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Writing Your Cover Letter

When you are thinking of applying for a new job, the skill of cover letter writing is really worth taking a close look at because there are many people out there who spend a tremendous amount of time and effort perfecting their resume, only to speed through the process of cover letter writing. This is a potentially large mistake, as the cover letters are the first and sometimes the only things that a hiring manager will see about you. This is because there are many applicants applying for the same position at one time and how you express your interest in a position may just be all they need to know before deciding on an interview.

Unlike a resume, the cover letter has to be fine-tuned each time you send it out. A resume can be frequently printed in bulk; after you create and edit a resume, you can generally let it just be there for a little while before making significant changes to it. Cover letters, on the other hand, will change literally every time you send them out because they need to be tailored to the company and position you are applying for.

How will they change, you may ask? Just to point this out, you should always address each letter to the hiring manager personally. You should never use general salutations like “To Whom It May Concern.” This is not just impersonal; but it also demonstrates that you haven't taken the time to research the company to which you are applying. With the resources of the Internet, it is easy to find out the identities of human resource directors; so you should take a few extra minutes to find out some names, and you may be rewarded with a lucrative job in the end.

Chances are that you will be applying to firms that don't all do the same exact thing either. When you're writing a cover letter, you should tailor each sheet slightly to the company to which you are sending it because this is just smart sense. If you mention some specifics about the company's product or staff members, you will demonstrate that you are interested in the company. This works by mentioning casually something that the company has done recently. Even better, if you've met or spoken with someone at the company before, a little bit of name dropping can not hurt you. These personal touches help considerably in the creation of winning cover letter writing.