ArticlesReader.com Menu
Newest Articles
Most Viewed Articles
ArticlesReader.com RSS
Submit Article
Login
Signup
Search the articles

Articles Main Categories
Advice
Animals
Automobiles
Business
Career
Communications
Computer Programming
Computers
Entertainment
Environment
Family
Fashion
Finance
Food
Health & Medical
Home & Garden
Humor
Internet Business
Internet Marketing
Legal
Leisure & Recreation
Marketing
Other
Politics
Reference & Education
Religion
Self Improvement
Sports
Technology & Science
Travel
Writing
Subscribe
Receive alert message from us when new articles submitted to our site for free.

Enter your name

Enter your email

Syndicate

















Related Products
Home::Writing

Cover Letters - Are you telling them what they want to know?

Author : Amit Pujar
Let's face it, recruiters (or employers) are smarter than we think.
Big organizations pay a hefty salary to their HR department to
filter out and sieve through hundreds and thousands of resumes.
The idea is to build an organization with people of the right
mental aptitude. Most of the top organizations believe strongly
in a motto - "People are our greatest assets". Your cover letter
goes a long way in capturing and retaining the attention of these
people whose main job is to recruit people and coordinate with the
workforce.

A well-written cover letter engages the recruiter and pushes him to
spend more time reading your detailed resume. Before you start off
writing your cover letter, write down what you want to convey on a
paper. Read it once, twice, thrice and then set off for a good
start. Pack in as much power as you can, because it is these 400
or 500 words that can make the difference.

Have these things on your mind before you start off writing:

Keep your sentences short and avoid using really long sentences
because you don't want the recruiter to read it twice to understand
what you're trying to convey. Got the point.?
"Keep your sentences s-h-o-r-t."

Keep your language simple. "I take immense pleasure in applying for
this esteemed position in this esteemed organization." Hell.! Your
employer knows more about his organization than you do. So you can
as well cut the "false" praise. Maybe a subtle mention can do
wonders. "I look forward to work with JK Industries".

Organize the content of your cover letter into small paragraphs or
bulleted points, not exceeding three paragraphs. Typically each
paragraph can contain 3 or 4 sentences.

Do NOT use slang or spoken words like "Lookin' fo a kewl break into
yo IT world".

Make sure your cover letter (and resume) is free from spelling
or grammatical errors.

And most important: Deliver what the employer is looking for.

So, what should you put in your cover letter?

Ask yourself two questions. One, why should the employer choose
you over others? And two, what can you give to the company that
others cant? Skills, yes. Proven experience, better.

A good way to start writing is with the correct greeting phrase.
If you know the name of the person you are addressing then you
can start with 'Dear Ms. Stevenson' or 'Dear Mr. Washington'.
Do not use their first names. A bad greeting would be 'Hi Jane'
or 'Hello George'.

The first paragraph is to contain a reference. If this is a
response to an advertisement or a vacancy listing, this is
where you refer to get their attention. Alternatively you
can put in a separate line mentioning your reference.
(Ref: Your advertisement on Jobsite.com - Ref # 12345).

If you're mentioning your reference in the first paragraph,
you can continue on to include why you applied for that position.
A good way of connecting the reference to your application is
"my skills and your requirement are a good match."
Put that in your own words.

In the next paragraph, you justify your statement about why you
think that your skills and the skills required for the position
are a good match. Make a single line reference to a particular
achievement in your current (or previous) job that is along
similar lines so that the employer will know exactly what he's
looking for. A good example would be "Set up a fully operational
network of franchisees in Southern France for retailing ABC Coffee".

Avoid mentioning skills you don't have or projects you have
never worked on. Because sooner or later, you're going to face it;
when the interviewer looks into your cover letter (or resume) and
says "OK, Mr. Stephens, can you give me an instance of how you can
use XML to port data from a backend system into a Middleware
application"? And that's when you mind starts racing, "XML??
Middleware?? Port..?? Is that my resume he's got..???". God bless
you if it's not your resume.

If there are more achievements you want to include, write them down
in bulleted points. It's easier for the employer to read, comprehend
and get a good picture of your capabilities. Do not reproduce your
entire resume here. 2 or 3 such points will do perfectly fine. Of
course do not include irrelevant achievements like "Won a Silver
Medal in 200 x 4 Men's Relay Race conducted by Louisville Young
Adults Club in 1991". Not unless you're applying for the post of a
Physical Trainer or Coach.

You have made your point here. You know why you're applying. And
recruiters like that. You know your responsibilities, the risks
involved and the tasks you'll be handling. You're just the person
they're looking for. At least, you're one of the persons they'd like
to talk to before handing over the employment contract.

