Re: Cover Letters

[Dave Prior <triton!dap -at- UUSTAR -dot- STARNET -dot- NET>]

I landed my current job thanks to a well designed cover letter and a
customized resume.  Each document was tailored to the ad's requirements and
consisted of facts arranged according to the ad's structure.

The cover letter was very straightforward.  An opening paragraph stating
the ad title and where I saw it.  The second paragraph what a header, in
bold, stating: "Your Requirements".  It was followed by the string of
requirements from the ad which I knew I could match or "over match" and in
the order of "strength" as I could fulfill them.  The third paragraph was a
header, in bold, stating: "My qualifications".  It was followed by no more
than four bullets of no more than four lines each which matched the
requirements.  The fourth paragraph mentioned something about how
significant a contribution I would make to the company.

The resume was functionally arranged according to the list of requirements
and was peppered with strong action verbs at the beginning of each
description.

Follow up conversations with interviewers convinced me that the method was
a worthy one.  I got this job that way and most interviewers mentioned that
they were impressed with the amount of information they were able to absorb
in a short time in reading these two documents.  One even had my cover
letter in his hand and told me it was usually the stop point in reading;
especially when he had a couple of hundred of them to wade through at a
crack.  My cover letter was the reason I ended up on the interview pile.

Happy Hunting