Isn’t a resume also important?

Sure, the resume signifies that you’re qualified to do the work, but there are many people who are qualified. Too many, in fact. The cover letter is what singles you out and makes you appealing as a person. But to write an amazing cover letter you need to know a few things. Here are some tips you should follow:

1. Keep it short – Yours won’t be the only letter they will read. Keep it simple and to the point. A page should do.

2. Make it easy to read – Don’t use size 8 fonts, keep your lines separated, and make it easy to read.

3. Watch your grammar and spelling. A single typo will ruin your chances.

4. Don’t flatter yourself too much. You should appear confident, but a cover letter shouldn’t be hypey or sell you too much. You should mention a few positive qualities that make you great for the job, but otherwise, keep the self-admiration down to a comfortable level.

5. Write about the organization. This is where some preliminary research will come in handy. You need to sprinkle your letter with some facts about the organization that you’re applying to. It makes you look serious and dilligent.

6. Keep it about them. Instead of saying how much you want the job (they already know that), write about how you will benefit the organization. Your purpose is for them to want to hire you.

The following are two samples of cover letters.

Sample 1:
Dear (name of hiring manager),
This letter intends to convey my interest to your advertisement posted on your website searching an advertising manager to direct ABC advertising department. I am informed of the quality service you provide your clients and I share the same values. The opportunity in this job is very engaging and I am confident that I possess the necessary education, capabilities, and experience that will make me a fitting aspirant for this job.

My accompanying résumé shows a confirmed past performance in advertising sales in the tourist sector in 16 various US States including Hawaii and Florida. I also have a ten-year experience performing in an identical position as well as the awards I obtained for excellence in sales and advertising.

I am proficient in directing a team or performing as a team player. I have lots of initiative, enthusiastic to learn new things and possess excellent communication skills. My technical expertise consists of PowerPoint, Excel, Adobe and Word proficiency.

You can always keep in touch with me through my mobile phone (number) and email (address). I look forward to meeting with you to confer how I could greatly contribute to the success of your company.

Address resume cover letters to an actual entity, not just a generic “To Whom it May Concern” or “Personnel Director.” If you are not sure who to address, find out and then make sure you spell their name correctly. Do not just assume.

State who referred you or how you found out about the job opening. “Linda McCain mentioned that you might be hiring a new computer programmer soon.” or “I learned about your opening for a Sales Associate from your posting in the San Francisco Sun and would like to discuss a few ways I can contribute to your team.”

Resume cover letters should discuss how you can help the employer, not about why you need the job. The employer has posted a job opening because they need that position filled and they need the best candidate to fill it. Convince them why you are that person.

Demonstrate you know something about who the employer is and what they do. If you don’t know anything about the company, find out what products or services the company offers, their competitors; any recent or upcoming changes. Employers will be impressed with your knowledge, especially if their company services a specialty niche that isn’t well known.

Do not discuss salary requirements at this time. If the job posting requests that you respond with salary information, simply state in your cover letter “I would be pleased to discuss my salary history in an interview.” Then quickly move on to what you can offer them in terms of your talent and skills.

Job searching is never fun and can be frustrating at times.  But having a professional, eye-catching resume is extremely important because it is used as a tool to represent you when you are not in front of the person who is doing the hiring.  You want your resume to best reflect your skills and experience as well as your ability to be able to do the job you are applying for.

There is no one set correct way to put together a resume.  Everyone does theirs in a different way.  That is why having some free resume templates that you can refer to can really help in deciding how YOU want YOUR resume to look.  These templates can often be downloaded to your hard drive and then all you need to do is fill in your information and you will have a resume you can be proud of.

When we did a Google search for “free resume templates”, we found many web sites that offer up free resume templates as well as advice for you to follow when you are typing up your resume.  These web sites are dedicated to helping people with their job search and their advice is pretty valuable when you are in the middle of a job search.

You may ask yourself why anyone would want to offer up free resume templates and advice to you or anyone else for that matter.  Well, the only thing we know is that the Internet offers up many, many services to people for free, and this is usually done because enterprising young people start web sites and make money by putting advertisers on the site.  But seriously, as long as you have access to things like free resume templates, why worry about why they are there free for the asking?  Just take advantage of it!

You’ll want to get an example of a chronological, functional, and combination resume. Take the time to print them out and review them. Study how they’re set up and whether or not they have the proper format. Using them as a guide will give you insight on how to structure your own resume.

Stay away from examples that are flashy and/or flowery. You want to stick to a basic format. Employers are concerned about what you bring to the table in terms of skills and job qualifications. They’re not looking for how well you can design a resume. A basic format will contain all the essentials: heading information (name, address, etc.), objective, education, work history, and special skills. Stick to these fundamentals when writing your resume.

Employers review hundreds of resumes in response to just one job announcement. Your’s needs to stand out and capture their attention. Is there a best format to use that will capture the employer’s attention? Yes there is…you want to use the one that works best for your unique situation. It should match your skills to the employer’s needs as outlined in the job announcement.

Here are a few quick tactics that will help.

1. Relate an interesting story about yourself. Start with sample resume cover letters, sure. But add a story about about yourself. People recount stories again and again. Brief snippets and anecdotes that they think make them seem more interesting or just give them a chance to engage with others. What story could an interviewer recount about you?

For example, imagine Saj, the hiring manager, standing around the water cooler at the end of the day. He decides to break the ice by saying, “So, I’m gonna be interviewing this guy who is teaching his son to make radio controlled airplanes completely from scratch.”

