Writing Cover Letters for Resumes

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Pat Goodwin with Pat Goodwin Associates dot com. And today we are going to talk about writing cover letters for resumes. As you write your cover letter which I encourage you to do, you are trying to reflect in that cover letter maybe a different position that you are trying to apply for. So you may have different cover letters for different jobs that you are applying for. So you want to make sure that you store those in your data base so that if you had to go back and review the cover letter that you sent along with a resume for a specific job or a specific reason then you would have that attachment with that resume separate.You might want to tweak your resume based on the job that you are applying for but the cover letter is going to be specific to the position or the reason that you are sending a cover letter. A cover letter is a very professional document. You would have your name and address and contact information at the top of your letter just as you would your resume. Then to the left you would have a date. If appropriate have the name of the person that you are sending it to or the organization. If you do not know the name of the company or the position it could be, Dear Human Resource Professional or Dear Engineering Manager or Dear whomever. Then if you have the address of the company accurately you could put that underneath the name of the person. You might have the job description or the job number rather posted with the number sign and the number of the job. You would then have Dear Human Resource Professional or Dear Mr. or Dear Ms. with the last name. Colon or comma. Say something about the company that could be quite unique. ABC company is an outstanding organization having been recognized for...Or ABC company is an outstanding organization developing and delivering top quality products. You might say the mission statement on your website is an outstanding reflection of who you are in the community and how your employees feel about the culture in your organization. This organization is of great interest to me. I believe then the second paragraph would start I believe are the position posted for the name of the title is of great of interest to me. I believe that my skills and expertise would be an excellent value to your company and then key skills include and then bullet down on a few things that are directly reflective to why you are applying for that job. That's quite unique. If you have real thick paragraphs people are not going to read that. So try to have a few bulleted statements. The last paragraph which would be most likely your third paragraph, would be, it would be a pleasure to visit with you personally to discuss this opportunity. I look forward to your, to this conversation. Thank you for your strong consideration. Best regards or sincerely yours. And that's how to write a resume directly to a job description and then keep in mind that your cover letter maybe uniquely different based on the position that you are applying for. And that's how to write cover letters for different resumes."