by John Landrine

Created on: January 03, 2007   Last Updated: April 17, 2007

Here is a simple yet extremely powerful cover letter

After a short one or two sentence intro, simply take three or four "direct quotes" from the employer's job listing, and line them up (preferably in columns with bullet points) with your qualifications. As and example:

Dear Mr. Smith:

Please accept the attached resume in response to your advertisement posted on Monster.com for a "Marketing Associate." I believe that the qualities you seek in a successful candidate match well with my qualifications.

As an example, where your ad states:

"The ideal candidate will have experience with major magazines and TV networks"
* For the last six years, I have worked with Forbes, Newsweek and ABC.

Where your ad mentions:
"The job requires extensive understanding of database concepts."
*I extensive experience Access and SQL

Your listing requires:
"The successful applicant to have Bachelor's Degree and five years experience"
* After earning my BA from NYU, I worked in the field for six years.

I want thank your for your time and consideration of the attached resume and hope to hear from you at your earliest convenience.

DONE.

CLEAN. SHARP. POWERFUL.

It looks even better when you put the employer's quotes on one side of the page and your qualifications directly across the page two columns, bullet pointed.

This cover works.

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