13 September 2009

Why You Need to Find a Good Resume Cover Letter Template

Resume Cover Letters

Resume Cover Letter Articles : Why You Need to Find a Good Resume Cover Letter Template

Author: Dirk Daggler

If you are on the hunt for the perfect job, you may think that attaching a cover letter to your resume might not be such a big deal. After all, you have all your information outlined in your resume, why bother with such an inconvenient formality as a resume cover letter? What you don't realize is that your prospective employer may get hundreds of applications in a day, and the hiring manager has to sort out through all these resumes to find the right person fit for the job. How would you fancy reading through hundreds of resumes in a day. Not a very appetizing thought, is it?

This is where the resume cover letter comes in. The hiring manager won't want to waste time sifting through the chaff just to get to the wheat. Having an exceptional introduction to your resume in the form of a cover letter will serve as something to call the hiring manager's attention to the meat of the matter.

A cover letter that is exceptionally well-written, as well as attention-grabbing, will alert the hiring manager to the fact that here is someone who is enthusiastic and pays enough attention to detail by not leaving anything to chance. The cover letter will be the beacon that leads straight to your resume, and having an outstanding one will help you stand out above the rest of the other job applicants.

A simple, run-of-the-mill cover letter will not work either, as there is a good chance that the other resumes will have cover letters of their own. You will need something that sends a powerful message as well as catches the interest of the hiring manager immediately. Not only should it be a list of all your accomplishments and qualifications; it should be a testament to your meticulous dedication, your focused discipline, and your unflagging eagerness. In short it should serve as a personal advertisement that promotes you as the right person for the job.

Before beginning to compose your killer cover letter, you'll need to do your research. It always helps to be prepared in the best way possible without leaving anything to chance. Look through the thousands of cover letter samples online to find the best resume cover letter template to suit the job you are applying for, as well as the kind of impression you want to make. A good resume cover letter template will have quality structure and format, as well as unique sentence phrasing that will differentiate it from the generic cover letters that you usually find over the Internet.
As soon as you've found one, get to work crafting your own cover letter based on the resume cover letter template you've chosen. You'll need to check and re-check your grammar, spelling and sentence structure to ensure that you have everything down pat. A meticulous and error-free cover letter will get that hiring manager's attention without fail.

In closing...

There are a lot of questions posed by job applicants about how they can land the job of their choice. Among these questions, the necessity of including a resume cover letter ranks among the top. With a good resume cover letter template to base your actual cover letter on, you can be sure that you'll have covered all your resume bases, and can be confident about submitting your application without any misgivings.

About the Author:
Dirk Daggler is an online reviewer of niche websites. Want to learn more about an resume cover letter templates or cover letter templates? Visit the website.

Article Source: Resume Cover Letter Samples, Resume Examples, Cover Letter Templates, Writing Cover Letter articles at ArticlesBase.com - Why You Need to Find a Good Resume Cover Letter Template

12 September 2009

How To Write A Resume Cover Letter

Resume Cover Letters

Resume Cover Letter Articles : Selling Yourself Well: How To Write A Resume Cover Letter

Author: Mario Churchill

You are ready to apply to the job of your dreams. You have a thick, killer resume listing all your achievements and experience. You have a killer transcript showing all the marvelous grades you got on the way to a successful career. You have a resume cover letter that has enough bite to take your prospective employer by the neck and make him or her your slave forever.

What does that great resume cover letter look like? A resume cover letter should act as the complement, and not just the cover, to your transcript and resume. It should show your prospective employers what your resume and transcript cannot. Many prospective employers hardly hire new people merely on the basis of their educational attainment, or their breadth of experience. Prospective employers actually read the cover letter to gauge your personality and passion for the job.

How can such a small document do such a great thing? Believe it or not, your cover letter is actually a reflection of your personality. There is little you can do to a resume or transcript, but a cover letter's contents are entirely in your power. A resume cover letter, moreover, should show passion: achievements, without passion, can seem empty, and no employer wants a boring employee with no spark or fire. Show that spark or fire through your resume cover letter!

