Why Write a Cover Letter to Accompany Your Resume?
- By Marlyn Damerick
- Published 02/8/2010
- Career
- Unrated
When you answer a job ad, you -- along with a lot of other people -- are providing a catalog of your labor qualifications to the shopper, the employer. The employer looks over the sale materials and selects a group of candidates to scrutinize further. If you don't include a well-crafted cover letter with your resume, it's like publishing a list of computer specfications with no ad copy.
No matter what they're buying, hardly anybody does that, because it doesn't work as well. Cereal companies show pictures of healthy people or cartoon characters on the front and nutritional information in a little box on the back. The book dealer tells you what you'll learn from the book and who else liked it, and you have to look to find out how big it is, how many pages it has or whether it has an index. The online computer distributor tells you the new model lightning fast and will hold all your photos and let you play advanced 3-D games, and you have to click a separate tab to get the RAM and speed and ports.
What do these master marketers know that too many job hunters forget?
People make their initial selection based on benefits and then their final pick based on features. Your resume, as important as it is, is your list of specifications. Your cover letter is your explanation of the benefits of buying your labor.
Too many job hunters, failing to understand this important fact, neglect the cover letter. Even if they send it, they don't give it enough attention. That's bad for them, but good for the smart job hunter who makes the effort to write a good letter selling the interview.
In a seller's market -- one with many buyers and few sellers -- the sellers can get away with posting a list of specifications. But when the competition ramps up -- when a lot of sellers are chasing fewer buyers -- as in a downturn in the employment market, smart sellers learn to focus on the often intangible solutions to the buyers' problems.
They don't just sell coffee; they sell atmosphere. They don't just sell a book; they sell a way of life. They don't just sell an audio device; they sell a select community of true believers. And they don't just sell a college degree; they sell the mental discipline and capacity for learning that a college degree implies.
Employers must make more-or-less rational decisions in choosing employees, because the bottom line gives concrete feedback on how well they've done. But that rational decision includes the personal qualities of an employee that the resume can't capture. Your resume cover letter is your opportunity to showcase your intangible benefits to your future employer.
Don't sent out your resume without it.
No matter what they're buying, hardly anybody does that, because it doesn't work as well. Cereal companies show pictures of healthy people or cartoon characters on the front and nutritional information in a little box on the back. The book dealer tells you what you'll learn from the book and who else liked it, and you have to look to find out how big it is, how many pages it has or whether it has an index. The online computer distributor tells you the new model lightning fast and will hold all your photos and let you play advanced 3-D games, and you have to click a separate tab to get the RAM and speed and ports.
What do these master marketers know that too many job hunters forget?
People make their initial selection based on benefits and then their final pick based on features. Your resume, as important as it is, is your list of specifications. Your cover letter is your explanation of the benefits of buying your labor.
Too many job hunters, failing to understand this important fact, neglect the cover letter. Even if they send it, they don't give it enough attention. That's bad for them, but good for the smart job hunter who makes the effort to write a good letter selling the interview.
In a seller's market -- one with many buyers and few sellers -- the sellers can get away with posting a list of specifications. But when the competition ramps up -- when a lot of sellers are chasing fewer buyers -- as in a downturn in the employment market, smart sellers learn to focus on the often intangible solutions to the buyers' problems.
They don't just sell coffee; they sell atmosphere. They don't just sell a book; they sell a way of life. They don't just sell an audio device; they sell a select community of true believers. And they don't just sell a college degree; they sell the mental discipline and capacity for learning that a college degree implies.
Employers must make more-or-less rational decisions in choosing employees, because the bottom line gives concrete feedback on how well they've done. But that rational decision includes the personal qualities of an employee that the resume can't capture. Your resume cover letter is your opportunity to showcase your intangible benefits to your future employer.
Don't sent out your resume without it.
Marlyn Damerick
For more information about writing an effective cover letter, get the free report Top Ten Secrets of the World's Greatest Cover Letter.
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