Job Search Strategies
Cover Letters That Get Interviews
by Lawrence M. Light, Job Coach www.ejobcoach.com
My experience with cover letters is that they need to be crafted individually
for each job.
A standard boilerplate cover letter is usually perceived as such and
a waste of time for those reviewing responses to job openings. The job
of the cover letter is to, first, respond to the job requirements by
matching your experience and capabilities to what they're asking, and,
second, by adding anything that isn't on your resume that you think
may be useful you can help them make up their mind to invite you in
for an interview. Cover letters must be short, to the point, and can't
waste the prospective employer's time. In the Communications field,
my
suspicion is that most cover letters will be read, but I've heard of
instances in which the HR Department discarded the cover letter before
forwarding the resumes they felt passed muster to the department doing
the hiring. The breaks being the breaks, my guess is it's always better
to write a cover letter.
It goes without saying that the resume must always corroborate and
parallel the information you put in your cover letter, unless you're
specifically pointing out something that isn't in it yet confirms that
you have a specific qualification. I once did an exercise for a workshop
on cover letters and resumes that took a job description, a real one,
as the basis for a cover letter and showed the participants how we could
write a cover letter in less than fifteen minutes. Some of the participants
told me afterwards that they'd spent hours agonizing over and then writing
each cover letter. If any readers want to see a sample cover letter
or two, just e-mail me at ejobcoach@cox.net
and I'll send them out.
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Resume Resources:
10
Minute Resume
ProvenResumes.com
ResumeEdge.com
Additional Resources:
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Jobs Emailed to You!
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| Lawrence M. Light has been a job coach since creating his
first self-help video in 1996. He coaches a wide variety of individuals
including professionals, managers, CEO’s, grad students and others
in transition. He has conducted workshops for groups like the CPCU and 40
Plus and, among other organizations, is a Coachville member. |
