Write Effective Cover Letters for Success
November 29, 2009 by admin
Filed under interviewing
Cover letters have been an important part of replying to an ad or to directly send your resume to an employer. Is your cover letter looking its best? Is it getting the attention it needs and deserves? If you want to get the hiring manager’s attention, you have to write your cover letter in such as way which will get you noticed. How can you write a killer cover letter? Here’s some important points to remember.

1. Hit them hard right out of the chute. So you’re sitting one evening watching TV, and a commercial comes on. They have only a limited amount of time, say 15 or 30 seconds to get their message across to you. If they start out with something like “Do you like potato chips? We sell very good potato chips,” you won’t pay attention or you may even change the channel. What do they do? They get your attention right away with the first sentence or images.
The same goes for your cover letter. If you are a hiring manager and have a couple hundred, or even 50 resumes and cover letters on your desk to go through, how much time do you think you would spend looking at each one? I bet you’d spend no more than 15 seconds at the most, on each one. So like the creator of a TV ad, your cover letter either makes it or breaks it. You have to get right to the point with determination when you write your cover letter.
2. Tell them you know what you are doing. Get to the point and give reasons why you feel you are able to do the job, and why you should be considered. If their ad says they are looking for a programmer, don’t fill your cover letter with how much Windows XP experience you have. List your skills and how those skills will benefit the company. A hiring manager wants to know how you can help them meet their goals and fill a need, so target those issues which may be listed in their ad. But make sure what you say is believable.
3. Do you know how to spell? Some of us still have problems with certain words, but that’s why there is software available for checking your spelling and grammar. If you have the MS Office suite, it does a real good job with spell checking and grammar checking as well. If you are using software that only does spell checking, here’s a free online copy/paste application that does Online Spelling, Grammar, and Thesaurus checking for you. So many times correct usage of words like ‘there’ and ‘their’ can make a difference whether you are considered for the interview.
When you submit a cover letter, your chances are greater of being considered if you submit a good cover letter, than if it’s only average. Hit them with “wow” right away! It’s not to say that you will get the job if you are the best resume writer, but if you fail at any of these items you may not be considered at all, and your effort has gone to waste. If you have no idea how to create a cover letter, there are plenty of resources on the Internet which can help you put a killer cover letter together.
One of the most overlooked things in the job market today is the cover letter. A good cover letter is the door opener and the thing that causes your phone to ring. Unless you get employers’ attention with this first step, you may not get that interview and the dream job! In just a few minutes you will be able to create a *KILLER* cover letter that will put you ahead of the crowd! Let the “Amazing Cover Letter Creator” help you get quality job interviews next week. Find this amazing product at Amazing Cover Letter Creator!
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