photo credit: Jannie Chien – Morguefile
Cover letters 101:
If you haven’t read my previous post on resumes, click here: http://goo.gl/H0Pxbr
Now that your resume is complete, you are now ready to compose a cover letter to email along with your attached resume.
Including a cover letter with your resume makes it easier for an employer to call you for an interview. Introducing yourself makes you memorable, adds a human connection, and makes your contact info easily accessible to employers. It also enables you to send out multiple resumes, and tweak each one to a specific employer in the cover letter.
A cover letter is a brief introduction to you, in a few paragraphs, summarizing your skills, experience, or courses on your resume that qualify you for the position you are applying for.
Before you compose the letter, decide what attracts you to this opportunity, and what skills or education or training that you have which are relevant to the position. Expressing why you are interested in working for this employer and what skills you have to offer to the company makes a personal connection, that competing job applicants may neglect to make.
The cover letter includes contact information, such as your name, address, cell phone number, home phone number, and email address at the top, and the date. The salutation in the letter depends on if you know the name of the person who is hiring for the position, such as –‘Dear Mrs. Jones’, or if you don’t know the name, you could phone and ask, or you can write – ‘To Whom It May Concern’.
Start the letter with your intention: “I am applying for the position of landscaper for your hotel”. Then explain why this position interests you and how you are qualified for it. For example, as my attached resume shows, I was employed at Cedar Garden Center last year, and learned how to place and plant trees and flowers on-site under the direction of the head landscaper. Adding information such as: “I enjoy working outdoors with plants, and have enrolled in the night school horticulture program at college” lets them know that you will work hard, you take pride in your work, and are planning a career in this field in the future.
This brief letter introduces employers to you, informs them why you want to work for them, and how you can help grow their business, gets you noticed amongst a crowd of applicants, and may land you an interview for the position!.