Writing cover letters is an important skill, especially for job seekers who are also learning to write resumes. Your cover letter is what accompanies your resume as a primary support document. Regardless of if you use faxing, regular mail, email, or electronic submissions, you should always include a cover letter with your resume. Your resume and cover letter are the first things used, then you have the follow up letters, the ‘thank you’ letters post interview, job acceptance letters, salary histories, and reference sheets as part of your arsenal. If your cover letter is good, and your writing skills are up to snuff, then composing the rest of your arsenal should not be a problem.
Your main goal with all of this is getting the hiring manager’s attention. It’s the same as in your resume writing. Your method and format is slightly different though. The resume covers everything about your skills and career, and will span across a couple of page. The cover letter, however, is just a brief page that serves as the introduction to your resume. Cover letters are to be direct and to the point. They need to grab the reader’s attention quickly and entice them to want to read your resume.
Most people who are involved with this kind of writing, tend to say far too much. A good cover letter is very brief, and carries a punch. It takes two or three of the key points of the resume and then emphasizes them from the beginning.
An example would be to assume you’re working as the materials handler for some defense contractor, and you’re currently seeking another position. For this line of work your buzz words would be ‘MRP’, ISO 9000, lean manufacturing, and maybe cost savings. In your writing, you’d want to reflect these specific buzz words to relay your value to your employer at the time as well as to any future employers. The resume would go into a lot more detail about your accomplishments in regard to these goals. You cover letter would point out the fact that you have accomplished them to their hiring manager. A good example for this style is two bulleted paragraphs within the body of your cover letter..
* Experienced with quality control and quality assurance, ISO 9000. MRP, QS 9000, and also lean manufacturing.
* Demonstrated good results for saving significant amounts of money for employers with cost savings, on-time supplier delivery, and inventory reduction levels.
Most hiring managers, as a rule, will only devote about 15 seconds to each individual resume and the cover letter that they review. Keeping this in mind will help you use your writing skills to capture their attention within this time frame. It takes good writing skills to accomplish this. You interview skills need to be well honed too. The whole process begins by having a good cover letter to go with a well written resume, and the end result should be a nice new job with a good paycheck.
