Are you one of the many people who think cover letters are passe and out, well, you’re wrong.
You need to be prepared. Just like the Boy Scouts motto, be prepared to have your cover letter read. Yeah. Many people ditch them in the recycle bin or whatever, tear them up. But you need to be prepared because you don’t know whether they’re going to ditch it or recycle. You need to be prepared.
A cover letter takes you from today forwards and a resume takes you from today backwards.
A cover that is written in the personal pronoun, the word I, my, he, or she, and there are five different types of cover letters.
There’s a letter to introduce yourself to executive recruiters. Things they are looking for include whether you’re willing to relocate. And if so, tell them where you’re willing to relocate. They’re also looking for how much time per week are you willing to travel. Is it 10%, 20% or zero, be honest.
The next one is a reply to an advert. In today’s economy, when there are lots of jobs, you don’t have to have a hundred percent of what they’re asking for but be honest and be open with them. Tell them what you don’t have and tell them you’re a fast learner and you will learn that. Or show them how you can help them get around that skill set that they’re looking for.
The next one is a result of networking. Networking brings you huge value. You need to network for your next career and leverage our relationships as a stepping stone, as a lead to get into a company where you want to go and work.
The fourth one is as a result of an email. So you target companies. You want to go and work for ABC company. So you target the person who will be your boss or your boss’s boss.
You need to network with that person. So it’s an introduction to that person to see if you can get leverage into that company and get an informational interview, which invariably goes to a full blown interview.
And finally, the fifth and final cover, like is what I call a pain cover letter. Yeah, P A I N. Through your networking or through your channels, you uncover something that is problem with that company and you believe you can resolve it. So you put a business case in a cover letter on how you can resolve it. So don’t think cover letters are obsolete. They are not, they are a valuable tool to your resume or your CV use them.
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