Tips to Make A Cover Letter That Will Work For You

The Importance of Resume Cover Letter

When writing a resume it is nearly as important to have a good cover letter, as it is to have a good resume. We will take a look at a job posting and take some time looking through some resume tips that will cover how to get the best cover letter possible.

A Typical Job Posting Could Read Something Like This:

Full charge accountant for nonprofit agency, reporting to Executive Director. Responsible for preparation of financial journals, reports, supervision of accounts payable, accounts receivable, and payroll.

Prepares and monitors budgets. Experience with grant budgets and reports helpful. BS in Accounting and prior relevant experience required. Submit resume and letter of application to ABC Resources, attn: Jane Doe, 123 Friday Lane, Anywhere, NY 12345. Application deadline is 11/15/09. An EEO/AA Employer.

When responding to the above ad it is wise to make sure that you address you skills in the following areas:

Preparing financial journals and reports
Supervision of accounts payable and accounts receivable
Supervision of payroll
Preparation and monitoring of budgets
Experience with grant budgets and reports

You need to make sure that you supply how you received your experience and how much of it you have. Make sure that you have as many points as possible captured in your cover letter as you have completed. It shows your potential employer how you match the needs of his or her company before they even get to the resume.

Since Jane Doe placed this ad, you need to make sure that when you write your cover letter she is the one that you address it to. This shows Jane Doe that not only did you read the job ad, but also that you paid attention to details and took the time to personalize it to her specifically.

Getting Ready to Start the Cover Letter

With resumes you have been told that you are to use a higher quality paper than most copy paper. This is true too for cover letters. You want to make sure that you use the same paper for the cover letter that you used for the resume. This shows conformity and attention to detail again. This will keep everything uniform and causes your resume format to mesh with your cover letter.

Since your resume is done on word processing software, it is necessary that your cover letter be done the same way. Never under any circumstances send a handwritten cover letter. Not only may your handwriting be unreadable, but also it is just not professional looking.

As with resumes, it is best not to use fancy fonts. It's best that you use the same font that you used with the resume to keep a consistent flow between the two documents. Uniformity in this instance is your friend.

Make sure to be brief and to the point. You do not want to ramble on for pages and pages. You want to have about three paragraphs on your cover letter. This, like your resume should be easy to skim and glean information from.

After the Cover Letter is Done

Make sure not to staple your cover letter to your resume. This can cause problems by hiding pertinent information that you may have in your resume. It can also cause tears and rips in your resume making it less and less professional, which is something you definitely something you don't want to do.

Proofread your cover letter at least two times. You want to make sure that you have no spelling or grammatical errors in your cover letter. You want to make sure that you come across as the professional person that you are. So, print your cover letter and proofread the document.

Points to Keep In Mind:

Address all skills mentioned in ad

Address to actual person in posting not a generic person

Use same paper as resume

Use same font as resume

Do not staple cover letter to resume

Be brief and to the point

Limit to one page

Proofread – 2 times

DO NOT hand write cover letter