Do you need a cover letter?

Do you need a cover letter? The short answer is yes.

About 50% of employers don't even look at a cover letter, but for the other 50% who do, it's imperative that you have a powerful letter to go with your resume.

Why do 50% not read your cover letter? Imagine you are an employer, advertising a job. You get 300 responses. That is 600 pages, if the resumes are generally one page long, 900 pages if they are two pages long. If you ditch all the cover letters you have just saved yourself reading 300 pages. Quite a time saving.

But back to those who do: what do they want to find in your cover letter?

Firstly say where you found the advertisement and the position title.

Then highlight the main strengths and experience you have that the employers seems to want the most. This can take one or two paragraphs.

Next, visit the employers website, or look them up in the yellow pages, and to your cover letter add a short statement about something you find interesting or exciting about the company.

Lastly is the call to action. This is where you tell the employer what you expect to happen next.

With an advertised job, this will mean just stating that you look forward to hearing from him/ her, and hope they will interview you.

With an undavertised job, you state that you will call in a few days, or a week, in the hope of setting up an interview. (And then make sure you do call!)

Thank the employer for taking the time to read your material, and close with "Sincerely", and your name.

One page, no more and lots of white space.

That's your cover letter. It's job is not to get you the job. It's job it to get the employers to read your resume so take time and put some thought into what you write, just in case you hit one of the 50% of employers who read cover letters.

Need more help and detail on writing a powerful, result-driven cover letter?

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