Cover letter ? the make-or-break tool

When you think of applying for a job, what is the first thing that comes to your mind about the most vital tool you would have to use? Ninety-nine percent of the people would answer the CV. What about you? Well, the correct answer however, is the cover letter.

Ten Dos In The Cover Letter:

• Address the letter to a particular person. Generalized letters sound phony and clich? most of the time.
• Format it correctly and have it reflect your eye for detail and aesthetics; do not use too much underlining, bold or italics in the body ? it actually distracts the person from the main subject; use scan friendly font and formatting.
• Have it printed on a laser printer or electronic typewriter.
• Use high quality paper ? you could use a color other than white, but these should be only extremely light pastel shades of other colors.
• Be very painstaking about spelling and grammar; ensure that you write correct English (or any language your CV would be in) and it has the right punctuation, paragraph style, etc.
• Have the cover letter summarize the contents of the CV and why you think you are the best fit for the job for which you are applying.
• Use easy and engaging language. The person who reads it should feel you are 'talking' with him or her.
• Use it to get things rolling ? ask for an interview, contact opportunity, etc whereby you could have the job search move to the next logical step.
• Have your contact information clearly mentioned in the cover letter; give accurate phone numbers and email ids.
• Have all your CVs forwarded with one cover letter attached.

Five Don'ts In The Cover Letter:

• Do not mass print cover letters; they are not of any use this way ? you are just wasting resources and your time.
• Do not write a cover letter longer than two paragraphs. A long letter would be thrown aside unread when there are hundreds to scan through.
• Do not use a dot matrix dot printer for printing your cover letter, because the quality is very poor and gives a bad impression about its sender.

Do not use fluorescent or bright color paper as this would indicate an over-dramatic person or poor taste. Do not sent a cover letter without spell checking it or checking the grammar thoroughly; there is nothing worse for your job search than a letter full of spelling and grammatical errors.

If you are careful and orchestrate a focused cover letter, this will most often land you the interview you are looking for. A well-written cover letter is the master key to the job search. Use it well.