First, make your letter personal. Address it to the person who will hire you, and avoid addresses such as "Dear Madame or Sir," or "Dear Mr or Ms," or, "To whom it may concern." Such addresses should be reserved for legal documents or impersonal correspondence. Your cover letter should not alienate your recipient, and should show that you are applying exclusively to the company, not placing them in your personal slush pile.

Second, don't be afraid to list your achievements. Never sell yourself short: be confident in everything that you have achieved. After all, you worked hard to get where you are, right? However, don't gush about your achievements, as you already have your resume to back you up; and make sure that the company needs to hear what good things you have to say about yourself.

This brings us to the third point: do research about the company to which you are applying. You need to know a company's goals and vision, and use this information to write your resume cover letter. If your career goals are perfectly aligned with those of the company's, then you may soon be looking at a match made in heaven.

Fourth, be brief and direct to the point! Some naïve job applicants assume that managers and prospective employers are stiff beings with no hearts, minds, or senses of humor. Although this can be true for some managers, many prospective employers actually look for someone who has the excitement, enthusiasm, and passion for the job. However, they want to see someone expressing all this in four paragraphs or less. Your prospective employers' time is sacred, so save them a few minutes of their precious schedules by making a short cover letter that goes straight to the point.

Fifth, show how much you want to be interviewed. Provide all your contact information, and say that you are open to an interview and would appreciate being spoken with regarding the company and the job opening. If you show an active voice in your resume cover letter, you just might land the job.

Your resume is useless without the right resume cover letter. Your achievements can ring dull if you don't have the personality to back it up. Are you ready for that job application? Get that resume, transcript, and cover letter ready, and make them the best of their kind.

About the Author:
Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information on write resume cover letter checkout his recommended websites.

Article Source: Resume Cover Letter Samples, Resume Templates, Cover Letter Examples and articles at ArticlesBase.com - Selling Yourself Well: How To Write A Resume Cover Letter

11 September 2009

Writing Resume Cover Letters - 6 Tips To Get The Job

Resume Cover Letters

Resume Cover Letter Articles : Writing Resume Cover Letters - 6 Tips To Get The Job

Author: Abhishek Agarwal

When you have completed the ideal resume, then the step that follows is the frequently dreaded covering letter. Preparing a cover letter for a resume is a challenge since it is difficult to determine what must be mentioned in the letter and what has already been enclosed in your resume and what conditions, phrases and words are vital to catch the reader's attention.

Several key points must be kept in mind while writing a resume cover letter. They must attract the reader to look at the entire resume. The best tips that may help you to write a perfect curriculum vitae cover letter are as follows:

1. Mention the position you are applying for. Do not assume that the employer or interviewer will know why you're mailing in your resume. Clearly indicate the position that you're applying for, using the same terms as in job posting or advertisement. Sometimes, you might even have to mention the location you are applying to, if there are several listings for different locations.
2. If you are preparing a cover letter in order to enquire about prospective positions in the future, indicate this point clearly. Whenever you are enquiring about the chances of employment, make sure you specify which areas, sections or departments you wish to apply for.
3. Indicate in the resume cover letter where you discovered about the job position or job position. This may be from an internet career web site, a general listing posted on the internet, by a professional publication, an advertisement in the paper or in the company's own website. If you have been referred through an employee or manager working in the company you can mention their name too.
4. Highlighting your educational qualification and previous work experience relevantly in a brief and succinct paragraph is essential so that it draws the reader's attention into reading the complete resume.
5. Use a normal, non-decorative font of size 10-14, with sufficient spacing on the page. Composing resume cover letters must strictly follow the rules and regulations involved in resume writing; avoid crowding, and the use of any graphics or fonts which are difficult to read.
6. Customize every cover letter to suit the particular information of the job; do not use a generalized covering letter for every job.

