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Writing a resume cover letter has one aim: To help you get an interview and so increase your chances of landing that job.
Your resume cover letter must make an impact, interest employers in you and place you in the top ten. Remember, the resume cover letter is there to sell—to sell you by showing what you have to offer the employer.
You have to be positive, outgoing, confident and assured. Add this attitude to the professional techniques presented here and you have a sure-fire formula for success. The reward will be more interviews, better job prospects and employment in your chosen career.
Plan your Resume Cover Letter
You must take time to plan your resume cover letter and resume. Prospective employers want information about you to see how you match the their needs.
Take a step back and think before you write. Ask: What can I offer the employer? You need to find the most relevant, specific accomplishments or skills you have to compel the employer to interview you. Your cover letter impress this information on the reader’s so you rise to the top of the list of prospective interviews.
So the first step is to draw up the specific content to use in your cover letter. The better you do this, the better the result and your chances of success.
Write a professional letterhead for your cover letter.
Take the information on name and address, use another font and type size and you can instantly created a better looking and more professional letter. Simple, but effective. Then use quality paper for both your cover letter and your resume.
Keep the administrative information out of the first paragraph
Employers want to know what position you are applying for and where you saw the advertisement. So we usually list this information in the opening sentence of the first paragraph with such a standard sentence such as: I wish to apply for the position of Research Director advertised in the June issue of Employment News.
Although this is clear and to the point, you need a more powerful opening paragraph — one that makes you stand out. Place the administrative information above the body of the letter or as a reference. This frees you up to write a more powerful opening paragraph.
Write a positive, action cover heading with a strong verb.
Use the journalistic technique of putting verbs in your headings. This lets you start your letter by suggesting an action. In the professionally written example above, having the verb joining as the first word of the heading shows confidence — so important in a candidate for a sales post.
Write your key resume achievements
Use your last sentence in your second paragraph to show what you achieved. If this is a sales job, it’s how you increased sales. If it’s for an auditing job, it’s what you saved the company. If it’s a public relations position, it’s the result of the publicity campaign you organized. By putting this information at the end of the paragraph, it’s the one piece of information the reader will remember. Once the employer has been through 30 applications, you want him or her to remember you, in our example above, as the person who improved sales by 30 per cent.
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