedly the magnificent gallery of embroidered textiles, which traces nuances of surface decoration particular to each province, mindful always of recording the stories and traditions that authenticate each object. Marking the entrance to the gallery is a series of quintessentially Baloch doch embroidered yokes (jeeg), with deliberately ordered patterns and colour combinations, from the collection of Akram Dost Baloch. The gallery opens with a tribute to the mysterious recesses of Indus Kohistan, displaying textile scholar Sheila Paine’s jumlo (dress), chuprai (double shawl) and children’s waistcoats, all adorned with a talismanic scattering of beads, buttons, zip fastenings and embroidered medallions that are thought to echo sun worship that may still be practiced in this region. Tracing the Indus valley further south, unrivalled examples of characteristically Punjabi phulkari (flower work) are also on display, which are traditionally embroidered by a bride’s family for her trousseau. Sindhi traditions are reflected in an extensive display of gaj (blouse fronts) and bujhkis (bridal purses), which are embroidered in a particular pattern when the girl is born and completed in time for her wedding.
Jacket (koti) and scarf (dupatta) from the collection of the Nawab of Bahawalpur, Punjab.
While each textile is the finest example of its workmanship and respective tradition, the scope of the exhibition is expanded by the royal collections that push the boundaries of textile adornment into the realm of luxury. The Khan of Kalat’s turbans and sashes (lungis) are unrivalled in their finesse, as is the gota work on the ensembles from the collection of the Nawab of Bahawalpur. The rich velvets and silks heavily embroidered in the Talpur Mirs collection are also marvels of their kind. To illustrate the dilution of Pakistan’s textile heritage from purist and unadulterated to a beautiful amalgam of various regional traditions, nine premier designers were invited to explore this evolution through their work. This ‘tension’ between the traditional and the avant-garde in contemporary fashion forms a spectrum of its own in the final gallery; ranging from Faiza Samee, Bunto Kazmi, Rizwan Beyg and Maheen Khan’s meticulous preservation of original traditions like marorhi, zardozi, chikankari and silk weaving to Nilofer Shahid and Shamaeel Ansari’s experimentation with historical themes in their cuts and motifs, the installations become increasingly avant-garde with Sonya Battla’s contemporary renditions of bandhani and the Indus Kohistani jumlo, Khaadi’s experimentation with western silhouettes and indigo dyeing and finally Sana Safinaz’s departure from eastern cuts and hand embroidery to the commercial mechanisation of traditional aari work. Even a cursory glance through the galleries highlights, with startling clarity, the need for these objects and textile traditions to be preserved. According to Shamaeel Ansari, this is the first time in Pakistan’s fashion history that one can “trace the thread of thought from the traditional source of inspiration to its translation into a modern wearable garment within the same space”, thus making ‘A Flower from Every Meadow’ an enriching experience for historians and fashion enthusiasts alike. Heba Hashmi is an assistant director at the Endowment Fund Trust for Preservation of the Heritage of Sindh. She has a Masters in Heritage Studies and Managing Archaeological Sites. JUNE 21-27 2015
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Street Sights Rumana Husain’s Street Smart is a photo essay appreciating Karachi’s days of yore BY FARAHNAZ ZAHIDI
Over 20 million people in Pakistan warrant 20 million plus stories. In Karachi, the world’s third most populous city, there is never a moment of stagnation. The city grows and evolves as we talk. There is the heritage of the past with nostalgic remains in the form of colonial buildings and tales of simpler, safer times and a futuristic side to the city where buildings are being torn down and electronics replace tender connections. For instance, the quintessential 5:00pm tea with family is being replaced with fast-paced techno music on radio stations as one gets caught in heavy traffic jams during the evening rush hour. Therefore, in her new book Street Smart, Rumana Husain does what a true lover of this city must. She builds a bridge between the Karachi of yesterday and today. And for this, the artist-cum-author uses the lives of 60 people on the streets of the city as her canvas. In Husain’s signature style, which made her previous offering Karachiwala a favourite coffee table book among Karachiites, Street Smart is a 160-page long photo essay. The language is simple but the subjects are not. Flipping through the pages of Street Smart is like listening to the untold story of what Karachi has been through. The city has been ravaged by violence, while also facing problems every megacity faces; yet, its beautiful diversity continues to thrive. The book’s component, which has a touch 38 of romanticism and nostalgia, is the profiles JUNE 21-27 2015
of people in professions that have begun to fade. The roadside ear cleaner, the roaming tinsmith (kalai wala), the handcart puller (haath gari walla), the ferris wheel operator, the typist and the knives sharpener. In the future, our children may not even know they existed. Documentation of the lives of people like Khadija Bai, a poppadum hawker, and Mariam Ahmed, a female potter, is thus invaluable. The book also includes some new professions like a guard and a food delivery man, including peculiar ones like a vendor selling fried liver. However, some new street ‘workers’ have deftly been left out on purpose, such as the mobile snatcher and the stalker. The most ironic selection would have to be that of a water carrier, also known as bahishti (person of Paradise), who has a newly-found importance in this water-starved city. It is also interesting to note how the book features some very similar, yet different street professions. These include the oil grinder and the masseur, the scavenger and the junk dealer and the peanut hawker and the dried fruit seller. A critical look, however, reveals that some of these come across as repetitive and unnecessarily take up pages. Other professions could have been included instead, such as a gajra seller, children who
wash windscreens at signals or even the entertaining and engaging transgender. The book’s photography captures the correct sentiments Author Rumana Husain and freezes the right moments. The cover, instead of using the fortune teller with the parrot, could have perhaps featured one of the better photographs in the book, for instance the photograph of a Sindhi cap seller. But the overall impact is nevertheless delightful and moving. T Farahnaz Zahidi works as a senior subeditor at The Express Tribune. She tweets @FarahnazZahidi
