Cover Letter Template
A cover letter template is a great tool that can guide the job seeker in the process of creating a cover letter that entails everything that an employer is looking for in a prospective employee. It gives samples of what should be included in a cover letter such as education, prior experience and skills that have been learned throughout the applicant’s career. A cover letter template also guides a job seeker through presenting their qualifications in a way that fits the job for which they are applying, even if their experience or education may not be in the same field. A job seeker can extract something from their resume and present it on the cover letter in a way that will let the employer know they are qualified to do the job.
Cover letter template formats also illustrate to the applicant how to capture the manager or human resource director’s attention with an example of the level of professionalism and tone that are required to make the cover letter and resume stand out from the crowd. Employers are inundated with resumes whenever they post an opening within their organization. This is especially true if the organization is a Fortune 500 company, a locally well-known company for which to work, or if the current job market is in a lull and jobs that pay well and offer good benefits are rare.
By using a cover letter template, the job seeker has a better idea of not only what to include in their cover letter, but also what not to include. This is sometimes unclear to someone who either is new to the job search or has been out of the market for a while. The process of writing a cover letter can be confusing. Most job seekers assume that a good resume is all they need. This may have been the case twenty years ago, but today employers expect to see a detailed cover letter along with a professional resume.
The resume offers the main course to the prospective employer but the cover letter is the appetizer. Just as you wouldn’t want to go to a restaurant and order chips and salsa for an appetizer when you are planning to have lobster or steak for the main course, you also do not want to present a thrown together cover letter with a well-written resume. The two just do not flow together and the lever of professionalism that is presented in a resume should be matched in the cover letter. A cover letter template offers a guide to create the ideal balance.
Copyright 2007 Jay Tokarz
