Sample Resume Blog

Unless otherwise explicitly instructed by the employer, every resume sent out must be accompanied by a cover letter to introduce it.

The cover letter serves a number of purposes:

1. The cover letter gives you a chance to personally introduce yourself to your prospective employer. The cover letter also gives the employer a glimpse into your personality, and if your portrayed personality is compelling enough, it gives the employer a reason to want to learn more about you in the resume, and hopefully consequently invite you to an interview.  As it were, a resume is rather impersonal in tone, and provides a poor forum for a personal introduction. It is this impersonality of the resume that the cover letter bridges. The cover letter, in essence, infuses some personality into your resume — and your personality is a very important factor to the prospective employer. No employer wants to work with an employee who has a sloppy personality. An example of an attractive personality trait, which the cover letter might reveal (depending on how you it lay out,) is neatness and good personal organization. If your cover letter is particularly neat, that alone might earn you an interview with the prospective employer. Conversely, if your cover letter is not neat or is full of typos and grammatical mistakes, it might be reason enough for the employer to deny you an interview, seeing that no one wants to work with a careless employee.

2. The cover letter gives you a chance to prove your communication skills, which are essential in any job. In fact, this is the reason why many employers insist that you write your cover letter in your own handwriting. They want to hear your voice in the cover letter and see how you express yourself. Note that if you prove to have strong communication skills through your cover letter, that alone will be a major competitive advantage over your competitors who are not so great at communication, and can actually land you the job in some instances. At the very least, depicting good communication skills through your cover letter would make the prospect of interviewing you less foreboding for the employer.

3. The cover letter gives you a forum to introduce your resume. Without a cover letter, the resume comes out as ‘exposed’ or ‘hanging’ as it were. It is through a resume that you get a chance to explain to the prospective employer why you are applying for the position. If, for example, you are applying for the job in response to an advertisement placed somewhere in the media, it is only through the cover letter that you get a chance to explain that fact. Otherwise, a resume without a cover letter might leave the employer wondering what it is all about. Or even worse, it might send out the wrong signal that you are presumptive, that is, that you assume that your resume is so good that it doesn’t need a cover letter — and most employers don’t want a job candidate with that kind of attitude.

It is with these purposes in mind that you should tailor your cover letter, keeping the end result in mind.   You can either do this by yourself or you can seek for the help of a professional service like ResumeEdge.com. Although I have not used Amazing Cover Letters by Jimmy Sweeney might solve your problem for a fraction of the cost.