Never, Never, Never Neglect the Cover Letter!

A few years ago a client mentioned that she had sent quite a number of resumes and was getting no response. Knowing her credentials to be impeccable, I asked what she said in her cover letter. Her response? "I don't have a cover letter because I have been sending them online."

After I recovered from choking, we went over the importance of a cover letter even in the modern age, created one, and she immediately began getting multiple calls for interviews.

How do you include a cover letter in response to online job postings you ask? Simple. We'll get to that in a minute. First let's understand the importance of a cover letter and what it accomplishes that a resume alone can't.

In the old days, a resume was sent via snail mail and the cover letter was nearly always requested: "Send a resume with cover letter to P.O. Box..." The primary reason for the cover letter was to help the recipient screen the resumes. If the cover letter was poorly written the chance of the resume getting read was slim, unless you were one of only three applicants for a position.

Guess what? That is still true, it has just taken on a slightly different form. The primary purpose of a cover letter is to get your resume read and help you get a call for an interview. You use the cover letter to:

• Explain why you are applying for a specific position and where you learned about it.


• Direct the reader's attention to something important and relevant in your resume, i.e., here is why you should want to talk with me.


• Explain briefly and in a positive way why you are specifically interested in this position.
  
• Request an interview and tell them the best way to reach you.

The cover letter should always be kept to one page and the format goes like this:

Heading: Should match your resume heading (name and contact info)

Date:

Name and address of recipient

Salutation. If you don't have a contact name, you may say "To Whom it May Concern:"

Paragraph 1: Why you're writing. "I am writing in response to your advertisement for a window washer posted on xyzwindowwashers.com."

Paragraph 2: Why you're a logical choice. Write two or three sentences about yourself that would be relevant to the job and make them want to call you.

Paragraph 3: Request the interview and provide them with the best times and plaes to reach you. You may also indicate here if you are applying in confidence so they know not to divulge your search to your current employer.

As for how to include a cover letter when you're responding online, there are a couple of ways. If you have been asked to send the resume as an e-mail attachment, you can either make the e-mail message your cover letter (same format and length) with the resume attached, or make it the first page of the attachment which is the way I prefer because then if the resume gets forwarded or printed and handed to someone, the cover letter is more likely to go with it. Use your best judgment. And often now when you complete on online resume form there is an option to include a cover page. Always do this if the opportunity exists.

The cover letter is your introduction. It gives the reader a sense of your personality in a way that a resume cannot. Unless you are applying for a skill-specific position where your skills outweigh the importance of your ability to communicate and get along, I would not expect you to get many calls for interviews without it.

If you don't have a cover letter to use or if you're not confident about the one you have, I am happy to help. Go to http://coachgwen.com/cch and look for the "a la carte services." Developement of a cover letter is one of the services offered.