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Writing A Cover Letter - Stand Out From The Crowd

If you have sent your resume in to apply for a job without writing a cover letter, the chances are that your details are just one in a pile of several or perhaps even several hundred. Your resume may be one of the best in the whole stack, but chances are, if you don"t have a good cover letter to accompany it, your resume will not even be seen.


Be A Better Communicator

Weň€™ve all seen them. The person who seems like he/she has a way with words in personal conversation and always gets their point across. What do they do that makes them different? How do they do it? Wouldnň€™t it be nice if you could do it too? Though some people are born with natural ability to communicate, you can learn to be a better communicator with a little practice.


Does Anybody Read or Care About Cover Letters

I have asked many of my clients and other recruiters about their feelings on cover letters. For the most part with hiring managers and HR it is mixed. Some want them and others donň€™t care one way or the other. However, with recruiters there seems to be a more uniform consensus that recruiters donň€™t pay much attention to them. Given this I recommend when sending a resume directly to a company, hiring manager or HR to include a cover letter. When responding to a recruiter it isnň€™t that important, but if you have one ready go ahead and include it. Only donň€™t send it as a separate document, include in the same file as the resume.

The biggest problem with cover letters is the attempt to make them an addendum to oneň€™s resume. Meaning that candidates often use the cover letter to add points that arenň€™t included in their resume, rather than re-writing the resume. This is completely WRONG. If the points are important enough to be in the letter, then they must be included on the resume.

The primary reason for a cover letter should be to present such a compelling case that the person reading it will get excited enough to take the time to actually read your resume. There is nothing more frustrating than to get all excited about a candidate from the cover letter, only to have the rug pulled out from this excitement when the resume doesnň€™t include any of these points. The reader is left wondering, where did these take place, how long ago, if they really did happen and they are that significant why arenň€™t they on the resume, guess the candidate didnň€™t think they were all that significant so as to re-write the resume, etc? As you can see it creates more questions than it answers.

It is critical you take the time and make the effort to re-write your resume with this information included. Donň€™t just send out the generic resume. If the cover letter gets separated from the resume you want to make sure the resume stands by itself.

You can download an example of a cover letter that we recommend using. This format has proven very successful. To get your FREE example CLICK HERE.

For more information on cover letters and resumes take a look at our ň€śComplete Job Search Home Study Course.ň€ť We will send it to you so you can review it completely for just $14.95. Plus we will even pay the shipping to you and include a copy of our best selling book on your job search. To learn more CLICK HERE.






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