A Great Cover Letter Is Your Escort to More Job Interviews

Creating a compelling cover letter is a vital step in the job application process. Your letter should have a professional, yet naturally flowing conversational tone. Never underestimate the power of a cover letter to make or break your submission to a particular company, which is assessing your fitness as a candidate. Call it a resume cover letter; it’s nearly as important as the resume itself. The cover letter can create either a favorable or sloppy first impression-it’s up to you. Crisp, compelling and persuasive prose can make an enormous difference. Do you know what a cover letter looks like? If you can’t do it right, then you should consider hiring a professional resume writer and professional cover letter writer to do it for you.

The functions of a cover letter are as follows:

• To not only introduce yourself to a potential employer, and reveal appealing aspects of your personality, but to sell yourself, just as if you were a product: You, Inc.

• Set you apart from other applying for this job. If your letter is impressive enough, it may be placed in the “to call first” pile.

• Demonstrate your effectiveness as a corporate communicator, which is an important skill to employers

• Explain why you are interested in a particular job.

• Complement your resume by intriguing the reader sufficiently to continue the process by perusing your resume.

• Display your intellectual prowess

• Demonstrate your knowledge of the company

While time consuming, it is also absolutely necessary to write a unique cover letter to each company. You should learn enough about the product or service, internal challenges, values and goals to be able to tailor each letter accordingly.

Here are some methods that wise job applicants use to turbo charge their cover letters:

• Make the appearance of your letter clean and simple. Do not right justify margins or make the letter look mass produced.

• Keep it to one page.

• Address your letter to a specific person, either the person mentioned in an ad, or the person that your research has demonstrated might make the hiring decision.

• Always write an employer-centric letter, concentrating on how you can meet a need, solve a problem and/or explain why you are the best candidate to join the corporate team. In other words, how can you be of service to them?

• Use your first paragraph to state the job that you are seeking, and how you found out about it. If someone within the company referred you, this is the place to give their name.

• Express an interest in the company’s product, service and/or a specific project currently in the works.

• Consciously match your job experience, positive personality facets and transferable skills with those that the company is seeking. This step may require information that was not in the job announcement or want ad.

• Sketch any information in intriguing outline form-you want to whet the recipient’s appetite to learn more by studying your resume.

• In the last paragraph of your perfect cover letter, directly ask for an interview to discuss the position further. Either include your contact information in the last paragraph, or in a block with your name and title. Thank the recipient for taking the time to consider your letter and resume.

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