Preparing resume cover letters does call for time and thought. It is often recommended that you have somebody to go through your letter and check for grammatical errors, sentence structure, spelling mistakes and to make an overall comment on your covering letter. It is very important to avoid stapling the covering letter of the resume. Instead, use a paper clip to ensure that the reader is able to review the resume with ease.
About the Author:

Abhishek is an expert at conducting interviews and he has got some great Interview Success Secrets up his sleeves! Download his FREE 82 Pages Ebook, "How To Ace Any Interview" from his website.

Source: Resume Cover Letter Samples, Cover Letter Examples, Resume Cover Letter Templates and articles at http://www.articlesbase.com/

10 September 2009

Resume Cover Letter Template Blunders

Resume Cover Letters

Resume Cover Letter Template Blunders by Mario Churchill

One spends hours perfecting their resume when job hunting. They ensure that all their skills are well defined, and their job duties and titles sounds more professional than they really are. However, when it comes time to really sell themselves, they fall prey to a resume cover letter template. Why would they pair a well-written resume with a resume cover letter template which does nothing to compliment their job skills? I don't know either. A resume cover letter template's intention is to ease the stress of job-seekers. Yet it only makes it worse by ensuring an applicant does not get the desired position. One who uses a resume cover letter template does nothing to assist one from standing out to the hiring manager, which is the only way to earn an interview amongst hundreds, if not thoughts, of other job hunters.

A resume cover letter template does not contain the most important elements of any cover letter. The whole point behind a resume cover letter is to get an interview. In order to do this, a resume cover letter must be convincing and demonstrate all the skills one so painstakingly perfected on their resume. After committing so much time on creating a resume that looks professional, it makes little sense to leave the job underdone by using a resume cover letter template.

What is a resume cover letter template? A resume cover letter template is a pre-generated cover letter where one only has to "fill in the blanks". Resume cover letter templates can be found included in most word processing software (which I will never understand) or by doing a search on the internet. With resume cover letters so readily available, it goes to show that most people use this method when applying for jobs. It is also an assumption that the way to land an interview is by being one of the first applicants for the job. This is not necessarily the case. A hiring manager is looking for the best candidate for the job and is not simply going to choose the first person to come along. They want to find the best applicant. If a resume cover letter does not grab their attention, which is what a resume cover letter achieves, then they are not going to waste time reviewing the applicant further.

Using a resume cover letter template is the quickest way for one's resume to end in the trash pile. A resume cover letter template gives the impression that one is a nameless, faceless, and mindless individual who just wants to get a job, any job. This is not a promising characteristic of a potential employee. A company is looking for an individual which has passion and enthusiasm. They also want an employee who is dedicates to the company and wants to see the company excel. How is one going to convey this to a hiring manager when they are just blanks filled into a resume cover letter template?

The answer is simple. They aren't. It is important to move away from using resume cover letter templates and begin using a personalized resume cover letter that makes the hiring manager convinced that one is the right person for the position. It is definitely more work, at least a first, but the process of a personalized cover letter reaps greater benefits. The percentage of positive responses to a personalized cover letter, versus a resume cover letter template, is greater. Thus the amount of resumes a job-seeker has to send out is lessened. This makes the initial work of writing a resume cover letter even out against the traditional job-seeker which uses a resume cover letter template.

A personalized resume cover letter should, first and foremost, have a beginning sentence which makes the hiring manager interested enough to continue reading. If one can learn this value skill in writing a resume cover letter, then half the word is already done! A resume cover letter template will never be able to do this, no matter how special it or, or how much a website promises positive results. A resume cover letter template is just too general to be able to reach this accomplishment. So spend a little time learning what it is that makes a resume cover letter special, and then do it.

About the Author:
Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information on resume cover letter template checkout his recommended websites.

Article Source: Resume Cover Letter Samples, Cover Letter Templates, Resume Cover Letter articles at ArticlesBase.com - Resume Cover Letter Template Blunders!

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