Award Winning Cover Letters

You may not win any awards for the cover letters that you enclose when you send out your resumes, but you may increase your odds of them actually getting read, if you follow a few simple steps.

Here are some quick tips for crafting award winning resume cover letters...

1. Keep it brief. Your resume is the document that conveys your qualifications, therefore your cover letter need not go on and on about how wonderful you are.

2. Remember it serves a purpose. It is announcing you – and your enclosed information, your resume.

3. Tell them what you’re doing: "I’m applying for the position of..." AND "Enclosed is my resume for the position of..."

4. Clearly state what position you’re applying for. Don’t assume the Human Resources person will automatically know what job you want or that they only have one opening.

5. Highlight a few of your strong suits. Although brevity is the key here, you don’t want to merely say, "Here’s my resume. Bub Bye."

6. Don’t be redundant with contact information. All that pertinent information should be on your resume.

7. Don’t staple your cover letter to your resume. Often photocopies need to be made and it just frustrates the person making the copies to have to remove your staples. Use a paperclip if you feel the need to attach it; else just send it on top of your resume.

8. Typos. That’s an obvious one. It’s hard to proof your own work. Find one other person to give both your cover letter and resume a glance over. You’re dead in the water if your cover letter has misspellings, poor grammar or typos.

Below is a sample letter you can use as a guide (customize the words in capital letters):

DATE Human Resources COMPANY NAME HERE RE: NAME OF VACANT POSITION I have enclosed my resume. I am very much interested in working with you as your POSITION TITLE. As you will see from my enclosed resume I am qualified in a variety of areas. (Or I am uniquely qualified for this position because of my vast experience in ...). My college degrees are in DEGREE AREA with a minor in SECONDARY MINOR. I have spent the last two decades performing INSERT SIMILAR RESPONSIBILITIES. I am anxious to discuss this opportunity with you further. Respectfully, YOUR NAME

You as can see, the cover letter above is short and to the point. It serves a purpose of prefacing your resume. Don’t waste your time going on and on and on. It will not get read.

As it stands, you have a 50/50 chance that anyone will even read your cover letter. Are you willing to take 50% odds that it will be read, only to have a lousy cover letter that will essentially hinder your resume from consideration?

Follow the simple steps above and you’ll make a great first impression. Of course, it’s up to you to have knowledge, skills and abilities to back it; but at least you’re starting off right!