Saturday, September 20, 2008

Cover Letter Response

There was a lot of information about cover letters on that web site. One thing I did not like about it was the negative tone that the writer had. He or she just seemed miserable. Other than that I pretty much agreed with all of the advice that this article offered. I thought it was amusing that the writer said that most cover letters aren't even read. This fact didn't really surprise me at all. Since we already learned that many resumes are electronic and never even read, I figured most cover letters aren't read. I learned that cover letters shouldn't be about me and that they should be more about the company. This makes sense since our resume shows off all of our qualifications and achievements. I'm not sure if I completely agree that sending out resumes is just sending out rejection letters. I understand that the most important part is moving through recruiting programs.
I liked how the advice compared writing our cover letters to selling a product. This makes sense since we are essentially selling ourselves and our abilities. I like how in the cover letter formula section they gave you examples of things to put in your letter. This is probably the most important section of the tutorial for me. Knowing what to put and what order to put everything in pretty much what the cover letter is all about. The example also helped a lot. It gave me ideas on how to word things.
A new thing that I learned in the tutorial was the postscript technique. It's a small thing that can really help improve your impression on whoever is reading your cover letter. Testimonials are also something new that I never learned about before. It's sort of like just taking quotes out of a letter of recommendation and putting them in your cover letter. I wish I had some testimonials to put in my cover letter for the mock interviews. Hopefully I will be able to incorporate some of this information in my cover letter.

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