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After you've gotten an employer's attention, the content of your cover letter must convince an employer to interview you.
I always think of cover letters being much like the opening and closing statements that attorneys give when representing a client in court. Before making such statements attorneys carefully analyze facts that prove why their clients should
win - just as your cover letter should do.
They structure and prioritize their arguments for maximum impact and you want to do the same thing with your cover letters. To build a convincing case of your qualifications it's important that you analyze and address each employer's
needs in your cover letters.
Most job seekers write very weak cover letters that don't build a convincing case for their qualifications. By following the strategies you're about to learn you'll create powerful
cover letters that put you way ahead of your competition.
I'd like you to pretend that you want to apply for the position shown
below and need to write a cover letter. On a scrap piece of paper make a list of the personal traits, characteristics and abilities you think would be important to put in your
cover letter in response to this ad. You'll learn more if you do this
cover letter exercise, before reading further.
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DRIVER / DELIVERY PERSON 2+ years experience driving and delivering high value products in the Puget Sound area. Customer Service experience dealing with corporate accounts required. Salary $28,000. Resume to: Ms. Perry, Personnel, XYZ Co., 1456 Harborview Ave, Bremerton, WA, 98212
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How many personal traits and skills did you list? When I share this exercise with job seekers, they often come up with a list like the one on the left. However, the ad asks for
5 specific skills and areas of knowledge which are listed
below.
Which of the lists below do you think will be more likely to grab an employer's attention
in a cover letter for this ad? This cover letter exercise illustrates why most people write such weak cover letters. Job seekers often get off on tangents that seem to relate to what the employer wants to
hear, like those in the left column, but such cover letters fall short because they don't address the specific skills employers are requesting.
The 5 skills in this very small job ad are an excellent example of
why analyzing job ads to write powerful cover letters is so
important. This little exercise helps to explain why my
resume and cover letter clients and readers of my resume and cover
letters books have been able to generate salary increases like
those in the right column.
What Most People List
in the Cover Letter
Bondable
Trustworthy
Dependable
Likes To Deal With People
Accounting Skills
Self-Motivated
Time Management |
5
Key Skills & Areas of Experience
Used in the After Cover Letter
1) 2 + Years Driving Experience
2) Delivering high value products
3) in Puget Sound Area
4) Customer Service experience
5) with Corporate Accounts
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It was quite amazing to me that most people do what's in the
left column - meaning grab things out of the air that make
sense to them - but don't actually match what's requested in
job ads - when writing their cover letters.
This information is extracted from my book, Proven
Resumes Strategies That Have Increased Salaries.
The cover letter strategies in my book have been responsible
for helping clients raise their pay $2,000 to $80,000 more
per year.
If you're having difficulty creating a resume and
cover letter - you
might consider hiring me to write your resume.
The fee is $150 or $250 ... or consider buying my largest
book, Proven
Resumes Strategies That Have Increased Salaries -
it's 331 pages for $9.95.
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Order Master Resume
and Cover Letter Service
by Regina Pontow
Cover
letter landed 14 times as many interviews
from
$36,000 to $53,000
$17,000 pay Increase
sales
resume from $20,000 to $40,000+
from $5 hour offer to $46,000 with $6,000 pay increase
from
$80K to $160K in one job move
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Website
Contents, Regina Pontow, 1997-2013
