Best Cover Letter Sample Ever

I simply cannot say it too much: your cover letter must be tailored specifically for each job you apply for!

Remember: it's your job to show me, the Hiring Manager, exactly how your qualifications are a good fit for my job and the best way to do that right up front is in the cover letter. We hiring managers love it when you do the work for us!

The absolute best example of this, and the most effective cover letter I've ever read, was sent to me by a very bright person wo was applying for a computer programmer opening in my department.

The thing that made this cover letter such an excellent example was the way it took each specific job experience and qualification from the job posting and matched it up with that applicant's skills and experience. This showed me exactly how this person matched my job and did it up front in a manner that I didn't have to dig for it. It's a role model for cover letters and I'll share it with you now.

This was the first person I called in for an interview, and the person I ended up hiring.

I've reproduced a portion of that cover letter below, to illustrate how this approach works. I've changed the wording a bit, for the sake of confidentiality.

Dear Hiring Manager,

I read your advertisement for an application developer with great interest, as I believe my skills and experience are an excellent fit for your opening, as I've detailed below.

Your requirement: "Bachelor's degree in computer science or related field, and at least five years experience supporting enterprise-level applications."
My qualifications: I have a BS degree in computer science and eight years experience in developing and supporting enterprise-level financial processing systems in the XYZ corporation.

Your requirement: "Experience with MS Access-based application development using VBA."
My qualifications: I developed and support three different Access applications used to manage budget transactions in a large (8,000 employee) company, using Visual Basic.

Your requirement: "Advance skill with UNIX and UNIX scripting languanges."
My qualifications: I have seven years experience supporting and enhancing a large UNIX-based commercial loan processing application, plus three years experience with UNIX-based accounts receivable billing systems."

(Etc, etc……….)

Although this letter was two pages long, which is longer than I recommend a cover letter be, it explained very clearly how this applicant's experience matched each required qualification in the job posting.

By the time I finished reading it, I was convinced that not only was this the best cover letter I'd ever read, but this person was very likely the best candidate that I would find (which turned out to be true).

As a matter of fact, the cover letter was so complete and well done that I only skimmed the resume before calling this person in for an interview. This is the power of a good cover letter!

It takes some time to write a cover letter such as this and you do have to have the qualifications to back it up, but this shouldn't be a problem if you are focusing your job search on those positions for which you are an excellent fit (this is how you are focusing your job search, isn't it?).

Isn't it worth the extra time to write the best cover letter and be the first person called for an interview? We hiring managers will send cabs for applicants such as this!

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