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Your Cover Letter, Part II: The Body

© Tracy Bowens

Many people think that they should use their resume to highlight their individuality. To accomplish this task, they may use a "creative" format or fancy paper. If you're one of those people, you couldn't be more wrong.

Yes, you do want to highlight your skills and accomplishments in your resume, but to effectively achieve your goal of obtaining an interview, the format needs to be one that is recognized by your potential employer. Just think about how you would feel having to search for information that everyone knows should be in a specific place under a certain heading in a commonly used document format. Your potential employer will have many resumes to shift through. Information needs to be accessible without the distraction caused by fancy paper or an unfamiliar format.

So if not through you resume, where do you express your individuality? That's the job of the cover letter.

Your cover letter isn't just a place to restate what's in your resume. Your cover letter is a piece of promotional material promoting you, the product. Here, your only constraints are those imposed by the format of a letter. Outside of that, you're free to go wild. Use bullets, bold lettering, or headlines to bring attention to your attributes. Translate your attributes to benefits that your potential employer understands and will fulfill the company's needs. Use your accomplishments to support your claims. Do not simply list them and along with your employment history. Your potential employer can refer to your resume for that information.

How do you know what your potential employer wants? Use the wording in the ad to which you are responding as well as the job description as a guide. Here adjectives are often used to describe the skills the employer is looking for. Mapping your skills to these adjectives is a good way to stand out from the crowd. For example, if the ad says that Company XYZ is looking for someone with analytical skills, demonstrate your analytical abilities. If they are looking for someone with strong writing skills, use the letter itself to demonstrate your skills.

Your cover letter should be no longer than a page. Don't be shocked if some international employers may request a handwritten cover letter. They may then take a sample of your handwriting and use it to analyze your personality. If you are wary of such a practice, steer towards U.S. companies with international offices or those with many international employees. They are less likely to follow such practices.