Free Cover Letters
When an applicant is sending his resume or curriculum vitae to a prospective employer, whether by post or email, it is essential to send a formal letter, called cover letter along. For applications sent by post the cover letter should be written such that it catches the immediate attention of the prospective employer inducing him to go through the resume enclosed with it. If the job application is made through email, then the body of the mail serves the purpose of cover letter with the curriculum vitae sent as an attachment.
The importance of cover letters is paramount for every job applicant. Do not think that a great resume vouchsafes a great job. You have to write an appropriate cover letter to go with your resume or you may get ignored for the interview call for want of a better cover letter. It has been so often noted that an excellent resume gets bypassed by prospective employers just because the cover letter was poorly written and failed to evoke any interest in the employer’s mind regarding the suitability of the candidate. The reason is simple. Employers get flooded by applications for job, posts for which are limited but applicants many. So they use cover letters to screen the large number of candidates who apply for the job. Therefore if you wish to get your resume viewed and not rejected outright before even being called for a formal interview, it is imperative that the cover letter you send along with your resume is substantial and not just a hastily written document jotted down for the sake of formality. For, judging by the efficacy of your cover letter, the prospective employer will take the trouble of going through your curriculum vitae at all and decide whether to call you for an interview. So it is crucial that you know exactly what to include or exclude, highlight and emphasize in the cover letter so that it makes the prospective employer interested in your candidacy for the job on reading it.
However, before you start writing the perfect cover letter, it is important that you know that there are more than one way of writing a cover letter and the difference in style is guided by the fact to whom you are addressing your letter. Don’t think that you can have a skeleton cover letter and send it every time you apply for a job, for cover letters must vary in their style and content as much as to whom it is addressed.
For example, if you are applying directly to the employer, the cover letter of your resume should be designed differently than if you are sending your curriculum vitae to a job search firm or a placement agency. Moreover, if you are applying in answer to an advertisement or if you are sending over your resume for a possible vacancy in an organization, in each case the cover letter that accompanies your curriculum vitae should be slightly different.