DOCUMENTARY
A lyrical war No Land’s Song documents the emotional journey of a group of Iranian women struggling to sing solo in public BY SARAH MUNIR
Life in Iran took a drastic turn following the Islamic Revolution of 1979. A number of those changes resulted in women losing significant rights and liberties which they had earned during the Shah’s regime. For example, hijab was made compulsory, women could no longer serve as judges and they lost custody of their children following a divorce while men were allowed to take up to four wives. Not only did space for women begin to shrink but their voices were also clamped down (quite literally) when the regime banned female singers from singing solo in public — unless the audience comprised of only women. However, 35 years later, composer Sara Najafi and her group of female singer friends decided to reclaim public space for the female voice by organising a concert in Tehran. Their journey is beautifully documented by film-maker and Sara’s brother Ayat Najafi in No Land’s Song, which premiered at the Human Rights Film Festival in New York this month. The film opens with a vibrant and wideeyed Sara convincing her female friends and 40 artists to recreate the glory days of iconic JUNE 21-27 2015
Iranian female singers, such as Qamar alMoluk Vaziri, Delkash and Googoosh who took the stage and blew the audience away with their magical notes. As the idea begins to pick up momentum, Sara also invites French and Tunisian artists to participate in the concert in an attempt to show and share the richness of her culture with people from different parts of the world. The film follows Sara as she scuttles between securing permission for the concert from the Iranian Ministry of Culture, convincing foreign singers to come and perform despite obvious obstacles, procuring visas, making travel arrangements, organising rehearsals and revisiting old sites and tales that help the viewer understand the rich Persian culture that Sara is trying to revive through this simple act. While Sara’s love for her culture and music is contagious and gets you rooting for her from the moment she takes the screen, the film is a grave reminder that we still live in a world where women have to go to great lengths for something as simple as wanting to sing alone in public. These points are
driven home in a few powerful scenes such as the one where a religious scholar cites the tendency of men to get aroused and be led astray by a female voice as valid grounds for banning women from singing in public. In another scene, an official from the cultural ministry advices Sara to include a few male singers in her line-up to ‘drown’ out the female voices in order to increase the chances of obtaining a permit for the concert. Even though the film covers several years of struggle by Sara and fellow artists, it does not become monotonous or repetitive at any point. In fact, the concert is used very skillfully to explain the larger struggle against archaic beliefs and power structures that the people of Iran are up against on a daily basis. It also shows the audience that Iran is ready for a change — even if it comes through the simplest of acts such as wanting to hear the sound of your own voice in front of a large audience. Rating: Sarah Munir is a freelance multimedia journalist. She tweets @SarahMunir1
JUDGING BY THE COVER How to impress your potential employer by writing an effective cover letter BY MOEZ ALLIDINA | DESIGN BY HIRA FAREED
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Ever wondered what the secret to getting hired is? What is more important, the cover letter or the résumé? Human Resources (HR) managers get bombarded with job applications for a position, but only a handful of candidates make it to the interview stage. This is largely because most skip the cover letter while applying for a job.
The primary reason behind writing a cover letter is to get someone to want to read the résumé. Writing a good cover letter is often the key to getting noticed. Yet, candidates spend so much of their energy on writing and editing their résumé that they have nothing left to offer in their cover letter. While there are countless websites on the Internet to help one create a generic cover letter, here are seven simple steps to writing an effective one.
MIRRORING THE EMPLOYER’S NEEDS Every individual is different and HR managers look for a candidate’s unique selling points that can add value to both the position as well as the organisation.
PRE-PLAN To be successful, it is important to research beyond the standard job description or job advertisement. Find out about the company and the industry to which you are applying, the problems and challenges it is facing and where the growth factor lies.
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ADDRESS IT TO THE RELEVANT PERSON Find out who the cover letter should be addressed to. The conventional “Dear Manager” or “To whom it may concern” is as lifeless as trying to talk to someone at a personal level without knowing their name.
MAKE IT ATTENTION-GRABBING Refrain from starting the email by mentioning your name or the advertised job position. Most HR managers look for what excites the candidate about the job. Hence, begin the email by mentioning your years of work experience and write about the talent and expertise that you can contribute to the organisation. The closing paragraph should not explain how life and professional work experiences will help in this job; it should be very brief and include a line on when to expect hearing from them.
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The body of the paragraph is the heart of the cover letter, which lets the employer know what the candidate has to offer to the organisation. Truth is that unlike the résumé, which is all about the candidate, the cover letter is all about the employer and how the candidate is the right fit. Employers want to know what the candidate has to offer, how they will mesh with co-workers and how trainable they are. Do not ramble or summarise the résumé, instead use words that show enthusiasm and passion for the position and not the money or the fringe benefits.
The cover letter should be limited to a page. In terms of its structure, the introduction and the conclusion should be one paragraph each, whereas the body of the letter can be either one or a maximum of two paragraphs. Make use of clear and concise business-formatted font and layout style.
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MARKET YOURSELF SMARTLY
KEEP IT SHORT AND SIMPLE
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BE ASSERTIVE End the cover letter by asking for an opportunity to be interviewed personally.
Moez Allidina is an OD Trainer at Maktab Learning Solutions and works as lecturer in Management. JUNE 21-27 2015