Instantly, the guy telling the story is more interesting himself. His status is raised because he’s talking to someone that others find fascinating. Not only that, he’s looking forward to talking to you. And you can bet that story is going to come up and you’ll have an opportunity to connect on some level other than business.

2. The envelope matters. It seems like a small point. But it’s important for two reasons. Letter carriers have a reputation among direct mail marketers for throwing away letters to lighten their load. Especially when they think the letters are junk mail. I know it sounds outrageous, but it happens and not just rarely. You can track how it impacts delivery rates.

Second, you don’t want the interviewer to receive a letter from you that looks like one of eighty-seven you’ve just mass-produced, even if it is.

Get a blue felt pen or a red ink stamp and print something relevant and eye catching on the front of the envelope. Even “FIRST CLASS” will catch the recruiter’s eye. But you can do better. Try “For (recruiter’s name)”.

Be scrupulously honest. Don’t get personal (Your Eyes Only). And if you promise something special or custom, be sure to deliver inside.

3. Don’t just think about it do it. Your competition doesn’t. So, it’s a great way to set yourself apart and make yourself the obvious candidate.

When you are looking at a job application cover letter sample, check to see if it has any spelling or typing errors. A key component of a good cover letter is to run it through spell check and read it over. A person writing a quality job application cover letter sample for you to use knows how important it is for you to make that great first impression through proper grammar and spelling.

Another point that a good job application cover letter sample will make is that you need to address the cover letter to the person in charge hiring you. Yes, some places have a personnel department where your cover letter and resume will go to hibernate for a while, but most people in charge of hiring have a name. A good job application cover letter sample will show that you need to address it to a person rather than “to whom it may concern.”

A good job application cover letter sample may be helpful in giving you an idea of how to draw up an attention grabbing cover letter, but you should change things around into your own words. You want to use your cover letter to give the employer a chance to get to know you, not Job Application Cover Letter Sample Author. A good job application cover letter sample should be a starting point for your cover letter, not a cookie-cutter letter to attach to your resume.

Is it professionally organized? A rambling introduction that wastes time getting to the meat is a recipe for a one-way ticket to the garbage can. So does a jumble of platitudes that just about any college graduate can look up in a book or online.

Is it personalized? A cover letter addressed to “Dear Sir” or “To whom it may concern” is almost useless. Do you feel good when you get mail like that? It’s junk, right? Now imagine reading that hundreds or thousands of times during a harried recruiting season. Only people who don’t want jobs add to a reviewer’s pain.

Is it hard hitting? The stuff in the cover letter has to jump off the page and tell the reader, “You’ve gotta call this person for an interview, because everyone else will be!” That doesn’t mean you say exactly that, or that you have to shout. Tooting your own horn without sounding obnoxious is a bit of an art, but if you can find the balance, you’ll grease the rails.

Does it suggest (or directly ask for) an interview? If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Listen, assertiveness sells. Always has. If you’re assertive in asking for what you want–not rudely demanding, mind you–you’ll boost your chances.

When writing one for teachers most professional resume writers and job counselors take into consideration the specific needs of the school or school system being applied to. Cover letters for teachers are read by the school superintendent, principal, HR director and other education professionals. Additionally in some school systems cover letters for teachers are ready by members of the school board. Since teachers are there to instruct and educate young minds it needs to be especially well written, free of spelling and grammatical errors. Quality printing is essential, as is good quality paper which matches the resume and reference sheet. Cover letters for teachers, followed by resumes for teachers, are the first impressions made of the teachers to their potential new employers, and must be free of error. It also must emphasize the fact that the teacher is a professional, with academic qualifications in the field as well as experience, if applicable.

Teaching is a profession that most enter into for love of learning and a desire to shape future generations. Most teachers are not interested in making a lot of money or they would be in another line of work. Sure, they need to make a decent living, but teaching is not a “get rich” profession. Cover letters for teachers should also emphasize that fact: that the prospective teacher is a skilled and trained professional with a desire to shape the future by teaching students – whatever the age – the designated subject, as well as critical and analytical thinking skills they will use later in life.

Before you look at these, it will pay you in the long run if you understand how a cover letter can work, along with your resume, to get you the job interview that you want.

A job application is either speculative – you want to work for a company, but they are not advertising; or it is an application for an advertised job.

The key to writing a good cover letter is to understand two things. First, that your potential employer will have many applications to look at, either all at the same time if a position has been advertised, or every morning if he or she has been given the job of assessing speculative applications. Second, he or she will likely have very little time to read them and to decide if a candidate merits an interview. So every word on the cover letter has to count.

As your cover letter will be read before your resume, and it is in effect ’selling’ you, it is vital that it tells the employer something about you which will generate interest and a positive feeling about you in the employer’s mind. It has to be, at most, one page long.

Traditionally, a one page cover letter consists of three parts. These are the introduction, the main body, and the sign off.

For the introduction, you must address the potential employer by name: this will immediately differentiate you from more casual applicants. State the position you are interested in, and why you want to fill it. Refer to the job ad if relevant.

For the main body, you must market yourself as the right person for the job or for the company, making the most of your qualifications, skills and experience, and relating them directly to the position you want.

Finally in the sign off, make all your contact details clear and explicit, and remind the employer that further details can be found in your enclosed resume. By this point, he or she should be hooked.