So you have a professional resume and are ready to find the ideal position in which to apply. The final step in being prepared for success is to ensure you have a cover letter to ultimately sell yourself to your prospective employer. This letter is more important than your entire CV or resume as it is this document that will decide on the reader following through to peruse your resume in it’s entirety. I like to think of the cover letter as a sales document that tells a story of eagerness and experience that when perfectly crafted, is the single thing that will capture the reader’s attention and secure an interview and ultimately the position.

You may have a professional resume, followed every step to ensure you have the correct resume format to be considered for almost any position, so now it’s time to create a cover letter to introduce you as the incredible candidate that will sweep this potential employer off their feet. Such a letter introduces you, explains your purpose for writing, highlights your incredible skills and experience and requests an opportunity to meet personally with the potential employer. Be sure to include a call to action, meaning you are ready for the interview and have addressed all key points that you will notice in the advertisement in which you found for the available position.

Precisely because this letter is your introduction to an employer and because first impressions count, you should take great care to write an impressive and effective cover letter free of grammatical errors. Remember that the letter not only tells of your accomplishments but also reveals how effectively you can communicate by sharing and telling a story in a way that draws the reader to learn about you and gets a sense of your personality, enthusiasm for the position and confidence that you are the man or woman for the job!

There are many tips to creating a powerful cover letter that will help you stand out and there should be emphasis on specific words that will entice the reader. Certain words will inspire a feeling of certainty within the potential employer as to your confidence and assurance that you can handle this position at which point the interview then simply becomes a formality. A good thing to do initially is to look for keywords within the job advertisement that you can mirror and match to align with the reader.

This will help you in ensuring that each cover letter is specifically created for each position and has not simply had the header details changed with a generic overview that could have been sent out to many positions before.

Most importantly and I cannot emphasize this enough, be yourself in expressing your experience and personality throughout the letter.

Wishing you every success with your future promising career.