WHAT IS A COVER LETTER?
Cover letter advice from a professional
resume writer
A cover letter is simply a letter that goes
with your resume and serves to introduce you to potential
employers.
I am often asked whether a cover letter is
essential and I always say yes. But that doesn't mean I think
your letter
will necessarily be read. Anecdotal evidence suggests that
some recruiters and managers completely ignore cover letters
and some
read them carefully.
Indeed, back when I worked as an HR
manager, I never
read cover letters, but my boss wouldn't read the resume
until he had read the cover letter. Which means you have to
write a great cover letter - because you have to assume at least
some of the
recipients will pay attention to it. And even those who
don't read cover letters generally glance at them. (I always
used to look at the first paragraph to
see which position the candidate was applying for) so
they're
still important.
What is the purpose of a cover
letter?
Your cover letter should do the following:
1) Tell the employer what type of position you seek,
or which specific job you're applying for.
2) Outline your key
selling points.
3) Address the needs of the employer.
4) Invite
the employer to contact you.
The cover letter is a brief introduction, not your
entire history so don't try to cover everything. Just make sure that
these 4 points are addressed.
You should customize and tweak your letter for
every single position, highlighting the skills and experiences
that are most important to your target employers.
Check out this
article to learn more about how
to write a cover letter.
How long should your letter be?
No
more than one page - and I actually prefer to keep my
letters as short as possible because less really is more to
a busy recruiter. If the employer requests email resume submissions,
you will be cutting and pasting your
letter into the
body
of an
email, and no one likes lengthy emails.
I recommend writing your letter following my detailed
instructions and then editing several times to
make the letter as short as possible.
How do you send your cover
letter by email?
If you are emailing your resume, I recommend pasting your
cover letter into an email and just attaching your resume.
There is no need to send a cover letter as an attachment,
although you can if you wish. If you do this, name your cover
letter and
resume clearly, so that recruiters can see which
is which.
When you paste
your letter into an email check to see how long
it looks. If it looks too long to read at a quick
glance, I recommend editing it down. We have all
come to expect emails to be brief, so a long letter can be off-putting.
Cover Letters - In
Summary
Despite that fact that many people don't
really
read
cover letters,
they remain an essential document in the job
search. Be sure to make yours as good as it can be - refer
to my
article on how
to write a cover letter if you need help.
Louise Fletcher is the President of Blue
Sky Resumes, and author of the eBook, The
Complete Guide to Resume Writing. Louise is also Managing
Editor and Co-founder of the preeminent careers blog, Career
Hub. She is a Certified Professional Resume Writer and many of
her resumes have been published in the JIST "Expert Resumes" series.
She has contributed to many online publications including About.com,
Monster.com, The Ladders, and Net Temps.
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