Cover Letters can Make the Difference

Most job hunters spend several hours on a resume and less than ten minutes on a cover letter. Yet the cover letter is seen before the resume in most cases, and often an employer will not even open or review a resume if he or she is not impressed with the cover letter. The fact is a cover letter can be more important than your resume. What can you do with your cover letters to get employers to call you?

First, sending resumes and cover letters to a particular person by name at a prospective employer can give you an edge. Hiring managers will naturally gravitate towards candidates who address a letter to them personally by name. To make sure your resume has the greatest chance at being read, target the hiring authority directly, rather than sending it to an HR staffer or the manager’s assistant. If you can, find someone known to the hiring manager to refer you, and cite his or her name in the letter’s first sentence.

If you have no way to get a name and must send your resume blindly in hopes that you will get attention, your cover letter becomes even more critical. Hiring managers typically spend only a few seconds reviewing each one and yours must engage them immediately if you expect to be selected for interview.

Second, your cover letter should be very brief, less than four short paragraphs of two or three sentences, and include your relevant qualifications for the position. Cover letter writing differs from resume writing as cover letters are like ad copy and resumes are like brochures. If you want your cover letters to get you interviews you need letters that cause the employer to contact you.

Third, your cover letter must be in the right format. Email format is different than a mailed hard copy format. In an email you will have a subject line and you will need to incorporate or attach your resume depending on the employer’s instructions. Some employers do not accept attachments and your email could be blocked by a firewall or redirected to the spam box.

In addition spelling and grammar do count. While the principles and rules of language have been eroded by chat rooms, texting, and email, the business world has not lowered the standards of written communication when judging candidates and hiring. Your writing mistakes will be noticed and count against you.

Cover letters should follow ad copy. The basics of ad copy are AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.) You have employers’ attention when they read your cover letter. You generate their interest by talking in their terms. You create the desire for them to know more about you. This is done by being succinct and exact with your words. The action you want them to take is for them to review your resume and contact you for an interview.

If you are not knowledgeable about ad copy you might want to learn how to write ad copy, hire a professional to create your cover letter, or get a professional software program. Some of the best cover letters available are packaged in the One Click Cover Letter Creator. This software program is loaded with powerful written cover letters for most any job hunter and each one can be customized for you, the job, and the employer. These are letters designed to get you interviews. You are assured of a persuasive cover letter with correct grammar and spelling and there is no cut and paste involved. This software will create your cover letters in your email or word program for you.