Using Cover Letter Examples to Get A Job Faster
by Erik J. Michaels
There are well over 300 million people in the USA today. Looking for a job as one of them can prove to be no easy chore...in fact, according to national statistics, you could be at it for nine months or more! Chances are good that you're going to need a serious edge over the competition if you want to get a good job.
Well, such an edge actually exists. There's no such thing as a sure thing in this field, but the edge I'm talking about can rocket your odds of snagging a job faster and seriously reduce your time spent on the prowl. What is this edge? It's called a cover letter.
I've told people before that to turn a resume in that doesn't have a cover letter would be like showing up buck-naked to a serious interview. As you can imagine...you wouldn't likely do too well in that situation. It'd be much better to show up in a gorgeous Armani suit, would it not? That would create a great first impression, showing your businesslike side and making the employer think of what a profitable relationship they could have with the hardworking, responsible person you are. Armani, thy name is "Cover Letter."
Now, first elimination is always the cover letter. The people who show up naked to their interviews get thrown out first, while the guys with the best, most expensive suits go much further. The better your cover letter, the better you start out. Of course you'll have to be qualified for the job and ace your real interview, but a great cover letter can GET you that interview.
So what do you do to improve your cover letter? Why don't you try looking at some example cover letters that have worked for other people? It'd be a bad idea to copy someone else's letter, but learning from examples and utilizing someone else's technique is pure genius. Ask yourself a variety of questions as you read the examples, such as why this worked for them and what makes it different from yours.
This will not only enhance your skill at writing successful cover letters, but also a bunch of analysis skills that generally prove invaluable in the workplace and will raise your value in the eyes of employers. Job stability is very dependant on how valuable you are to the company, so naturally this is a good thing.
But I feel I must stress to you one thing right now. A great cover letter has two things required of it that it simply MUST do in order to really be a success. First, it has to present your qualifications. That goes hand in hand with a resume, to which a cover letter is attached anyways. That's kinda common sense, and not too difficult to understand.
However, you must remember that the highest priority of your cover letter is to promote and/or request an interview with the potential employer. If your cover letter doesn't do this, rewrite it. Never forget that making perhaps the single most important part of applying for a job is getting the jump from "the next piece of paper in the large stack" to "person sitting in my office" in the minds of your potential employers. You are no longer just another application, and instead become a serious potential employee...that's when the cover letter can be considered a success.
To start off, you can get some free cover letter examples on this site. There you'll find what's needed to learn how to write a cover letter. With that knowledge at your disposal, you can get a job faster. You are welcome to reprint this article - but get your own unique content version here.
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