May 30 2008

3-Day Cover Letter Mini-Course!

Published at 12:57 am under Resume Letter

Welcome to the 3-day cover letter mini course. Over the next three days you will learn a few tips and techniques that will help make your cover letter stand out from the crowd.

Day One Send your cover letter to a specific person

For todays cover letter lesson you will learn on of the most power things you can do for your cover letter. Do a little research and find the name of the person who is actually doing the hiring.

It is amazing the number of cover letters that get sent with a generic Dear Human Resources Manager or Dear Hiring Manager in the opening paragraph. Not only is it extremely boring, it also shows the person making a decision about your future that you are not interested enough to find their name.

Human beings are funny creatures. We like to see our own name. After reading countless cover letters with generic openings, it will catch their attention when they see their name, and catching their attention is really what this is about.

With so many positions being advertised only on the internet, sometimes it is extremely difficult to find out whom to address your letter to, but the hard the task, the greater the reward. Go the extra mile to find the name, and then use it.

Day Two Be Unique

In day two of the cover letter mini-course youll learn more about how to separate yourself from the job applicant crowd.

One thing that will work in your favor is the number of people that use free sample cover letters as the base for their own cover letter. The reason this is bad for them is that these free samples are bland, generic, and lifeless. They were meant to be an example of what a cover letter might look like. Because they have to appeal to so many different people, they are not very specific about anything. They certainly do not reflect your experiences and qualifications.

Because you are limited to one page you will have to focus on only a couple qualifications to highlight. This isnt a restating of everything that is listed in your resume. You should use your best qualifications, and relate them to why they are relevant to the position to which you are applying.

When you are writing the body of your cover letter, use wording that reflects your passion for the work you do. If there are parts of your job you love, say so. That excitement will show through in your cover letter, and will make the hiring manager stop for a closer look The more you can show that you are not like everyone else, the better off you will be. Draw attention to yourself. That is the only way you will be asked to move on to the next stage.

Day Three Follow up with a phone call

In day three of the cover letter mini-course well look at what happens after you send your cover letter.

Before you close your cover letter, make sure you ask for an interview. This is an important step, and one that is missed by many of the people that will be competing for that same job as you. Call you reader to action by asking for the interview.

Within two or three days follow up your cover letter with a phone call. Many hiring managers say that the majority of job offers go to candidates that checked back on the status of the job. It shows that you are truly interested in the job, and not merely sending out mass applications on a job search web site.

When you make your follow-up phone call make sure you clearly identify your self, what position you had applied for, and let them know that you are following up on a cover letter and resume you sent several days before.

So many people send in their cover letter and resume, then take no further action, that this one step may be the difference between getting an interview and getting totally ignored. The steps you learned over thee past three days will help set your cover letter apart from the others. By showing that you are a unique individual, and that you are truly want this job, you greatly increase the chances that you will get an interview. At that point, its up to you.

Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information on cover letter minicourse checkout his recommended websites.

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