You can never know what happens to a cover letter. Some cover letters are electronically scanned, some are read and some are tossed! You can’t take the risk of not doing a cover letter when your future employer reads and analyzes every response. So bit the bullet and do it.

Here are some tips and issues to remember. A cover letter can do FOUR THINGS:

Hook the reader
- Refer to personal referrals that will open doors, ways you can solve their current business needs, specific experience that will aid your application

Mirror the job posting
- If the job asks for Oracle experience, include the word Oracle. But don't make the matching obvious. E.g. must be excellent team player and you write "I am an excellent team-player".

Highlight your relevant accomplishments
- Improved sales by 10% making my division the highest producer in the company.

Give them extra information about you.
- Answer the show-stopper question - for some employers thinking about visas etc. it was whether I was British or American - so I added joint US/UK citizenship.
- Include the juicey personal information that you can't include in the resume. E.g. Petco values you having a pet. Your personal pet situation does not fit well into a resume but goes well in a cover letter!

And finally keep it short! I usually recommend a one or two line hook and then two or three bullets with accomplishments. Weave into the letter the key words or phrases from the posting that you want to match.

GOOD LUCK!

Author's Bio: 

David Couper is a career coach and writer who for the last twenty years has worked in Europe, Asia, and in the USA with major organizations including the BBC, Fuji Television, Mattel, Sony, and Warner Bros.

He has successfully coached individuals at all levels including CEOs of major companies wanting a new challenge, frustrated souls wanting to make their dream come true, and front-line employees laid off and desperate to get a job.

David has published seven books. His works on interpersonal skills, counseling in the workplace, and management issues (published by Connaught, Gower, HRD Press, Longman, Macmillan/Pearson Publishing, Oxford University Press) have been translated into Swedish, Polish, and Danish, and published in the UK and the USA.

David has a degree in Communication, a postgraduate qualification in education, is certified in a number of training technologies, and has a Masters in Psychology. He is a member of the American Society of Training and Development, Society of Human Resources Professional, Writers Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television.

He has dual US/UK citizenship and speaks French and Japanese.

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