This Domain For Sale. Contact us for more information.

Writing Great Cover Letters

Cover letters are an essential ingredient to your complete résumé package. This is the best opportunity for you to demonstrate your personal character, knowledge of the company and your business writing skills.

The following is a relatively generic format for creating your cover letter. Note that most cover letters are designed to target a specific company or at least a specific industry.

First Paragraph

You must spark the employer's interest. Focus on your unique characteristics, whether they are based on experience or personal traits that will benefit the company. Don't simply restate your résumé objective statement. You must command attention, not simply alert the employer that you are applying for a position (they already know that!).

Second Paragraph

Provide more detail about your professional qualifications or relevant educational background. Highlight your professional accomplishments and/or achievements, not responsibilities. Use active verbs when describing things that you have done and back it up with a statistic or concrete fact when possible. Tailor this paragraph to the position that you are applying for.

Third Paragraph

Demonstrate knowledge of the company, their industry, and the challenges that they may be facing. This is where you connect what the company needs in an employee and the skills that you bring to the table. You want to implicitly show your knowledge of the company without regurgitating something you read on the company's website. Alluding to general industry trends that are affecting the company will let the employer know that you can see the big picture and how your position affects the company's strategy.

Fourth Paragraph

This is the final paragraph of most cover letters. You should demonstrate your confidence and enthusiasm in working at the organization. Be sure to include a call to action, requesting an appointment with the decision maker (using the word appointment over the word interview helps make you sound more confident and professional). It is also recommended that you alert the employer that you will follow up with them, usually one week after sending your résumé package.

John Williamson is a Career Development specialist and a spokesperson for Vision-Resume.com

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Careers & Employment Information:

Supplement Your Skills and Improve Your Work Position
It is often said that the majority of people are but a few checks away from homelessness. Without a consistent income, this may be a true statement.

Waiting for Lightening to Strike
Author and management guru, Peter Drucker says, "People adjust to the level of demands made on them." I would add, we also adjust to the level we demand of ourselves.

Best Strategy Using Internet Job Search Engines
Best Strategy using Internet Job Search EnginesThere are hundreds of Internet job search engines, from super job banks monster.com, careerbuilder.

Words. Words. Words.
They're only words. Some believe the school-yard taunt: "Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me.

How to Give Job-Winning Answers at Interviews
Human Resources personnel, professional recruiters and various other career experts all agree: one of the best ways to prepare yourself for a job interview is to anticipate questions, develop your answers, and practice, practice, practice.There are plenty of websites that offer lists of popular job interview questions, and knowing the types of questions to expect can be very useful.

Mastering the Job Interview - 5 Tips to Make Yourself Irresistible to the Interviewer
So you've figured out, more or less what you want to do and where the opportunities are. Now; you have been called for an interview.

Building Your Army of Supporters: How to Build Strategic Relationships in the Work Place!
Once you have accomplished your task of getting in the door and getting the job the real job of career advancement begins!You will soon learn (if you haven't already elsewhere) that corporate politics are ALWAYS surrounding you. If it is not your boss who is fearful of you taking his job it is your co-worker who wants to ensure that they are seen "better" than you when promotion time comes calling.

Job Interviews -- How to Follow Up Effectively
Getting a job is not just about your performance in an interview. The post-interview follow up you do has a critical role in a successful job hunt.

Ask Me No Questions, Ill Tell You No Lies
If only there were no questions involved in getting a job!If you've been following NBC's "The Apprentice," you know who Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth is. She's had the honor of being fired by Donald Trump (and others, according to "People" magazine).

Why Bachelors Make Bad Decisions: Five Tips to Move from Reality Television to Your Career Change
The Bachelor is one of the many reality shows that have gripped the US television viewing audience.Premise: A very eligible Bachelor (last season featured an NFL quarterback) stays in a mansion with several eligible young women.

Top Ten Reasons to Start A Catering Business
There is little doubt that Americans still have a deep abiding love for all things eatable. Despite the health craze that has forced Ronald McDonald to sport a jogging suit, Whoppers, Big Mac's, and French Fries is truly why we have fat thighs.

Create a Network and Catapult Your Job Search
Networking is still known as a great job-search strategy, yet it eludes some individuals simply because they don't know how to go about it. Individuals also tend to shy away from networking because it's time consuming.

10 Steps to Getting the Most Out of Job Fairs
Many job seekers tend to overlook job fairs. They can be crowded, busy, competitive and confusing events.

Virtual Heroes: The Growth of the Virtual Assistant
Building and expanding a business is a difficult task, when the management of the business in its existing form takes up much of the time. The administrative, office-based and creative tasks behind running a business, although time-consuming and often repetitive, are vital to the continued operations of the business.

Is Your Career Your Calling or Just a 9 to 5?
Do you remember your parents asking you what you want to be when you grow up? By the time I was in the 9th grade, my mother started asking me that same question until I graduated from high school. At that time I wasn't 100% sure what career path I would take, but I had several ideas.

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up? Something That Hasnt Been Invented Yet!
Most of us were brought up to study hard, get good grades, choose a "practical" college major, and strive for a "good job."Talk to a stranded midlife career-changer and you realize the game has changed.

Wishing and Hoping
Years after Disneyland was built, after the completion of Walt Disney World, the story goes that someone went up to Mike Vance, Creative Director for Walt Disney Studios and said, "Isn't it too bad Walt Disney didn't live to see this?" Without pausing, he replied, "But he did see it, that's why it's here."If any outside figure influenced my life early on, it was Walt Disney.

When and How to Say I Just Cant Do It!
We naturally hesitate to tell our boss when we can't do something or are feeling overwhelmed in our job. Bosses don't want to hear that, right? Well, it depends.

So, Your Made A Mistake
Of course, mistakes are important. Two facts put those you make in perspective.

Goal Setting - Road Map To Achieving Your Career Goals
Goal Setting & ResearchYou can only set informed career goals if you acquire plenty of information about the career choices open to you. This will require research which can be conducted online or through a local library.