A Cover Letter serves to place your resume in context. It explains why you are sending your resume to a particular employer and argues the reasons why a hiring manager should spend fifteen seconds of their life reading your resume (8-20 seconds is the average time an employer spends on a resume). Considering that only one interview is granted per 245 resumes sent out, your resume needs all the help it can get from a good, well-targeted cover letter.
Many employers argue that a resume should never go out without a cover letter. If you are targeting your job search as you should be, then this advice is to be heeded. A cover letter allows you to target a company, perhaps even an individual within the company – and vie for their attention. If you are sending your resume to an employment agency or recruiter, then a cover letter may not be necessary, unless you have specific requirements such as limited availability or the desire to change your career path.
Do Address the cover letter to the hiring manager if you know their name Communicate...
Irrelevant Information: It is so easy to include irrelevant information in your cover letters that...
Traditionally the advice of career guides like this one has been, “Always include a cover...
The following are excerpts from cover letters. Please don’t copy any of these examples: “I...
Here’s a quick introduction to writing an effective cover letter: Be Clear: Don’t meander. Get...
Let’s keep this simple, because above all, a cover letter needs to be simple. Why?...