An ending note can make quite an impression. Tell them your resume
is attached and that you're "looking forward to explore this
opportunity
further". Include an address and telephone number for them to contact
you. Sign off with a "Yours Truly" or "Best Regards" and put your
complete name under it.

Get into form and write out your winning cover letter.


About the Author

Amit Pujar is a copywriter/technical writer
currently heading the content department of
an online publication. Amit writes on a
variety of subjects and is currently working
on his first non-fiction. He can be reached at
pujar@yahoo.com.

Spam emails More free articles

Related articles


  1. Direct Sales Reps CAN Write Articles - Here's How!
  2. Speakers and Trainers - The Internet is Your Biggest Megaphone
  3. Creating Your Perfect Article Summary – 7 Tips
  4. Mumblings
  5. Self-Examination
  6. The Writer and the Web
  7. What Nationally Published Columnist, Cindy Laferle Has To Say About Writing & Journalism
  8. Starting a Local Writer's Group
  9. Putting The Critics In Their Place
  10. The article about nothing
  11. Words Matter
  12. Indispensable elements of a powerful law essay
  13. Article Marketing 101: The Perfect Author Resource Box
  14. Getting Looked Over, Without Getting Overlooked: Writing for Scanners and Skimmers
  15. How to Position Yourself to be an Expert
  16. Increasing Web Traffic With Original Articles
  17. Success Starts with Articles
  18. Finding Your Way Through Online Articles
  19. Technical Writing for the Terrified
  20. Got Lingo? The Terminology Of Marketing With Articles
  21. How To Identify Your Own Style Of Writing
  22. How to Use Articles to Generate Free Traffic to Your Website
  23. Writing Helpful Help – A Minimalism Checklist
  24. Power Writing 101: Tips and Tricks to Get You Taken Seriously!
  25. How To Write Thank You Letters With Class
More related feeds
Job Hunting 101: Part Two—Cover Letters and Resumes (Guest Post by ...
The cover letter sells you and the resume is supporting documentation. For the rest of us the cover letter is there to act as a paper towel if the HR guy spills his coffee. I’ve had several people in hiring tell me that they never read ...

3 Reasons Why Your Investment Banking Cover Letter is Making You ...
3 Reasons Why Your Investment Banking Cover Letter is Making You Look Like a Fool and What to Do About It. “I have read Monkey Business, Liar’s Poker, and When Genius Failed each 3 times and consider them my collective bible. I know I ...

Letters from Birdfall: Casual Raiding or, "It's Possible to Mix ...
Expectations -- You cannot tell people "we want to start raiding" and get them to join based on that, then make them wait 6 months while you try to work out the kinks. It doesn't work. They have to be there for friendship first. ...

Fighting The “Seth” Out! : CIOPakistan.com - Business Technology ...
Always tell them that you would talk about it tomorrow and only for their comfort tell them that you know why this is happening! 9.They come late the next morning: When you have prepared in head all the answers and reach the office 5 ...

Let Your Resume Cover Letter Do The Talking | Amazing Resumes
The worst thing you could do is give up or announce your race as a means to screen yourself for an applicant when they haven't requested you to. If nothing else it offends the interviewer and leaves them wondering why you felt it ...

AHA interviews, redux. « The Edge of the American West
It’s your responsibility, then, to tell the rest of the committee why your scholarship is important. You want them to remember you and your project when they go to the bar that evening to talk over how the day’s interviews went. ...

Cover/Query Letters | Amazing Resumes
The recipe for creating the perfect cover/query letter is simple: give editors and agents what they want, no more and no less. That's it. Basically, you need to.

Michelle Malkin » Undercover at Planned Parenthood
The nurse also coaches Rose to cover for the 31-year-old man by saying he is only 14. She says, “You’ve seen him around, you know he’s 14, he’s in your grade and whatever. You know what I mean.” This is unreal - how does the pro-life ...

Postcards from Insanity...: Update from MyLife
*If a word is misspelled in the dictionary, how would we ever know? *Whose cruel idea was it for the word "lisp" to have an "s" in it? *Have you ever noticed that if you rearranged the letters in mother in law, they come out to Woman ...

How do I tell my crazy flatmate I don’t want to be friends? | News ...
Interviews for HM are like job interviews. They are on their best behaviour and they want to make an impression. They’ll tell you things you want to hear. Then they move in and nothing is what is was supposed to be. ...

 


 

© 2007 articlesreader.com - All Rights Reserved