Cover Letters

Overall, I agreed with the advice from collegegrad.com. However, one point that I didn't agree with was the fact that bosses don't usually read cover letters. I believe that bosses do read cover letters because my Dad is the President of his commercial furniture company and he continuously reminds me how important the cover letters are. This is something that I think could variate depending on who the Hiring Manager is.

The section that was most useful to me was the "Best Use of a Cover Letter Section." Especially the formula for cover letters. For example, what is supposed to go in each paragraph. I think this will really be of use to me when I write my cover letter. Also, I really learned a lot from the Cover Letter Checklist, this can be somewhere that I can visit when I am finished with my cover letter and want to make sure that I have everything correct.

Some things that I was not aware of was the fact that cover letter is supposed to be about the company that you are applying for and not about you. I guess I had always just assumed that since it was a cover letter introducing your resume you should talk about yourself but I am aware now that this is not the case. Also I did not know that in your cover letter that you were supposed to refer to a specific person in the company. This also leads to the fact that your cover letter is prepared differently for each resume because it is meant to relate to that company only. I thought cover letters were like resumes, you had the same thing down no matter where it was going. I thought it was really interesting that the website said to be personal and to hand write a P.S. at the end of your letter. This comes a relief to me in some ways because the business world has always seemed so uptight and tense.

The most enlightening quote to me, in this article was: "The resume explains your features, your cover letter explains your benefits."